90 Hp Vs 115 HP

Hok1964

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Sep 3, 2012
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3
We are looking into purchasing our 1st pontoon, thinking about 20 ft 2013 qwest 220 RLS with 90 hp, little worried about the horsepower and pulling a tube. Can a 90 Hp on 20 ft pontoon pull a tube at 20 mph with 5 to 6 people on board? Do I need to upgrade to 22 ft with a 115. The qwest is a nice boat and dec out with all the options. Price is 10 K cheaper than a new one. The boat will be used for crusing our small lake a little fishing and pulling a tube. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Trying to decide if another 10 K for a new Crestlinear 22 Ft with a 115 is worth the money.
 

ahicks

Captain
Joined
Sep 16, 2013
Messages
3,957
"Worth it" will need to be your call I'm afraid. Our next door neighbor bought a 99 24' Crest III brand new. They have a full crew of 4 boys that were just entering skiing age at the time, that have since pounded on that boat doing everything imaginable on the end of a ski rope. It's proven itself well, even when they're slalom skiing.....

Watching that action for the last 17 years is what led to my choice of a 90hp for our 24' boat.
 

clemsonfor

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Joined
Sep 19, 2005
Messages
1,011
We are looking into purchasing our 1st pontoon, thinking about 20 ft 2013 qwest 220 RLS with 90 hp, little worried about the horsepower and pulling a tube. Can a 90 Hp on 20 ft pontoon pull a tube at 20 mph with 5 to 6 people on board? Do I need to upgrade to 22 ft with a 115. The qwest is a nice boat and dec out with all the options. Price is 10 K cheaper than a new one. The boat will be used for crusing our small lake a little fishing and pulling a tube. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Trying to decide if another 10 K for a new Crestlinear 22 Ft with a 115 is worth the money.

A 20ft boat with 6 people on board (how many of these are 250lb people?) And a 90 pulling a tube is probably asking a lot I would think...Maybe I'm wrong?
 

boonedownsouth

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Aug 23, 2017
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So I went through this same dilemma a few years ago. The thing is you can do more than just tube from the pontoon. I wanted to be able to kneeboard and wakeboard as well as tube. I also have a 3 person towable as well and I like to take other families with us. Quite frequently, up to 8-10 on my boat. I opted for a 24' pontoon with 115hp instead of the 90 due to these reasons. I can do all of the above with 8-10 people mix of adults and teenagers and do 20-21 mph. The boat you are looking at is a little shorter, but with pontoons, you are basically pushing logs through the water!

Here are a few videos showing kneeboarding and wake boarding behind this boat, single person tube, and 3 person towable:

https://youtu.be/KR-aB-Hs8eg

https://youtu.be/kxy7AEqf6kE

https://youtu.be/Cp9Dn_4RRME
 
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98Shabah

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Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
408
Depending on how much that new Crestliner with the 115 is you might be in tritoon territory.. I bought a new Lowe SS210 tritoon in June with a 115 Merc Pro XS Command Thrust & tandom trailer for 30k OTD. I've pulled two on an inflatable with 4 adults on board and the RPM vs speed were exactly the same as when I was not pulling anyone.. Top speed with a light load is 35mph.. comfortable cruising speed is 20-25mph.
 

clemsonfor

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Sep 19, 2005
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Thinking back when I was in college, my in laws had a 24ft Bently pontoon. Not a tritoon. It had a 115 mecury. This was about a 2000 boat and motor. With 5 adults on board I could ski tube and kneeboard. At the time I was about 200 lbs as well so i was not really a small kid.

The 20ft I think would be sitting lower in the water though and plowing more with 6 on board.
 

gerard143

Cadet
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
24
i have an '87 24 harris pontoon with a 90 horse. With 3 people on board, (one person quite heavy 220,320,230) it tow'd a 130 lb wakeboarder fine at 20mph. With two people on board just cruising it'll do 22mph.
 

bigdee

Commander
Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
2,665
Yes 90hp on a 20 footer will do it fine. I have a 85 2 stroke on a 20 footer and we tube and wakeboard. Maneuverability of a toon is the only issue but 20 mph is fast enough for fun.
 

weaverunner

Cadet
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Messages
13
Our 22ft with a 90hp does around 22-23mph with 3 people on board. I would say the 20ft 90hp would be sufficient for pulling a tube but if you can swing the extra $ for the 22ft, I would go that route. It seems like we never have enough seating whenever we have company over. Last week we overloaded our pontoon boat with 15 people so we could all watch the solar eclipse from the lake.
 

icwingman

Seaman
Joined
Aug 21, 2017
Messages
61
i have a new suntracker 2 toon 22 dx with 115 merc ct runs great 10 people still hits 25 get the bigger motor
 

boonedownsouth

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Aug 23, 2017
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Yea I think pontoons are like garages, barns, tractors, etc.. you can never get one that is too big! I was out this weekend with a bunch of young couples on my 24' 115hp toon and I was loaded. My boat can carry 14 and I think we actually had 14 on it at one point. I was pulling folks tubing, kneeboarding and wake boarding. I did notice a big difference though when the boat was that full. Normally I run around 8-10 people on it. With 14 people on it and 220 lb people on the tube, It was hard to get the 3 person towable to swing outside the wake. The turns were bogging me down. Wakeboarding and kneeboarding was fine though. Once I dropped down to about 8-10 adults, everything was great though. As far as the size of the boat goes, part of the enjoyment of being on the lake with a pontoon is taking friends and family with you which means more room is better. Here is another analogy for you too.. boats are like tents... When it says its an 8 person tent that really means its like a 5 person tent! Can you shove 8 people in it - yes. Will anybody be comfortable - no. My 24' holds 14 and we did it, but it is really crowded - 8-10 is comfortable with room for coolers and other stuff. So keep that in mind when deciding on the size of the boat.
 

Brentgale

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Joined
Aug 20, 2017
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3
I was in the same situation deciding 90 vs 115, I chose the merc 115 ct for our sylvan 8520, I'm glad i did works great pull tubes or skiers fine with or without load, avg about 25 mph ..It is great out the hole with the bigger prop on 115 ct.......happy
 

HotTommy

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Mar 15, 2013
Messages
1,025
HOK1964,
I have only one thing to add to what has already been said. Think about how long you intend to use this boat and how your family will change over that time. For example, if you kids are 10-12 now, they'll be much larger in five years. If your kids start dating, they'll bring more people with them. If they start having kids of their own, it might get crowded. .... In other words, if you're going to need a larger or more powerful boat 3-5 years from now it might be more economical in the long run to get it now rather than have to upgrade later. .... My guess is that the smaller boat will be plenty of fun for now. But as the loads get heavier and the people on the tubes get more adventurous, you'll want the larger motor.
 

rickdb1boat

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
11,195
Have a 2007 2 log 20' Bentley with a 90 HP 4 stroke and with 3 heavy (200 lbs each) people on board and a 150lb rider on a tube, this is what it will do. Running about 22 MPH. Have also pulled a 3 man tube with 3 150lb'ers and it did fine. Enough to throw them all off the tube. Sorry for the bad video.
 
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