Dual motor Pontoon project coming soon

[weezzell_5400]

I have been wanting to upgrade the HP of my 1989 24' tracker pontoon....currently running a 1989 40hp evinrude ...nothing wrong with it at all ...just slower than I would like ...the problem is around here in sc motors have to be titled and boats have to be titled ...so motor prices are outrageous....but I can find the same motor in running for around $300-$500 ....so I have been seeing all these newer toons with dual motors mounted to the logs ....so I figured I would give it a try and fab up some hefty mounts and weld them to the back of the logs .....my question is ...would I need a motor that spins counterclock wise ...or would I be ok with the same direction motor as I have ....seeing that the motors are going to be spread some 5 .... feet apart ....also will have to figure out the steering....but that will come later

 

[ahicks]

3 things that come to mind.
First, 2 40's are not going to be much faster than 1.
Second, without counter rotating props, the back of the boat is going to want to walk sideways a bit when put in gear, causing some "unusual" handling at docking speeds.
Last, hydraulic steering is expensive, but would likely not notice you have 2 engines rotating in the same direction. That's my opinion anyway....

 

[Scott Danforth]

Just flip the controls for F vs R and change prop.

However, as ahicks meantioned, a seco,d 40hp will not get your boat any faster

You need enough power to get the boat on plane to go faster. Thats about 150-200hp

 

[ahicks]

Re: "on plane". Without getting into the impossible to plane because it's a displacement hull design, a pontoon's ability to plane is a function of weight and tube diameter, and obviously there are some tricks in use/available on the newer boats as well.

Point being, the '99 boat that I'm redoing now (on 23" tubes) would plane surprisingly easily - with a 40hp Johnson. It was very lightly loaded (rear bench, console, captains chair, and portable lawn chairs). It also sports a big hard top so it's not real aerodynamic either. No mistaking on plane vs. not. On plane, the boat would run up into the high teens even when the water was kind of choppy - plenty fast enough to blow the flies and mosquitos away.....

Our second boat, a later model '20 Sweetwater w/Honda 50 and full furniture, on 24" tubes, will plane easily as well.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Lifting strakes help.

 

[ahicks]

There's not much chance of me ever ordering a new boat, but if I did, there's little doubt about adding the lift strakes option. That would be a sure thing! Not sure how practical it would be to add them to an '89 boat though....

If the bigger engines are expensive in SC, maybe it would be worth your trouble to do some shopping in Florida? No title requirements there. Buy the engine there and bring it to SC. To my way of thinking, unless you're into it as an interesting project, you're way further ahead with a bigger single engine.

The part that I'd be most concerned with might be related to the size of your tubes. Back then, before the horsepower craze hit, and the resulting multi function abilities discovered, pontoons were not powered the way they are now. And their tube size reflected that fact. 18"-20" pontoons were the norm. If you try putting a lot of weight on the back of a set of these smaller tubes, you may not care for the results.