The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

[catsnw]

I am looking at a Sun Tracker Party Barge 21 with a 60hp motor (4 stroke). I plan on using it for light ski/tubing. The max amount of people would be 8.

Is there a better boat for the price? Also this will be towed.

 

[5150abf]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

You are going to have a real problem skiing with a 60 and 8 people on the boat, that really isn't much engine even for the boat much less water sports.

I would maybe keep looking and find something with a 90 minimum.

 

[Kitchen363]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

Find a used one, there are some great deals out there. You may have to drive a good distance to find the right one, but 20 grand will buy a hell of a used boat

+ 1 for the 90hp or bigger motor if you plan to ski/tube.

 

[whitjohn]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

Find a used one, there are some great deals out there. You may have to drive a good distance to find the right one, but 20 grand will buy a hell of a used boat

+ 1 for the 90hp or bigger motor if you plan to ski/tube.

Agreed! I found a super nice 22' Bennington with Yamaha 90 4 stroke, 145 hrs, for 16K including trailer.

 

[EGlideRider]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

I agree with the others to look at the used market. 20K will buy an excellent late model boat.

 

[mattsmith5]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

I recently sold the exact same boat that your talking about. With my wife and our three small children, the max gps speed was 18.5. If you stick 8 full size people your gonna drop a few miles per hour.

 

[lakegeorge]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

Agree with all of the above, buy a nice used one with a minimum of 90hp, or you will be sorry.

 

[Rancherlee]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

put the biggest engine the capacity plate will allow. The differance between a 60hp and a 90hp engine when buying new is only around 1500$ last time I looked.

 

[Cubbyblue22]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

I'm figuring out the numbers and it's so much cheeper to buy an older used one and re-store it from top to bottom. I bought a used 24' pontoon for 1700 and with new flooring, carpet, furniture, pretty much everything i'll spend $9000 total. Although I know it's a lot of time and not many people want to deal with the hassle that comes with.

 

[brumbyvet]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

As a owner of the boat your interested, in let me tell you. It gets real crowded with 8 people aboard and a 60 will be way too small to tube with. Don't even think about skiing. It's a great boat but not for what your intending to use it for.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

My dad has the 21ft Sun Tracker fishin barge with a 50hp 2 stroke on it (20MPH max) . No way there is ever going to be any skiing behind that boat, a slow tube ride is about it. That being said, it is a really nice boat for the money if you are just looking for a party/fishing platform or like to drag slowly on a tube.

 

[lamac]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

I have a 21' fish and cruise Suntracker with a 90 -4 stroke. By GPS the best I get is 29 mph. To pull a tube that is fine for sking it would be slow I think. I am very happy with the set up for what I do. I would recommend get the biggest tubes you can and for speed if your set on sking I would get a boat with 3 toons and a bigger motor.

 

[catsnw]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

So i need a mid to large size tri-hull. Any recommendations for 25-30k?

 

[Mr Crabbs]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

As a owner of the boat your interested, in let me tell you. It gets real crowded with 8 people aboard and a 60 will be way too small to tube with. Don't even think about skiing. It's a great boat but not for what your intending to use it for.

I agree. I have the PB 20 with a 90HP 4 stroke and 6 people is comfortable, 7 would be OK with a lawn chair thrown in, 8 is too many, for me anyway. Too much weight with 6 in the boat to go F A S T.

I'm thinking deck boat for speed and comfort for a crowd for $25K to 30K. That's what we looked at years ago, friends had one and it was a ton of fun!

 

[lncoop]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

So i need a mid to large size tri-hull. Any recommendations for 25-30k?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you're still talking barges the term is tri-toon, not tri-hull. A tri-hull is an altogether different animal. You should be able to find a nice tri-toon in your price range, but it may take a while because there don't seem to be as many made.

 

[mpilot]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

Actually Tri-toon is a patented term used by JC pontoons that is now used to classify all triple pontoon boats much like Kleenex is used by some for all tissues. From what I understand the "proper" term is triple toon or triple tube.

 

[lncoop]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

Actually Tri-toon is a patented term used by JC pontoons that is now used to classify all triple pontoon boats much like Kleenex is used by some for all tissues. From what I understand the "proper" term is triple toon or triple tube.

To put an even finer point on it.

 

[Pontoonfoon]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

I have the exact boat, a party barge 21, but i have a 90 ELPTO, I get 26mph(gps) with 2 people on board, and have no problem wake boarding behind the boat with 5 or 6 passengers.

EDIT: fly typical speeds for skiiing is 25mph and wake boarding is 16-20

which is much slower than many people THINK is needed.

 

[lncoop]

Re: The Best Pontoon Boat under 20K?

I have the exact boat, a party barge 21, but i have a 90 ELPTO, I get 26mph(gps) with 2 people on board, and have no problem wake boarding behind the boat with 5 or 6 passengers.

EDIT: fly typical speeds for skiiing is 25mph and wake boarding is 16-20

which is much slower than many people THINK is needed.

That's a good point and one that's lost on many of us youngsters. The original ski boats would be considered dogs now. However, I doubt the OP can expect 26 mph with eight on board.