Pontoon Motor Selection questions

[pwiseman]

Hello,
I am no stranger to boating, but pontoons are a new thing for me. We will have a 20 foot slip on a 2000 Acre Lake and we are in process of selecting a pontoon that meets majority of our needs without going into the crazy range on the spend. Looking for advice on how much motor makes sense. I do not want to underpower and be unhappy, but don't want to overspend either.

This is what we are looking at

20-22 foot overall length​

2100-2500 dry weight on the boat​

8-12 person capacity​

captain and port chairs (nice for when the wife and I go out)​

extended swim platform would be nice​

Not looking to pull tubes, skiers or go fast in general​

3 boats we like
New 2020 Barletta C20QC that has a Yamaha high thrust 50. Nice boat with decent discount. but boat is married to the motor

Premier Sunspree 220 RF with a Suzuki F70 - can go up to 90 or 115 for extra$

Bennington 22LSR with Yamaha 90 - can go up or down on HP.

Right now I am leaning towards the Barletta. 200-300 lbs lighter than the other two and would fit in the slip better. Love the fit and trim levels and price is best of the 3. Newer brand but they seem to have a great rep and network in Minnesota.

Premier also makes a nice boat but I have some concerns they have not fixed all of the operational issues I read about. New Owners might fix these issues, but might take some time. They make these 15 miles from our house, but that is not much help if they still have issues getting repairs and parts shipped fast.

Bennington is the big brand. Nice boat overall and very similar quality to the others. Price is a bit higher which could be due to brand name.

I am comfortable with Yamaha, Suzuki and Merc and all have multiple dealers that can service. Please share opinion on HP and type of motor that meets our needs above. Thanks in advance

 

[Starcraft5834]

I bought a new 20 ft toon in 2019. Starcraft EX-R I put a new Merc 115 on it. had a factory ski tow bar installed too. went with the bigger motor for skiing and tubing.. also installed a small kicker bracket for the 2.5 putter for small lakes with horsepower restrictions. We have had a blast with it. The boat weighs 1800, the motor bout 400. I trailer it on tandem galvanized Shorelandr.. it's capable of 5500lb.. went big to ensure no problems. We love it

 

[ahicks]

A little biased perhaps, but if you have a dealer in the area, I would add Honda to your list of potential motors (I do a lot of work on them).

My choice would be a 22' Bennington, and if you're serious about 8-12 people capacity, and there's any chance you might actually have that many people on it, I would be looking at 24'+.

 

[pwiseman]

A little biased perhaps, but if you have a dealer in the area, I would add Honda to your list of potential motors (I do a lot of work on them).

My choice would be a 22' Bennington, and if you're serious about 8-12 people capacity, and there's any chance you might actually have that the

 

[pwiseman]

We will leave the boat on our slip all summer and it is a 20 foot slip. i could get away with 22 footer, but larger than that is going to be a problem. I don't see a need for 8+ people very often, but is nice to have the option. The work around is to go with tritoon on a 20 or 22 footer, but probably not worth the extra costs to do that.

We have Honda dealers but not nearly as many as the others. ...

 

[pwiseman]

I bought a new 20 ft toon in 2019. Starcraft EX-R I put a new Merc 115 on it. had a factory ski tow bar installed too. went with the bigger motor for skiing and tubing.. also installed a small kicker bracket for the 2.5 putter for small lakes with horsepower restrictions. We have had a blast with it. The boat weighs 1800, the motor bout 400. I trailer it on tandem galvanized Shorelandr.. it's capable of 5500lb.. went big to ensure no problems. We love it

Thanks for the response. No restrictions on our lake, but we are going to be cruisers and don't see much need to pull people or go fast. Thinking the 50 High Thrust is probably good enough to get 15 MPH give or take. I am 100% sure a 90 is more than enough, but not as sure about the 50 high thrust

 

[MRS]

I have a 20ft. toon with the 90 CT Merc on it with two of us and a big dog can almost do 30 mph. with the biminis down and a tail wind. Was on the river with 8 people on it cut the speed almost in half I would not run anything smaller than a 90 on it. Plus if running in to a hard wind with 6 to 8 folks on it you will not like the 50 much. Always better to have a little more than less power.

 

[Sea Rider]

A 50 HP correctly propped will work well powering light to medium light loads, not heavy loads though. When running underpowered motors it's a must limit the passenger capacity on deck if wanting the toon to work and have fun as expected.

Happy Boating​

 

[HotTommy]

I don't know enough about boat brands to offer a recommendation, but I do own a 2006 Bennington and it is very well made and has excellent dealer support. As an experienced boater, you already know the value of boat speed when deciding how far out to go when the weather is sketchy. You also know how a slow boat can limit your travel options on a large body of water. So I think you are the best judge of what power engine to get based on where you will be boating. If I were making the choice for me, I'd go for the 90 HP just to have more travel options when out for the day. I seldom run my boat at WOT, but its comforting to be able to make a fast run back to the marina when a summer storm pops up nearby. .... Good luck with your boat.

 

[pwiseman]

Great feedback on the 90 HP recommendations. My gut check was telling me a 50 HP is on the low end of OK for 2200-2500 lb boat. I also looked at prop selector tool to see how things look with 2 people vs max load. I used that tool on some fishing boats and found the calculations to be fairly trustworthy.

Hard to pass up a nice discount I located on a new 2020 Barletta with Yamaha High Thrust 50, but they have a 2021 model with a Merc 90 and lift strakes available. Matter of getting ok with the extra cost

Bennington SSX21 is the closest compare to Barletta C20QC and it is rated for max of 10 vs 8. Premier Sunspree 220RF is rated for 12.

I quickly discovered you need to look at the length of the pontoons and length of the deck because some manufactures name the boats on deck length, where others use length of the tube.

I was looking to find something nice in 28-35K range. It looks most options with 90 or 115 will come in around 40K plus or minus change. Good news is that there are some great options available in our market.

Will refocus on 90 HP by Yamaha, Suzuki, Merc. 115 by Yamaha or Merc would be great if the pricing makes sense.

Ruling out 115 Suzuki because it is a jump up in weight I don't need to take on.

Ruling out Honda entirely because the dealers I am looking at just don't order many boats rigged for Honda.

Yamaha and Merc seem to be dominating, but there are in stock options for suzuki on both Bennington and Premier. Availability seems to tie to dealer preferences.

 

[MRS]

You reminded me you really need the lift strakes on the pontoons if not they will plow in the water. If I did not have them would not run like it does with the 90 CT motor. They plow anyways but much worst without. P.S. I love my pontoon.

 

[Toyelectroman]

I have a 20 foot starcraft with a 115merc and we love it but the dealer near me has some Barletta's and those are sharp looking pontoons

 

[Starcraft5834]

Great feedback on the 90 HP recommendations. My gut check was telling me a 50 HP is on the low end of OK for 2200-2500 lb boat. I also looked at prop selector tool to see how things look with 2 people vs max load. I used that tool on some fishing boats and found the calculations to be fairly trustworthy.

Hard to pass up a nice discount I located on a new 2020 Barletta with Yamaha High Thrust 50, but they have a 2021 model with a Merc 90 and lift strakes available. Matter of getting ok with the extra cost

Bennington SSX21 is the closest compare to Barletta C20QC and it is rated for max of 10 vs 8. Premier Sunspree 220RF is rated for 12.

I quickly discovered you need to look at the length of the pontoons and length of the deck because some manufactures name the boats on deck length, where others use length of the tube.

I was looking to find something nice in 28-35K range. It looks most options with 90 or 115 will come in around 40K plus or minus change. Good news is that there are some great options available in our market.

Will refocus on 90 HP by Yamaha, Suzuki, Merc. 115 by Yamaha or Merc would be great if the pricing makes sense.

Ruling out 115 Suzuki because it is a jump up in weight I don't need to take on.

Ruling out Honda entirely because the dealers I am looking at just don't order many boats rigged for Honda.

Yamaha and Merc seem to be dominating, but there are in stock options for suzuki on both Bennington and Premier. Availability seems to tie to dealer preferences.

you'll be glad u went with a bigger motor.. get it if u can

 

[jhande]

Next to one of my shore fishing spots a gentleman has a rather short pontoon with a 100+ hp and a trolling motor. I've never seen him pull anything and just had to ask him about the setup.

He likes having more power than he needs, never know when you'll need it. His wife really wanted the pontoon, he wanted a basic little fishing boat. So he setup the pontoon for fishing along with casual cruising with his wife.

He showed my one morning why he likes the extra power, he blasted across the lake to his favorite fishing hole. WOW I thought it was a racing boat, never seen a pontoon that fast. He blew right by a water skier.

 

[pwiseman]

Thanks all for the feedback and info. I located a boat that should do everything we want it to for 34K and the wife loves the colors.

2021 HARRIS CRUISER 210 CWDH with a Merc 90 Command Thrust, lift stakes, assist steering and extended swim platform.​

Barletta C20QC was a close second. Found one with same Merc 90 CT but it priced out 5K higher and is rated for 8 people instead of 10. That seemed odd to me. I found but the hull weight on these is 300 lbs or so higher than most other boats of the same size which is a bit of a head scratcher.

Bennington and Premier were also solid options. We did not find an available boat that met our needs as well as the top two.

 

[ahicks]

Congrats on the new boat! Hope it all works out well for you.

Note that dealers very often don't want to spend the money to put the correct prop on the motor. You get all sorts of BS reasons. The bottom line/ my point is though, I would want a GUARANTEE that the engine will turn it's full rated rpm with the prop you receive. Don't buy into the "break in prop" story! That's B.S. speak for trying to get away with the one that comes on it when the dealer gets it - which is generally way too big, especially if you plan on pulling water toys.....

 

[MRS]

I have the 90 CT on a 20ft came with a 13 pitch prop works good on mine.

 

[Sea Rider]

I have the 90 CT on a 20ft came with a 13 pitch prop works good on mine.

Good working doesn't states if combo is agile on water, has a nice hole shot, only states overall boat's propulsion. If you go for a top prop maximization the working good will turn into awesome working specially if the motor revs middle to max wot rpm range as loaded which isn't known. In reality it's a matter of personal preference, some are happy with whichever motor and prop pitch the dealer rigged a particular boat and some other wants going straight to the next fun step asap the combo leaves the dealer...

Happy Boating​

 

[ahicks]

Have to agree with Sea Rider. "Good" is subjective, and likely what you're going to hear from the dealer. "Oh they work "GOOD" with that prop! NOT!!

Allowing the motor to turn "full rated rpm" is pretty specific, allowing the dealer little room to BS.

My 24' w/Honda 90 makes me happy with a 15" prop. It's within a few rpm of max rated, has good pulling power, and the motor doesn't sound too busy at wide open throttle. If I drop to a 13", it'll pull your hat off when you punch it! The issue is it will allow a couple hundred rpm over max, meaning you'd need to be careful running it. Wouldn't hurt a thing for a minute, but I wouldn't want it spending much time there. The engine doesn't even sound good - sounds really busy. And it's no faster than the 15" prop at top speed.

I would think lifting strakes would allow the motor to unload a little at top speed. Would be no surprise here if it would do a good job with a 15". That's would just be a guess though. A water test is the only real way to know for sure....

 

[MRS]

I just let him know cause I have the same motor they are getting plus they are a foot longer than mine not a expert by any means just a starting point.
I know you love the Honda motors I have never run one so cannot compare
any facts to the Merc. Mine has a good hole shot and runs around 5,300 to 5,400 rpm's wot.