Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey,
Narrowed my hunt for a fishing (mostly) pontoon . Either a Sunchaser 818 4.0 with Evinrude ETEC 65 pontoon series.($22525 out the door w/trailer)
Or a Sun Tracker Bass Buggy 18 with a Mercury 75 4 stroke.( $22150 out the door)
Both have full vinyl floor. Sunchaser has an extra fishing seat in back but less storage. Both have trailer in quote.
Sunchaser has 23 inch tubes , Suntracker has 24.
Have had a party barge in the past and was happy. Never dealt with a Sunchaser. Hear good and bad about ETEC motors. No service for 3 years and 6 year warranty is nice. That dealer is 60 miles away.
Sun Tracker dealer is 20 miles away. Both dealers have good reputation for customer service.
Anybody have any experience with Sunchaser or Evinrude ETEC motors?
Thanks

Personally I would get the suntracker. Nothing against sunchaser, and I haven't seen the new ones but I didn't like there entry level interior, It looked real cheap. Also the 75hp is a great motor that you can enhance if you wish too. and 24" tubes are better than 23". Of course I would be remiss If I didn't tell you to check out Apex Quest LS series for an 18'er. The interior is much nicer and you'll get many upgrades over either other brand. There luxery series is about the same $. They specialize in small fishing pontoons. Also Avalon now makes a nice 18', not sure if they do the fishing model in that size though.

Where are you located?

I have a 2006 40 Etec. I love it. Only had one issue which was a hairline crack at the top of the oil reservoir last summer. I'm thinking of getting a new boat along with a new 90hp Etec.

I'm located in upstate S.C.
Thanks for the suggestion of Qwest Marine . I will check out a local dealer later today. I've always had Mercury engines and was happy , the ETEC looks pretty good too.
Time frame of a few weeks. So I have a little time to figure it out.

ckm351 wrote:Hey,
Narrowed my hunt for a fishing (mostly) pontoon . Either a Sunchaser 818 4.0 with Evinrude ETEC 65 pontoon series.($22525 out the door w/trailer)
Or a Sun Tracker Bass Buggy 18 with a Mercury 75 4 stroke.( $22150 out the door)

I will tell you that I absolutely love our 18-foot SunTracker Party Barge with the 75 Mercury on board... While SunTracker boats are by no means "Top Shelf" whiskey they are far from "Generic" bottom shelf rot gut either... I find that they are solidly built an quite robust with plastic Roto-Molded seat bases being easy on the upkeep side. Performance wise the 75/18 will be solid around 26 to 28 MPH at WOT and will sip fuel all day long out of the huge 32 gallon tank, at 3K to 4K RPM I can keep my GPH down to around 4 GPH... The 18-footer makes really good use of space and will carry 4 people with comfort and only gets overly cozy when we put more than 5 total on board...

i bought new, a 2011 sunchaser ds22. never any problems with boat

it's certainly not luxurious, but it suits my needs and budget.