You will need the standoff bracket if you are going to run it surface drive. For a sub drive you don't need it. I have this unit on a scratch built boat and put on a $2 traxxas turnbuckle instead of the $28 titanium rod. Worked great. This hardware with work great but it is heavy compared to other hardware out there. Also, you might want to get the clamping water pickup as well. It is a prop blast pickup that works very well and causes no drag.