Ready to buy a pontoon - questions on size, HP, towing

[kerofish1]

After a disastrous Craiglist-lemon initiation into boat ownership two summers ago, we are ready to take the plunge and buy a boat that will last us a long time. We're leaning toward financing a new 18 foot Suntracker Bass Buggy. Before we buy, I have questions!

We mostly fish and swim, no interest in tubing. We will probably have to tow on the highway 20 minutes to get out to the lake as slips are in high demand. We would like to bring it down to Lake of the Ozarks (~4 hour drive) once a year.

First, towing...We would tow with a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which I believe severely limits the size of boat we can safely tow, regardless of weight. The Jeep towed our waterlogged, 19-foot runabout just fine...but I know pontoons tow differently. Would we be okay?

Second, size...if we could tow a 20 foot without problems, is it worth the extra few thousand? Mostly, it will be 3 adults, but we could have 6 people once in a while. I'm leaning toward the 18 foot because of money and manageability. But, I have also heard that the 20 footer is substantially more seaworthy than the 18-footer. We will be using it on a medium (? 11,000 acres) lake that occasionally sees some chop. Is the 18 foot too small?

Third, motor. By default, they come with 40HP. Everyone here seems to think anything under 60 is just not enough. Does this hold true even if you don't care about speed? Would we have to go full throttle and dump buckets of gas to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time? Should we buy the 18 foot boat and spend the extra money on a bigger engine?

That's a lot of questions...I appreciate any input!

 

[bruceb58]

2 years ago, I bought the pontoon in my sig for $13K. The motor had 70 hours on it. I would buy the bigger pontoon but used instead of the 18 as new. One thing you probably haven't thought about is the resale of the 18 footer. It will be much harder to resell.

The Cherokee will easily tow either.

 

[ahicks]

I would go with a 20' for a good compromise between handling and "room". I've been pontooning all over the eastern half of the country, including the Gulf and Lakes St. Clair and Huron, the last 40 years or so, and have never owned a 'toon with more than 50hp. That said, my pontoons are used for cruising only, and I use my head when it comes to weather forecasts/conditions. Not saying there weren't days spent in port or on the trailer, that had been planned for on the water, due to weather.

Suggestion would likely be different if I were much younger and had plans for 1 "universal" boat. Until not too long ago, I've always had a ski boat as well as a pontoon, so using a 'toon to tow anything but a fishing lure made no sense. That's my take anyway. -Al

 

[gm280]

kerofish1, I've never owned a pontoon boat before. But my neighbor does and I've been on it a few times. Sadly he equipped his large pontoon with a 25HP engine. And at wide open throttle, it clocks in at a whopping 11MPH via GPS. So whatever you decide to buy, go with at least 70% of the max rating for your engine. 80% or even 100% would be great. You can always back off on the throttle, but you can't add HP. JMHO!

 

[bruceb58]

My pontoon has the max HP at 90HP. I would not want any less.

 

[mla2ofus]

As for size I agree to no less than 20'. As for towing they're not that heavy, however w/ all the flat surfaces my 24' is about like pulling a drag chute w/ my chevy 1/2 ton w/ 5.3. As already said it's nice to have all the horsepower but that doesn't mean you have to use them all. W/ the 90 horse on ours I feel 15 mph is about right and not wasting a bunch of gas. Yes I can get it up to 22-24 mph but the tank goes down awfully fast. If you want to swim off the toon get a fold up ladder to mount under one of the side gates and made so it will fold up and lay flat on the deck. Just don't forget to fold it up before getting underway. Ask me how I know this!! You'll be surprised how smooth it rides in moderately rough water. If the waves hit you from the side there will be some rocking, but head on it slices right thru them.
Mike

 

[ahicks]

Ladder is a good point. You often see newer boats with the ladder on the rear of one of the pontoons. If you like swimming from the toon, that is the absolute best option available. After having one for a couple of seasons now, I would not be without!

 

[Silver Eagle]

Well back in 2009 I sold my 21 ft bow rider with a 5.7 V8 I/O and We bought a 24ft StarCraft Pontoon boat . I'm 74 now so I wasn't looking so much for speed as I was for room. Our boat will hold 14 people It has a 90 hp two stroke Mercury engine. Wide open in short burst It will do 28 mph. I don't do that very often ,just When I want to get some ones attention..My ladder is on the side and the changing room is in the back where most have there ladders..make sure you get a boat with a Biminty top.At least one round table Go to West Marine and buy a cheap fish finder, usually under a $100.00 West Marine also carries a very good insurance policy. Now we tow our boat with a 2004 Dodge Ram Quad Cab truck. 4x4.When towing your boat make sure that the doors are open Much easier to tow.As for gas mileage I usually run around 16 mph. Our boat has a 25 gallon tank.So we can do a weekend on less then one tank of gas.We run our boat in the upper end of the Chesapecke Bay. The channel runs 40 ft deep. Make sure when you go out that you have help with the lines for docking or putting the boat on the trailer.You can't do it alone.

 

[rogerwa]

I would go for the extra two feet if you can afford it. As for the HP, if speed is not important 40hp is fine. It will get you where you need to go. Just slower. If you go back in time, Lots of bigger toons came with 40hp motors. My first toon was a 21ft with 50hp force (which is probably less than a newer 40hp) and we had a good time. It was the biggest motor I had ever owned and learned a lot. My next was a 25ft with a 40hp tohatsu. It ran nice with a smaller load, but my standard load was 6+ so I upgraded to a 90.

As for the previous commenter on buying a recent used model - that is some good advice. You will get more for your money and it will probably come with the first dent so you won't feel bad.

 

[Scott Danforth]

go 20', as for the motor, remember, until you get enough HP to get the pontoon to get up on plane, it is purely a displacement hull. 25hp, 50hp, 75hp wont matter for speed. you would need to be well over 100hp to get any speed. this is where a 3rd log and lifting strakes help.

My buddy has a 18' pontoon that gets 600 hours a year on it. he went from a 40hp Chrysler to a 30 hp Merc 4-stroke (speed the same, fuel usage half). It goes just about as fast as his neighbors 22' pontoon with a 70hp

what changes on a pontoon with load is the prop depth. That will affect speed the most.

 

[kerofish1]

Thanks, guys. I think we'd do fine with the smaller motor.

Excellent advice about getting a used boat...I've been scouring deals for a couple of months now. It's surprisingly hard to find smaller fishing pontoons that are used. The only used ones I can find are 10-year-old recreational models, or they are newer but are in very rough shape. How long does a pontoon last, if it's well maintained and stored covered? My logic for buying new is that we would have it for the next decade or longer; if we buy used, I figure it won't last as long and we will have to buy another one sooner.

 

[tlombard]

On a pontoon, I actually prefer to just casually get wherever we're going and take in the sights. My first one was a 24ft piece of plywood basically (no seat other than for the driver and just a basic console with steering wheel and throttle on the side) with 115hp strapped to the back and it was a rocket. We still have more fun on the current pontoon that I split with my dad and his girlfriend with its puny 40hp motor that just putts along. We get there when we get there. My thought is that a pontoon is a social setting and it is just much easier to be social without yelling over the wind!

Now, on the ski boat I just bought things are different. Engine size is much more important to me there!

 

[tlombard]

Thanks, guys. I think we'd do fine with the smaller motor.

Excellent advice about getting a used boat...I've been scouring deals for a couple of months now. It's surprisingly hard to find smaller fishing pontoons that are used. The only used ones I can find are 10-year-old recreational models, or they are newer but are in very rough shape. How long does a pontoon last, if it's well maintained and stored covered? My logic for buying new is that we would have it for the next decade or longer; if we buy used, I figure it won't last as long and we will have to buy another one sooner.

I think the great thing about a pontoon is that the structure itself should last forever unless you do something stupid. You'll have to replace the deck, and carpet at some point but that's a lot easier than other boats. Maybe some seats after while but to me, the great thing about a pontoon is that once it gets to the point where you need to start replacing the seats (which aren't cheap), you can still be fine with just camping chairs and such, especially if you're not rocking much HP. I absolutely loved my first pontoon with no furniture.

For one, the less weight in furniture meant more people since camping chairs are light. Secondly, every time out the arrangement was different. Everybody could just pull up a chair anywhere on the boat and we'd be fine (well, maybe not cruising). I bought it late one season with plans to redo the interior over the winter (floor had been redone) but after using it late that season, I decided to just let it go and have fun with it for a few years. For fishing we could set it up one way and then if I had a bunch of friends for a day on the lake, we could set it up another.

 

[Bayou Dave]

If it is well maintained it will literally last for decades. Some pontoons have an aluminum deck and some have plywood. Plywood would have to be replaced some day, aluminum maybe never. Keep the vinyl clean and use a vinyl conditioner on the seats. That will keep them from drying out and splitting. My 15 year toon has the original plywood deck and original vinyl. Only one part of one seat dried out and split.I keep mine under a metal carport and that helps quite a bit.

 

[bruceb58]

Most important ting to do is get get a good mooring cover.

 

[rogerwa]

Getting into personal preference here but also look for plastic seat bases that rise up off the floor and raised fences. I also opted for the vinyl floor so water and dirt just flow right out the back. If you are going to be fishing alot, the vinyl makes sense so you just hose off the fish slime and guts.

My old 25 footer had carpet, plywood furniture boxes and no risers. When it rained it would create a pool in the back of the toon as the water had nowhere to go. This led to rotting boxes and mold/algae in the carpet.

+++ on the mooring cover. Best prevention you can do to keep your boat nice.

 

[bruceb58]

And blue tarps don't count as mooring covers. More boat interiors have been ruined by blue tarps than anything.

 

[kerofish1]

And blue tarps don't count as mooring covers. More boat interiors have been ruined by blue tarps than anything.

Hah, I may or may not have discovered that myself...

Okay, now I'm thinking we don't need to buy new. I think I was worried because used fiberglass boats are such a crapshoot, and we had that bad experience with ours. So used pontoon from a dealer (thusly inspected and somewhat guaranteed) seems like the way to go. The slightly hillbilly idea of camping chairs for furniture is even growing on me...

I will keep searching, now that I know what we want. Boating season is still a couple of months away, so something HAS to come up! Thanks for all the input, guys. Hopefully I will report back later with a new-to-me toy to show off.

 

[Silver Eagle]

I think that this will be my last year for boating. There are just the two of us and it's getting harder to use the boat . I'll be 75 in October.Starting to down size things.IF I decide to get another boat it would be a 18 ft center console with about 90 hp .

 

[Scott Danforth]

My buddies pontoon is 40 years old. Deck was replaced 15 years ago due to storm damage when it had a tree branch impale the deck. It has never had a covet on it and the boat is first in the lake and last off. His neighbor keeps his pontoon covered with a blue tarp, interior has been replaced twice, carpet twice, and deck once. That boat is 14 years old