Re: 3rd toon or water glide??? Need help
I’ve had both of them on the same boat and here’s what I found. My boat is 22 feet with 23 inch side toons (no lifting strakes at the time) and an older 140 hp (about 125 hp in today’s standards).
I first put the water glide on to improve speed, handling and turning. It did everything they said it would do no question about it. We were able to tube easy and make turns that were unbelievable for a pontoon boat. The only problem I had was I set it a bit too deep and experienced some prop ventilation when the boat was unloaded. This was my choice to set it this deep so it was nothing against the product. The lift it gave to the boat about 10 feet from the back allowed the boat to plane out well and get the front up (as long as you can balance the weight and not too many large people up front). You won’t go wrong with this product. I also skinned the bottom side of the boat at the same time. It's an unbelievable difference overall in speed and handling. Not the same boat.
The reason I took it off and installed a third pontoon with lifting strakes was thinking that I would gain more speed and, I picked up some other benefits with an in-floor storage compartment, an in-tube fuel tank and a heavy duty transom. The speed didn’t change and if anything lost a 2-3 mph. On the other hand I was able to build a rear swim deck where the fuel tanks were mounted and put on a good ladder. The in-floor storage is great also. In addition, the floatation is better and we trailer it everywhere we go so there’s much less stress on the outer toons with an extra set of runners under the middle. Overall I gave up some speed for: better flotation, extra storage, in-board fuel tank, heavy duty transom and the ability to have a swim deck/ladder. It still turns well and a year or so later I added lifting strake to the outer toons with not much improvement in speed.
The bottom line is that if you are adding the third pontoon for speed, handling and turning and you’re not planning to incorporate a transom on it and a larger motor in the future, I would go with the water glide. It’s much easier to install (just follow their recommendations for mounting height). There may be a little wiggle room and slightly deeper will give you more top end but potential ventilation. It will give you some lift at slow speeds but if you are front heavy at slow speeds you will still get some spray. I still get some with the third toon but not as much.
With a 90 hp I think the speed would not be much improvement with the third toon. It’s all about lift vs. drag and the hp to get it to the sweet spot. I know hydrodynamics and aerodynamics are not exactly the same but here’s my take on it. You could put Boeing 737 wings on a Cessna but there would be too much drag to get it off the ground with the same engine. Only when you have enough horsepower can you take full advantage of the lift. That being said, adding a third pontoon to a boat with a 30-50 hp motor in my estimation would only add drag. If the boat has like yours a 90 – 115 hp motor I would guess the third toon would be neutral if not a slight advantage on speed. With a 125 – 150 hp it would be enough to break through the drag and get on top of the water.
I’m in the process of changing my motor to a later model 150 and hopefully I can take better advantage of the available lift I have with lifting strakes now on all three toons. The older 140 just won’t push it that last bit to break over.
The water glide will not add as much drag as the third pontoon and with the same motor would probably get better top end speed. Either way plan on experimenting with props and spending some bucks there for maximum performance. I had to change props when I installed the water glide and had it modified with the third toon.
