How do you like having the single surface and what boat is it on? Length? And power?

Darr win????????

can you get bow lift from a surface drive?

You can't force the bow up like with a regular stern drive, but they do trim out and gets lift, etc. You can feel the boat raise and lower in the water at speed, it's just not a pointed nose up sort of thing. Basically it's just like a regular boat, nail the throttles, let it get going and max out RPM, trim up until you hear a props lose a little bite, bump down until you hear it grab, and that's your base trim setting. Weight and load distribution is adjusted off that trim setting.

If bow lift is needed, just like in the cases with a Mercury drive, you can use a propeller with more rake if needed.

I am considering Arnesons for my next boat and was wondering if staggered would be better to give the drives better leverage, or side by side to keep the weight back? As far as the drives sticking out, I was planning on a custom aluminum swim platform to cover them.

Depends.. Honestly if your not going over 100 mph I can see little benefit for most boaters to have a stagger setup..

What are you going to build.

So far I enjoy it. 20' Donzi. Just upgraded to a 445hp small block. I've had it for quite a few years.

Jeff

What speeds are you getting out of that combination.?

Not sure yet. I have only run it with the new engine once and it was very brief.
I'll have to wait until next summer.

Jeff