Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

The tritoon I've purchased has lifting strakes installed on both sides of the center tube and the inboard sides of the outside tubes. Is it worth the time, hassle and money to have strakes added to the outboard sides of the outside tubes?

What would the ballpark cost be to do something like this, and what are the benefits, if any?

I don't believe that outside strakes would add to any performance factors. If it did, the manufacturer would have added them in the first place.

And with most manufacturers, any welding, not specifically authorized by them, done to the tubes would void any tube warranty. For some, that would be anywhere from 5 -10 years to lifetime warranty.

Negative angled lifting strakes (point down like a v)on the outside of the outer toon's can cause the boat to dig hard on sharp corners, when the boat lists to the inside. So most companies that use negative lifting strakes only put them on the center and inside of the outer pontoons to let the boat "roll" on the sides of the pontoon. A positive strake on the outer sides will work beautifully, adds lift, won't scrub off as much speed and will not effect the turning as negative angled strakes.

As the above stated you need to be aware of the angle of them. I've seen some manufactures that have neutral strakes as well. You might gain a few mph because of the extra lift but nothing ground breaking. It will corner odd with them on all sides, or at least that's true for most configurations I've ridden on. With the strakes inside only it should lean a little into turns or at least stay close to neutral. If the strakes dig on the outside it will actually lean out away from the turn. I'm used to our boat that turns more like a v hull and got on a friend's new boat to drive it and made a hard turn around 40 and thought the boat was going to flip...okay not really but it was dicey.

What are the specs of your boat and motor and the speeds you are seeing now?

Thanks guys, sounds like it's not worth the hassle and cost. I've purchased the boat but other than the check out ride I haven't had her out yet. I've just been reading about some of these newer boats with strakes on both sides of each tube and I wondered if it was worth adding.

I have a 150 Yamaha on it and it seemed to handle fine to me, but coming from a tournament inboard ski boat I wasn't expecting very much from the pontoon.

I appreciate your responses.

Leave it alone... Mine is set up exactly like yours and with the right prop, you should be seeing close to 40 mph at WOT. Have fun and use that money on other goodies.

Manufacturers spend quite a bit of engineering time on their hulls. The length, width, angles, curvature, etc. of the strakes are carefully studied.

What's most important is getting the nosecones out of the water, and that's where you get the speed and efficiency.

You'll be very satisfied with what you've got.

Not a fan of outer strakes, the only situation where they would help is if you wanted to cleanly plane/cruise under 20mph or you only have 90-115hp engine and you need all the lift you can get. Mine has a 4 strake setup and I get plenty of lift and can keep the nosecones in the air with 8 adults on board and high strung 140 on the back.