Re: What size motor for pontoon
It's tough to get a 'toon to go fast. Unlike planing hulls, they don't get "over the hump" and pick up a lot more speed with the addition of horsepower. They just shoulder more water out of the way and go only a little bit faster. <br /><br />We've got a 27' Suntracker (not the Party Hut) with a 115 OB. Wide open with a light load the best we've seen on the GPS is a tick under 24 mph. <br /><br />A friend of mine has a 22'er with a 135 I/O that runs about 28 mph. I've tested a Tracker PB 25 with a 60 that got to 16 mph and change. <br /><br />Even with a 90 on your boat, I wouldn't expect much over 28 mph. I'd expect a 60 BF would get you to close 20 mph. <br /><br />Another thing to consider is that if you go up in HP, you also go up in fuel burn. A good rule of thumb for gasoline engines is to figure at WOT, they burn 0.1 gallons per horsepower per hour. That is to say at WOT you can expect a 60 horse motor to burn about 6 gal/hour, and 115 horse motor to burn nearly 12 gal/hour. Going up a bunch in horsepower will increase your top speed a little bit and may cut your mileage by a lot.<br /><br />Here's what Tracker says on their website for their current 21' <br /><br />25 HP = 13 - 14 mph <br />40 HP = 15 - 18 mph<br />50 HP = 18 - 20 mph<br />60 HP = 21 - 22 mph <br />75 HP = 22 - 24 mph <br />90 HP = 25 - 26 mph