Buying a ‘toon advice

[Rabbit929]

We currently own a 76 palm beach, with a 9.9 motor.
trailers built in. (Hitch folds upward and axle folds up between the tubes)
we call it the SS Swallows because it’s hilariously a floating pile of garbage I bought for $200.

now we realized we love boating so much we’d like to get something bigger for the family of 5 we are. (3 daughters, oldest being 6)

price range between $2000-15000 depending on what we find.

what are some key features you would recommend watching for, and to avoid? We don’t mind a slower pontoon for now as on the cheaper end we’d just enjoy it till we can find better, or $15k range I would hope for a higher quality pontoon or a bit of a beat up newer one.
so far on average I have 8 or so on my pontoon, that’s rated for 3. This is sketchy as hell as the tubes are completely submerged at this point. (NEVER with the kids lol) so float capacity is mainly what I’m looking for and something to fish off of.
advice and suggestions?
My old pontoon I’m just gonna rob the motor off it and load it up with tannerite to send her to the deep blue-slough on North Dakota in a proper form of retirement on a 4th of July 2021.
obviously it won’t sink and we will scrap it but it’s already been decided with my buddies and jack Daniels representative.

 

[HotTommy]

I started with an old pontoon boat (not as old as yours) to see if I'd like it. I did and recently moved up to a newer used pontoon boat. Here are the features I required on my newer boat.

• Big, round aluminum logs on a 24'-26' boat
• A reliable 4-cycle outboard engine
• A rear mounted ladder
• A ski tow
• Maximum floor space inside the fence

These are things I wanted but could either live without or buy separately.

• Lifting strakes
• Double top
• Trailer

If your family is anything like mine, a boat that can carry eight and pull young children on a tube at 15-18 MPH is plenty of fun. 90 HP on a 24' boat will give you that. But as the kids get older, they will want more excitement and that will require more speed and a bigger engine. Your best option might be to get a boat certified for up to 150 HP and get that larger engine later if you can't find the right deal now.

I did my boat search late last year and into the winter when demand was low. I got a 2006 26' Bennington with a 115 Yamaha 4-stroke for about $12K. After adding the things I wanted (e.g., double top), it came to around $15K for boat, trailer and engine. And the Bennington is much better designed and constructed than my older boat. I mention this to give you one data point on what you might get in your price range. ... Good luck with your search.

 

[Rabbit929]

Thank you sir! All very good points! This is why my budget is so spread, an el cheapo “good enough” toon I can pay for out of pocket, or finance something nicer.
nice thing with older and cheaper things is they usually sell fast with minimal depreciation.

 

[ahicks]

Those daughters will be of tubing age soon, if not already. Agree with the thought about the potential of pulling them and the 90-115 hp plan.

I am absolutely spoiled by the way the 4 stroke outboards work on a 'toon. Super quiet, no more stink following you when cruising down wind, and they'll idle forever while using very little gas.

Stuck on 24' boats myself, but the newer 22' boats (with the right floor plan) and giant size tubes (25" diameter or more) seem to work as well. Key being tube diameter. 25" minimum for good people capacity (older boats may be as small as 18-19"), and for the fact they get up on top easier - for pulling. If I were specing out a new boat, lifting strakes would be an absolute necessity. With those, now we have a boat that will scoot right along. They plane out very easily.

Second the vote for permanently mounted ladder on the rear of the boat, noting at the same time, most adult feet appreciate a step that's at least 2-3"" wide. 1" rungs are hard on your feet!

Last, a caution regarding upholstery. Watch for brown stains on top of the seat backs, dried out stiff vinyl, seams that are pulling apart on the bottoms, etc. These are all things you start seeing indicating the vinyl is SHOT. There's no repairing it, and getting it redone is very expensive. This is the reason you see good pricing on many 8-10 year old boats. Even if you find one that age that's been well taken care of and still in good shape, that vinyl is getting pretty old. Re-upolstery can be 3-5000 pretty easily - or you can go the lawn chair plan which works pretty good for a lot of people.

Coming up on prime buying season!

 

[Rabbit929]

Coming up on prime buying season!

This is what I’m watching for! But good lord how hard is that to buy something right at the time you can’t use it??
it’ll be worth the wait though. That’s a good thing to note about the vinyl. It does seem a lot of them have that stiff dried out look to them that I’m seeing pop up.
our current pontoon is the lawnchair method for that reason.

 

[Rabbit929]

Well a little update, nothing went as planned as the covid thing sold pretty much everyone out of boats.
they are just now starting to stay on the market long enough for me to notice they’re there.
I notice a lot of them don’t come with a trailer, have worn out vinyl, and the one I’m eyeballing is $10k. He said no major tears, but it’s all cracked and peeling, aka shot.
its a 2007 Godfrey Sweetwater 22ft, in the lounge floor plan.
seems a little high without a trailer, seeing as stand alone bunk trailers run another 3-4K.
I know reupholstering can get expensive but that may give me the opportunity to just pull the bad seats and install fishing captains chairs instead, a livewell in the floor, and a pop up toilet room.
what prices should a person avoid for these between 2000-2015 based on interior damages?

 

[legalfee]

We bought a 24ft 1995 Sylvan with a 90hp 2 stroke for 4K. The seats and carpet were not in good condition but we used it for a few years and replaced the seats and helm and had a vinyl floor put in for 6K. I have done most of the work on the motor and the next upgrade will be to a 4 stroke motor. You can start small and upgrade. And we also got custom seat covers made so our seats still look new.

 

[pwiseman]

I just took the crash course on buying a pontoon and we did look at used boats. I was quite surprised that most pontoons that were less than 5 years old were priced much higher than I expected they should be. I was thinking 15K - 20K for a nice used boat, but did not see much in that range. My thinking on used equipment is you are taking a risk on wear and tear that is very hard to gauge. I look for pricing that is 35-50% off price of new. Pricing on new boats is tricky. Lot of places will not post prices, or only post list prices. Seems like most of the boats I looked at have room for 15-20% discount on list and many dealers offer that up without a lot of negotiation. Going into the dealer to see the price really is a painful process, but that is how it seems to work in many cases. I did see a number of used benningtons in 3-5 year old range and most of them were priced around 21-25K. I found a 2020 demo boat that with original tag of 40K but it was offered at 27K. I guess that is a long way of saying that I really did not see used options that made more sense than spending a bit more for new.

Motor is important. I would hold out for EFI 4 stroke. Some of the older 4 strokes have carbs and those are going to have more issues than EFI.

Not sure how accurate this is, but somebody told me that 60 percent of pontoon owners do not have a trailer. I found that used pontoons are more likely to come with a trailer than a new one.

good luck with your search. I found the process enjoyable but it took a lot longer than I wanted it to.

 

[Rabbit929]

I just took the crash course on buying a pontoon and we did look at used boats. I was quite surprised that most pontoons that were less than 5 years old were priced much higher than I expected they should be. I was thinking 15K - 20K for a nice used boat, but did not see much in that range. My thinking on used equipment is you are taking a risk on wear and tear that is very hard to gauge. I look for pricing that is 35-50% off price of new. Pricing on new boats is tricky. Lot of places will not post prices, or only post list prices. Seems like most of the boats I looked at have room for 15-20% discount on list and many dealers offer that up without a lot of negotiation. Going into the dealer to see the price really is a painful process, but that is how it seems to work in many cases. I did see a number of used benningtons in 3-5 year old range and most of them were priced around 21-25K. I found a 2020 demo boat that with original tag of 40K but it was offered at 27K. I guess that is a long way of saying that I really did not see used options that made more sense than spending a bit more for new.

Motor is important. I would hold out for EFI 4 stroke. Some of the older 4 strokes have carbs and those are going to have more issues than EFI.

Not sure how accurate this is, but somebody told me that 60 percent of pontoon owners do not have a trailer. I found that used pontoons are more likely to come with a trailer than a new one.

good luck with your search. I found the process enjoyable but it took a lot longer than I wanted it to.

Thanks for the input, I’m finding the same thing out as well, which didn’t seem as true a year ago before the ‘Rona. I hate to buy a ghetto beat up 2 stroke with junk interior for 10k plus a trailer, when for 20k plus a trailer you can have the better everything, and a four stroke to boot.
I do industrial mechanics for a living, I don’t mind carbs but they are quite a pita with today’s gas as it doesn’t store decent. Fuel injection is a must in most cases for seasonal equipment outside of lawn mowers and snow blowers.

 

[pwiseman]

Thanks for the input, I’m finding the same thing out as well, which didn’t seem as true a year ago before the ‘Rona. I hate to buy a ghetto beat up 2 stroke with junk interior for 10k plus a trailer, when for 20k plus a trailer you can have the better everything, and a four stroke to boot.
I do industrial mechanics for a living, I don’t mind carbs but they are quite a pita with today’s gas as it doesn’t store decent. Fuel injection is a must in most cases for seasonal equipment outside of lawn mowers and snow blowers.

Hope you stumble on a good find. Seems like they set pricing so it is hard not to Break Out Another Thousand!

 

[DeepCMark58A]

Yep I bought a used pontoon last summer, bought from a friend of the family for $6000. Honda 40 hp in pretty good shape. The pontoon goes in after the dock and is tied to the dock all summer. Rent a trailer to pull it haul it to the daughter's farm to store it in the fall. I will probably put new floor covering on it next winter. Nothing fancy but we sure like it.