New Member

[aquahollic]

Good evening new member here from AL, Looking at pontoons just sold my Chaparral ssi 220, really have enjoyed reading the posts and decided to join...

[cbavier]

Welcome aboard. Lot's of smart and experienced tooners here. We welcome your questions and look forward to you sharing your experiences with us too as we all learn from one another.

[DWill3332]

Welcome. Where in Alabama?

[aquahollic]

Huntsville, Al

[ROLAND]

Welcome!

[georgiatoon]

Welcome fellow southerner

[Friar]

Welcome "aquahollic" - All my family and in-laws are in the Jacksonville-Anniston-Oxford area except me in Texas.

Since it has been too cold here recently (40 is cold in TX) and I cannot think of another way to "clean/polish/work on/buy stuff" for my pontoon, I have been trying to come up with a list of all current pontoon builders. It might be useful if you are still shopping around. What I have so far in alphabetical order is: Aloha, Apex, Avalon, Bennington, Bentley, Crest, Cypress Cay, Ercoa, Fisher, Hampton, Harris FloteBote, JC, Landau, Legend, Manitou, Misty Harbor, Playcraft, Premier, Princecraft, SanPan, SouthBay, StarCraft, SunCatcher, SunChaser, SunCruiser, SunDancer, Sunset Bay, Sun Tracker, Sweetwater, Sylvan, Tahoe, and Weeres. Some of these are owned by parent companies like Godfrey and Forest River.

If anyone knows of some other manufacturers, please let me know.

[aquahollic]

That's honestly whats made this search for a pontoon so difficult is the amount of different builders and of course builders building special names for dealers. When I purchased my chaparral I did lots of research on hull design reliability etc, but most of my information came from word of mouth and reading reviews, it seems to be harder with pontoons because of the magnitude of different builders. In boats its normally narrowed down to the several that everyone knows such as cobalt, sea ray, chaparral, four winns, regal to name a few, but seems there are way more pontoon companies to look at. Thanks for the information.

[dockholiday]

Sort of know what you are going through. The good news is most of the companies still left around build a good solid product. I would recommend looking into a tritoon. It gives the best of both worlds. If you need to get from point A to point B in a hurry, it can do that, about anything you can do with a bowridder/runabout. Be forewarned once you go to a toon you will wonder why you didn't buy one years before.
doc

[aquahollic]

I keep hearing that, I can honestly say that after I bought my chap I did add bbq grill and it had plenty of space but just not that sit around and cruise social atmosphere it seemed you had to be stopped or planed out but no in between and so much for being up and walking around underway that wasn't easy either...

[Ray Jr.]

My family and I really love our Premier with the PTX package.
I think we got the best bang for our buck with the Premier and our local Premier dealer. Most of the Manufacturers that have been around for a fairly long time are going to be decent toons, find the one that best suits your wants and needs, and find a GOOD dealer. If you were in our area (New Hampshire) I would highly recommend our dealer Winnisquam Marine, they are great to deal with and treat their customers great.
If you are planning on lots of cruising or long cruises I highly recommend that you get very comfy seats, I think Premier has about the most comfortable ones out there.

[aquahollic]

Very nice boat, I really don't think my budget will fit a new purchase I really don't want to spend more than 20k on a new one or 15ish on a used one.

[Ray Jr.]

One thing you might consider is a rental boat, we bought a 2008 Premier 225 Sunsation LTD with a Merc 90hp 4 stroke in the winter of 2009 it was a 1 season old rental and we got it for about 24k Including a new trailer(trailer alone was 2400). The rentals also get a FULL as new Warranty, so you get a very good price, a slightly used boat, plus a full warranty.
We then traded it in this fall for the for the 2010 225 Sunsation Ltd PTX with the 150 Merc Optimax(also a 1 season old rental) because we wanted more power and performance to tube and ski with.
The 90hp was great for cruising and fun tubing but struggled too much getting larger adults up on skis.

[aquahollic]

I haven't really considered that, but I will look into it for sure, I know I was wanting at least a 115 on whatever I buy, I don't ski, but I do tube etc, and I don't want it to struggle just to get around.

[dockholiday]

I keep hearing that, I can honestly say that after I bought my chap I did add bbq grill and it had plenty of space but just not that sit around and cruise social atmosphere it seemed you had to be stopped or planed out but no in between and so much for being up and walking around underway that wasn't easy either...

Guess that is the favorite thing I like about toons. Not advocating folks get up an walk around doing 40 but a cruise speed it works real well. My neighbor has a good size deck boat an asked if I wanted to ride with them as they were getting ready to go out. I looked down as everyone was taking theirs seats an said naw ya'll go ahead an have a good time. I would have been in there pretty quick if it had been a toon. Actually took them on a ride in mine, an they said we need to get one of these.

doc