I’m seriously considering raising my X dimension this winter. With the drive in the trailer position I have 3.5” of clearance to the bottom of the swim platform. The drive currently sits 8.5” deep. I’m leaning towards raising it 3” leaving .5” clearance. Would there be any reason not raising it 3”. I do use this boat a lot for water sports … skiing, wakeboarding etc. I assume raising the drive would also decrease the wake which would be better for skiing but not so much for wakeboarding.

Raising the x-dimension will make your holeshot suffer, which is bad for watersports.

My drive used to be 8" deep, I raised my engine and drive up 3", now the drive is 5" deep. My boat planes off well with a Mirage, but it blows out with tight turns. I have tried a Hydro 4 blade and it really planed off well and turned pretty tight without blowing out. It was 2 MPH slower so I went back with the Mirage. Look for a 3-4 MPH gain, the boat will run flatter and faster.
It is a lot of work to raise it up, my transom had rot so I was already into it. There is a lot of glass and gell work involved, many many hours of labor.

Go for it, 5'' deep is conservative.

Before you go re-rigging your boat and re-doing your transom. Why don't you pick up a -2 shorty lower and check the results? There are also -3 lowers out there but rare. If it helps then go for it however I would avoid the raising the engine and drive job. Clearance issues under the hatch, exhaust issues, transom issues etc. Shorty lower seems like an easier way to obtain the same result. My 2cts worth.

I agree with the above post.

A shorty would be a much faster way of raising the X. It can also be a lot less expensive and much less grief. Especially if you are not doing all of the work your self.

The added bonus is if you dont like the higher X you can easily undo it, and used shorties usually go quick and still fetch a nice $$.. So you dont really have too much of a downside if you want to try it other than the initial hurdle of the coin required to do it.

Also you might not be too bad off with still being able to do boarding & skiing. While it doesnt always work to keep both worlds, Sometimes you can still have a good portion of both worlds. If you are currently running a 3 blade or 4 blade you may be able to run a 4 or 5 blade with the shorty to keep the grip and still loose some drag compared to the stock depth & lower..

ANyway... Hope that helps, also if you do want to go the shorty route feel free to give me a call we also sell & install them, and I can drop ship too.. Jamie / Lakeside

The budget is tight & my labor is free. I also have the KC drive so the cost of converting would rise quickly. It’s a Four Winns Horizon which has these huge after pods that extend well past the transom so planning shouldn’t be a problem. If I did go up 3” that would still leave the drive down 5.5”. Aren’t most newer boats around that anyway, thought that’s how their getting similar performance w/ smaller motors.

Raising your engine will effect the handling of the boat you do want lowest center of gravity possible when your engine is concerned.

I don't think you can use a 3" IMCO shorty on a stock upper case. The prop will hit the upper cavitation plate. The most you could do is 2" IMCO shortened lower on a stock upper.

What do you think materials would cost vs paying someone to patch the lower 3" of your transom?