Decided on 2016 Sun tracker Bass Buggy 18 dlx. Now which mot

[ckm351]

Finally decided on the Bass Buggy 18 dlx. Trying to figure out between the 60 hp or 75 hp Mercury . The 75 is $1500 more. One dealer told me the increase in speed is not worth it. He said only about 2-3 mph difference. My question is, can anyone give me real world data from their set-up? My thoughts are the 75 would give better performance, but the 60 big foot may be good enough. Anybody have GPS speeds from these boat/motor combination? Will mostly be fishing , lakes we frequent are not too large ,but with a storm approaching would like to scoot pretty good. Might tube a little. Tracker website lists 60 at 18-22 , no data for 75. Any info is appreciated.

[Mucho Gusto]

I have zero experience with either size motor so I can't say for sure. The general rule (don't know if it applies here or not) is to get the biggest motor that your budget allows. Said nobody ever... "I wish I would've got the smaller one"

[Bamaman]

Speed is not everything, as torque is more important on boats. And the 75 hp Merc. is a whole lot more cubic inches and torquey of a motor.

My old pontoon had a 115 hp Yamaha 2 stroke motor, and it was quite happy running a medium cruise @ 2900 rpm's. I once got into some else's pontoon boat with a 60 hp motor, and they had to run it at almost the redline to maintain the same speed. The bigger engines simply don't have to work as hard to maintain a cruise, and they're quieter and plenty efficient. Throw about 6 people in the boat, and the difference is even greater.

Go with the bigger motor, as you'll be much more satisfied.

[ron nh]

For that $ difference definitely go with the 75. Also you can beef it up later if you want to. The 60 is maxed out as it is. Like Bama said, Put a few people on there and you'll wish you had more torque immediately, It will work so much harder.

[teecro]

You asked for real world? You get exactly that...

Bought an 18-foot Party Barge in 2014 with a 1.0 Liter 60 HP Big Foot and ran for an entire year. Tried several props to get the best speed I could get which maxed out at roughly 18 MPH with a light load and down to 14 with 7 souls on board; make that 5 souls on board and dragging via tube the other two... So call it a 16 MPH pontoon...

Late last year I swapped for a 2.1 Liter 75 HP and tried out several props and got all but to 28 MPH haven't had much testing with more than 2 souls on board but you can see a huge jump in speed. You can always throttle back and I do quite regularly and once throttled that 75/115 gets better mileage than the 60 ever did... Call it a 26 MPH pontoon so call your dealer wrong...

You can't go wrong with the 75 it is a much better and quieter motor than the 60 is...

[ckm351]

Thanks guys. I knew I could get accurate info here. I guess the dealer wanted to get rid of the 60hp motors. Who knows. I was leaning towards the 75 because it won't have to work as hard cruising, and has extra torque. Most of the time there will be 5 on board , with me the heaviest at 160 lbs. So I would guess we would be more towards the 25-27 mph range top end. That's pretty good. We had a party barge 20 a few years ago that would get 30 mph with a 90 hp. We were pleased with that speed. I really do appreciate the info , and any more you guys offer.
Thanks

[Bamaman]

While we're talking about it, is there any reason you didn't go with the 20' hull? They often have larger toons and perform better--more seaworthy. I see pontoons with small diameter toons on the lake all the time, and they're runining deep in the water--and slow.

Another question is whether the engines are coming in with the boat or are they being outfitted out of dealer stock? Big boat makers get fleet/volume discounts on outboards and buy'em cheaper than a Mercury dealer that buys'em direct from the manufacturer. It's always best to buy a boat that came in with the motor--except Bass Pro has that one price marketing strategy I don't really care for. If you switch motors to one that the dealer has in the warehouse, it'll cost you dearly in many instances.

Too bad buying a boat has so many angles to consider.

[joe20toon]

Get the larger motor... I know someone where the dealer convinced him a 70HP will be just as good as the maximum allowed 90HP since it's lighter and you won't notice the difference. That wasn't good advice.

[ckm351]

We like the 18 because it will be easier for my wife and I to handle when it's just us. Easier to tow/launch/load. We had a 20 ft before and it was more than we needed. Wound up selling after a couple of years. The lakes we go to are relatively small. In fact we are a few minutes from a local lake that is only a few hundred acres that we would use most of the time. We usually go only when it's not crowded and loaf around. A comparable 20 footer would run about the same money but have a 40hp. To upgrade to a 90 would be 4 grand more than 18ft with a 75. The 18 has 24 inch multichambered tubes. The 20 ft is the same. I had looked at a Sunchaser and it had 23 inch tubes , partly why I liked the Sun Tracker.

[teecro]

While we're talking about it, is there any reason you didn't go with the 20' hull? They often have larger toons and perform better--more seaworthy. I see pontoons with small diameter toons on the lake all the time, and they're runining deep in the water--and slow.

Another question is whether the engines are coming in with the boat or are they being outfitted out of dealer stock? Big boat makers get fleet/volume discounts on outboards and buy'em cheaper than a Mercury dealer that buys'em direct from the manufacturer. It's always best to buy a boat that came in with the motor--except Bass Pro has that one price marketing strategy I don't really care for. If you switch motors to one that the dealer has in the warehouse, it'll cost you dearly in many instances.

Too bad buying a boat has so many angles to consider.

With the Sun Trackers they pretty much all use the same size 24" diameter tubes and for sure in the 18 & 20 foot models...

While I sometimes now wish for a slightly larger boat such as the 20 foot at the time I was not completely trilled with the layout of the 20 foot Sun Tracker in that I felt if did not make best use of the extra 2 feet and for the biggest % of use it is just me and the wife and generally no more than 4 on board with 7 only being a few times a year... Yep lots of excuses!

[teecro]

We like the 18 because it will be easier for my wife and I to handle when it's just us. Easier to tow/launch/load. We had a 20 ft before and it was more than we needed. Wound up selling after a couple of years. The lakes we go to are relatively small. In fact we are a few minutes from a local lake that is only a few hundred acres that we would use most of the time. We usually go only when it's not crowded and loaf around. A comparable 20 footer would run about the same money but have a 40hp. To upgrade to a 90 would be 4 grand more than 18ft with a 75. The 18 has 24 inch multichambered tubes. The 20 ft is the same. I had looked at a Sunchaser and it had 23 inch tubes , partly why I liked the Sun Tracker.

Shoot our lake is huge with over 800 miles of shoreline and yet I still very much love our little 18 footer except for the busy end of the lake it handles the waves just fine as even the bigger boats are slowing down in the busy "high rent end" I'm happy for the bigger motor as I can GET there quick if I need too but I'm small enough to get in tight spots with no issue at all...

[ROLAND]

I don't really think there would be much difference as far as speed goes between the 60 and the 75, but for that amount of difference in cost, I'd opt for the 75. Try to bargain with the dealer, see if he'll split the difference on cost between the two...I have a 75 on my 20 footer and last time I checked I was getting around 23 mph or so wide open.. but like you mentioned, we use ours to go from fishing spot to fishing spot... hardly ever have the throttle wide open..

[teecro]

I don't really think there would be much difference as far as speed goes between the 60 and the 75

But yet as reported there is a full 10 MPH increase in speed with a 15 HP increase...