I just got a boat with a long transom. My motor is short shaft. 23hp cooperhead. I'm looking at getting a panther 35 with a offset of up to 13 inches. I'm hoping this will work and keep me from cutting the transom down. My question is has anyone put a surface drive on a jack plate? Did it have a negative or positive effect on performance? Has anyone ran into a similar situation and what did you do?

Bad idea. When it will tilt up you will have the engine hitting either the jack plate or the transom.