Pontoon Furniture

Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
14
Hey Everyone,
I have my 24ft Grumman tore down to the joists, and I am ready to put down the Marine Treated plywood and Marideck. I will post some pictures when I am back in town this weekend.My next big purchase is Furniture, which is causing me some grief. Here is what I can tell you.
The seats I just tore of the 1989 boat were original, Grumman was stitched into each piece of Vinyl. The seats were rotten as heck on the bottoms, but were in good shape from about 6 inches up. The vinyl wasn't even that bad. I hated to see them go, I really liked the OEM look.
New furniture is all expensive, some more than others. I have checked out Wise, as well as the seats at Pontoon Specialist.com. The seats at Pontoonspecialist were comfortable IMO. Both of the previous seats have a plastic base. I also plan on checking out American Soft Trim this friday. It appears they use wood, or some type of wood composite. Lastly, I have a guy close to me, who will rebuild from the ground up, out of wood, my rear bench seat and sun deck, and re-upholster my captains chair for 600 bucks, which I feel is a steal. The disadvantage here is I haven't seen much of his work.

Can anyone give me some insight into their recent furniture purchases? I am leery about seats with plastic bases, but then again wood does rot, so I don't know where to go. Any advice would be appreciated!
 

rogerwa

Commander
Joined
Nov 29, 2000
Messages
2,339
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Plastic bases really are the way to go. Not sure why the hesitation. All Mfg use plastic bases. The wood will absorb water and get heavy and rot. Plastic will last a lifetime. Even after you reupholster it..
 

TurboM700

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
113
Re: Pontoon Furniture

I have american soft trim on my boat that I redid. They are made out of 3/4 marine grade plywood. They werent cheap but man are they nice. I looked at all the ones you listed and I just didnt like anything else but the american soft trims ones.

Just my 2 cents
 

dls322

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
380
Re: Pontoon Furniture

I would go with plastic if yo can afford it...i have a mix on my boat and I the plastic is much nicer...I would just make sure that they have vents becasue wehn water gets int here, it really has no where to go, were the wood seats have an open bottom. I recovered my sunpad and all my other 6 seats and reinforced the wood frames for much less than $600...ebay is your friend when it comes to marine grade vinyl. Did a white and tan combo and turned out pretty nice.
 

Bamaman1

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 15, 2011
Messages
1,895
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Good source for pontoon parts and seats is PontoonStuff.com. Tell them you're on the pontoon boat website for a 10% discount.

See PontoonForums.com
 

MH Hawker

Vice Admiral
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
5,516
Re: Pontoon Furniture

I replaced all of mine last year and went with the Wise plastic stuff on the reach couch and had a custom bench made for a side seat / rod box and ended up dropping about 1500 into it all. I left the front 8 x 8 clear of furniture for setting up for fishing or to set up a tent for over night trips.
 
Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
14
Re: Pontoon Furniture

dls322, I had not even considered vents. Thanks for the input.
Turbom700, How long have you had your soft trims? I have heard great things about them, but I am just wondering why they arent using plastic instead of wood. My boat is a 1989, and the seats probably started going bad about 5 years ago, so almost 20 years isnt bad. I have been told the quality of the vinyl is as much a factor as the material the frames are made of...
 

dls322

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
380
Re: Pontoon Furniture

I would hope that all the seats that they sell use marine grade vinyl...it's specifically designed for the job and has uv protectant. Its also a good idea to treat your seats periodically...i use 303 Aerospace Protectant...i have heard goo things about if...but this is my first year using it so i dont have any long term experience, it's pricy thought at about $25+ a bottle.
I added vents to mine because the seat i got did not have any..it was a used seat, maybe the new ones have vents? and i drilled some additional holes in the plastic base to allow water to drain.
 

MH Hawker

Vice Admiral
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
5,516
Re: Pontoon Furniture

I have been buying 303 through the NAPA stores for around 14.00 a bottle.
 

dls322

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
380
Re: Pontoon Furniture

thats good to know...i bought mine at a pool supply store. Do you know what size bottle that is for 14.99?
 

TurboM700

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
113
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Going on a yr now and they look like new. There are the nicest seats I have seen in a pontoon boat besides the high end pontoon boats.

They told me why they use plywood over plastic and I cant rememeber all the reasons but the ones I do is its stronger then plastic and takes more of a beating. Holds up better to sun. Plastic over time will get brittle and crack. The biggest reason is they can custom make them with out having to have a bunch of different molds. When I order mine I told them the exact dimensions i wanted for the L and the front seats and thats what I got. This wasnt an option any other manufacture could do for me.

I sat on Wise and Pontoon stuff.com seats and I was just not happy with there fit and finsh.

Keep in mind my boat sits covered when not on the water so keep that in mind.
Here is the build of my boat scroll down and you will be able to see the seats. Also when I order them told me 4-6 weeks they called me after 3 weeks saying there were done. Got to love that. I paid $3200 for everything you see there including the captins chair which is way to comfy.
http://forums.iboats.com/completed-boat-projects/pontoon-conversion-inboard-outboard-573089.html
 

BobGinCO

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
539
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Plastic bases really are the way to go. Not sure why the hesitation. All Mfg use plastic bases.

Odd, mine are 100% aluminum...

Oh, and "Not-Under-Tons" has 303 at $70 a gallon. That $14 a bottle at NAPA is the 16 oz size.
 

rogerwa

Commander
Joined
Nov 29, 2000
Messages
2,339
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Odd, mine are 100% aluminum...

Oh, and "Not-Under-Tons" has 303 at $70 a gallon. That $14 a bottle at NAPA is the 16 oz size.

Forgot about the aluminum ones. I would opt for those as well..
 

TurboM700

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
113
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Not to sound like a smart ***** here but why is it ok to put plywood down on a floor that gets soaked with water from both top and bottom but not ok for seat frames to be made out of it?

I think your really limited your seat options when you look at plastic only. (never knew they made alum ones thats kinda of neat)

To me the thing to look at its the quality of components used and from my research the pontoons.com and wise components are substandard compared to American Soft Trim.
 
Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
14
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Aluminum frames are new to me. I will try to look for them tonight. I just compared prices with American Soft Trim and Pontoon Specialist Platnium furniture. American Soft Trim is more expensive but not by much. I did get to speak with them on the phone today. They said they can make them out of Marine Plywood or Plastic. Their plastic is sheeting, so the frames go together like wood. They also said they prefer the wood frames, they are stronger and cheaper. They also put a strip of plastic along the bottom of the wood where it touches the deck. I guess the only downside right now is the 200-300 shipping cost.
Also, as far as the Aerospace 303 goes, I use the stuff on my new EcoBoost FX4. I love it, it shines it up very nice. All the hard core car and truck folks I know wont use anything else.
 

MH Hawker

Vice Admiral
Joined
Jul 13, 2011
Messages
5,516
Re: Pontoon Furniture

I just looked to make sure but yes a 32 oz bottle and I get it local for under 14.00 a bottle here. The on line price shows 8.50
 

dls322

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
380
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Thats a great price...if you go to the 303 website the prices are jacked up! i was happy to pay $25 for my bottle but i will defiantly try Napa next time

Wow...$3,200 is a allot of money for seats....i check and i can't see any pics on your post...must be my work computer.
 

bldtrailer

Cadet
Joined
May 21, 2013
Messages
8
Re: Pontoon Furniture

I recently purchased and installed new furniture on my pontoon. I got mine from veada.com. They have different lines and styles of seats available. They also have a wide assortment of color combinations to choose from.
 
Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
14
Re: Pontoon Furniture

Ok, I debated on starting a new thread, but I found a pretty neat seat/furniture setup today when picking up my rebuilt Tilt/Trim cylinder at the marina. Has anyone seen these new seats on the Lowe X series pontoons? They are completely removable and they never touch the floor of the boat. Here is the link.
Lowe Boats - X-Series X254 Fish | Fishing Pontoon Boats Manufacturer : 2013

I think the concept is awesome, but the price tag is not. The Lowe dealer quoted me at 800 and some change, and that doesn't include the pedestals. Any thoughts? I dont know if I am missing something, but I cant figure out why anyone hasn't done this before.
 
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