Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey guys...I'm new here

We've got a '96 Premier 25 ft triton. It's got a '96 Merc 90 2 stroke that runs fine, but it's way underpowered. I've been kicking around the thought of repowering with a 150 hp Merc 4 stroke, I think Merc to Merc will be the most economical way to pull this off. My question is around the design of the '96. The center toon is around 18" shorter than the other two, I've been considering a 12 to 15" slidemaster or rapidjack jackplate to help with the lift.I've got a lot more experience with high performance boats than I do with these. I'm trying to decide whether the concept is similar, and would I need the extra setback to achieve the proper amount of lift to get the toons up out of the water when there are folks sitting on the front couches. The boat is in really good shape for it's age, but I'm not sure of the center toon being able to support the extra torque from the setback of a jackplate. The boat is rated for 150 hp, so the new power will help hopefully get it to where it needs to be.

Any opinions are welcomed...

thanks

Your engine mounts are not as strong to begin with as a full hulled boat transom. Hydraulic jack plates will sit the motor back farther, and that puts substantially more stress on the relatively weak back end. Hydraulic jack plates really not preferred for pontoons.

I trust your tritoon has lifting strakes? Why don't you just take it step by step and have the 150 hp Merc mounted normally. Then see where your boat performs. In my eyes, tritoon horsepower needs to start at 115 hp.

We ask a little of everything out of pontoon boats. I have a short shaft motor on my old Starcraft, and when 2-3 people sit in the front seats, my motor lifts and ventilates--and I have to move passengers to the rear. You might want to take it step by step.

I'm not wanting a hydraulic plate, just a manual plate. The boat is rated for 150 hp, and I think if it was a later model it would be rated for a lot more, probably in the 250 hp range. Premier just got into tritoons in the '96 era, from what I've read and talked to dealers. I know my engine switch will be an easy one, but the plate will probably cause me to change the steering as well. Whether I stay with cable or switch to hydraulic, the additional distance back change that.

Just trying to see how much in general the additional setback would help get the lift I see the newer tritoons achieve. That's the priority to us over speed.

Lift is mostly in the strakes, without them I don't think extra setback would help the situation much and anything over a 3-4" jack plate would put the structural integrity of the tube in question. Since the Merc 150 will spin a 16" diameter prop I would think you would get more nosecone lift out of a large diameter 3 blade prop than a 12" setback would provide. Non straked tritoons will get the nose cones out of the water enough to see a few extra mph over a 2 log pontoon but not the 5-7mph that strakes add and it doesn't happen until 25+ mph if you have the HP to do it! The equivalent straked tritoon will have the nose up around 16-18mph and cruise nicely @ 20mph. I've been through all 3 setups on my pontoon, 2 tube, 3rd tube added, and 4 strakes added and have experienced the differences.

Forget the jack plate. Over the winter I bought a old toon for a tube. Add tube to make mine a tri toon. Cut the end of tube off had fab shop add a horizontal plate insid to stiffen up tube and ad a thick transom plate and engine mount. Added six lifting strakes. Went from a 115 hp to a 250 Mercury verado 250 hp. I love this tri toon now. It handles like a boat now instead of a toon. Now I can go riding instead from point a to point b. I have a 23.6 party craft by godefy. Set my center tube 18" past outside tubes. Have fab shop roll you a tube extension with a transom and weld to your center tube. Or set your center tube back 12"

I agree about a 4" setback if possible. But only if your engine pod/mount appears to be pretty beefy. If it's made of two layers of 3/4 inch plywood glued together, I wouldn't suggest it.

I thought about adding strakes but I don't know enough about them. I know they have to be right to see any improvements. I'm not trying to turn this into a performance rig like the new ones, just to pick up the nose enough to ride without soaking the folks up front. Would talking with Premier be something that might shed some light on adding strakes? I talked to them briefly last week to get a handle on the changes that have been made to their tritoons since mine was made to today's setups, and they just referred me to dealers. They just want to sell a new boat which I have no desire in doing. When performance is needed, I have a boat for that.

I do like the thought process of adding length to the rear of the center toon with a transom. That might even be smarter than adding a 15" rapidjack like I have on my Bullet. This is all in the planning stage now, I won't bring it home from the lake till fall. There are a lot of the Merc 150 4 strokes running around on the part of Kentucky lake we frequent, and I've heard a lot of positive response from their owners. I do know a fab guy that might be worth running the idea of adding to the center toon concept by....

Thanks for all the replies...

For what its worth , I called Crest about adding a jackplate to my tri toon and they said no problem. They have a few dealers installing Suzukis and they told me they run jackplates with them because of the motors design. I will add that mine is a 2014 and already specd for 300 max . The transoms are built like a tank .

smoker62 wrote:For what its worth , I called Crest about adding a jackplate to my tri toon and they said no problem. They have a few dealers installing Suzukis and they told me they run jackplates with them because of the motors design. I will add that mine is a 2014 and already specd for 300 max . The transoms are built like a tank .

Just read your bio, hows that Crest run with that beast on the back? I was just at the dealer looking at those the other day, what a boat! don't mean to hi jack thread just interested

ron nh wrote:

smoker62 wrote:For what its worth , I called Crest about adding a jackplate to my tri toon and they said no problem. They have a few dealers installing Suzukis and they told me they run jackplates with them because of the motors design. I will add that mine is a 2014 and already specd for 300 max . The transoms are built like a tank .

Just read your bio, hows that Crest run with that beast on the back? I was just at the dealer looking at those the other day, what a boat! don't mean to hi jack thread just interested

It is a beast of a boat . Built solid and runs stable and smooth in big waves . Have not had much time to do any dialing in yet hence the hydraulic jackplate . Just been so busy I have not had time to play with props or engine height. Know another guy with same boat running 51 . Frustrating .