My old boat, a 1980 377 Scarab has trs drives and is a straight transom. The new hull I have is a 1982 377 Scarab and it has a factory notch at the transom. This hull has a brand new transom that is uncut. I would estimate the notch is about 6 inches. Im swapping the TRS drives into the new hull and wondering if I keep the X dimension the same or would I raise it because of the notch.

My uneducated guess would be to raise, but how much is the real question!

what are you gonna do with the 1980?

which 82 did you grab?

Im taking everything off the 1980 boat and putting it on the 1982 boat. The 1982 boat is completely blank, just a hull.
Once Im done with the 1980 hull, its either going up for sale of to the scrap yard. The 1982 hull was the one that Heath Blair had.

The notch prob won't change much overall. If you had the choice on the older boat, would you raise it??
TRS drives X are normally set in the basement so I'm thinking maybe raise it 1-2".

oh yeah ! if it was closer I would of think about getting that hull also ! Looks like you beat me to it !
let me know when ready to part with the 80... you are not that far from me !
just in case ! LOL !

Id contact Team Archer in Cali, Im know Dan is a wealth of knowledge and has done his share of resto's, why not get it from an expert instead from some one who is guessing....jmo

general rule of thumb is up 1" for every 12" of setback so a 6" notch would mean 1/2" up to keep everything the same so as asked would you have raised it on the older boat if you had the chance?

From 2008 on ScreamandFly:


The 4 blades would bite too hard and cause issue on aggressive hole starts and re-entry.

Prob tech likely more advances from the 70s, so a a higher X may yield better performance and efficiency.

As for the cut out, the water rises from the transom at 4° angle at 60mph. Something like that. So drive farther away from transom water shear off, is going to be deeper. If it's a factory cut-out, would they have accounted for that already? Make some measurements, let us know how it goes.