Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

My name is Ronnie and I live outside of Houston, Texas. My wife and I are looking at getting our first boat, we started off with me wanting to get a bow rider and her wanting to get a pontoon boat. So we went to Bass pro shop to have a look figuring we could look at both types at the same time and not waste a sales persons time. I quickly realized the bowrider would not be a good choice for us once we looked at the Suntracker tritoon with the 150hp Mercury. I told my wife we would have to look at them some more and probablly go to the lake and rent a pontoon for the day to try it out. I told her that if the pontoon drove and rode like a barge it would be out of the question.

Since then I have been looking online at so many different manufacturers it is hard to keep them straight. I did narrow it down some by looking for dealers, if there were not any dealers near by I didn't even look at the boats.

As of right now I think I have it narrowed down to either a Premier Solaris 250 PTX, or a Premier Sunsation 240 PTX. The dealer that I have been talking to sell mostly the Premier Elite, and occasionally a different model. They recommend the I/O 4.3v6 200hp or there is a 220hp option mercruiser with a twin prop counter rotating prop outdrive. Unfortunately they do not have stock on any Premier's right now, but they are waiting on 3 elite's to come in very soon. Once they come in the dealer is going to take us for a test drive.

Damn and holy hell you don't jack around!!!
Welcome aboard!

Quite a jump from Tracker to Premier! Badmoonrising loves his Tracker and from what I've seen, they have improved the quality greatly in the last 5-10 years.
A couple of tips: Get a triple log and the largest motor you can afford, especially if you'll be using the boat in big water.
I can't remember anybody on this forum saying they wished they had a smaller engine (me included).
This is personal preference, but I would not get an I/O (and I didn't), because up here they have to be winterized, whereas with the Outboard I just make sure it's sitting vertical and condition the fuel with SeaFoam.
Welcome and good boating!!

bassn386 wrote:Quite a jump from Tracker to Premier! Badmoonrising loves his Tracker and from what I've seen, they have improved the quality greatly in the last 5-10 years.
A couple of tips: Get a triple log and the largest motor you can afford, especially if you'll be using the boat in big water.
I can't remember anybody on this forum saying they wished they had a smaller engine (me included).
This is personal preference, but I would not get an I/O (and I didn't), because up here they have to be winterized, whereas with the Outboard I just make sure it's sitting vertical and condition the fuel with SeaFoam.
Welcome and good boating!!

Welcome.............bassn has saved me some typing here lately.....pretty much same as above.
150hp or better tritoon is a great place to start.
doc

I would like to suggest if you do go with the 150hp be careful of the steering system. If it's a Baystar you may not be happy at all. If it's the Seastar you might be not as just unhappy. There is a brighter side to the Seastar, you can add the Power Assist Pump and it will be just like automotive power steering.

The suntracker that we were originally looking at was the party barge 24 dlx XP3 tritoon. The boat is only rated up to 150hp, when we priced it out, with the boat + 4stroke mercury, trailer, double bimini top and add the extended warrenty to make it 5 years we were right at $37000 out the door. Once I started looking at other boats I realized that the suntracker did not provide much for the $ when compared to other brands. I can get the Premier Sunsation 240 220hp I/O with trailer and options for around $44000.

I am not sure what the advantage of the I/O is over an outboard. My dad has always had outboards, but I am sure it comes down to preference. I talked to Dan at Premier last week about the different boats and he told me I/O vs outboard is mostly preference. He said the I/O has to be winterized but the I/O comes standard with power steering. As for winterizing I am not worried about it, I am an hour from the coast and we barely have a winter down here. I also plan to use the boat year round.

Welcome!
Another consideration to OB vs I/O is maintenance access. my old barge has a 5.0 I/O, and the builder left zero room for maintenance . While the carb and ignition are right on top of the engine, the fuel filter is under the exhaust manifold, the oil filter even lower and the the ailing starter is under the engine - with less than 3 inches clearance on both sides, the engine may need to come out to change the starter!

If you are not planning on keping it more than 5 years, major maintenance should not be a consideration. If you are still looking at I/Os, consider how much access you will have for repairs/routine maintenance.

definate good info about the maintanance on the I/O. I have not decided which route to go just yet. The dealer is recommending the I/O, but I looked at some other boats yesterday that had the Mecury verado on it and it sure sounds interesting