Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am considering getting a pontoon boat to take the family cruising, skiing, and some fishing. My girls are age 6 and 8, and my wife is small also. We would also like to have something that we could take another family of four out on the water. Would a 90 be able to handle that?

I have an 18 ft. with a 60. I can get up to 23 mph (GPS) with wife and I and about 19, with about 8 people. You'll probably not be able to ski, but I can easily pull a tube with 2 people on it. Depending on where you are going to take the boat, with 2 small children, that should be plenty. You never know what can pop up in a lake (trees, stumps etc.) and going to fast can be dangerous.

I know a lot of folks here say you can't have too much power, but I think for you purposes, except for skiing, you will be fine.

Jack

Are you looking to get a twin toon or triple toon? Not sure if you can get anything higher than a 90 on a twin tube 20footer. That's what I have and I'm very happy with it. So far I've only had me, the wife & our 10yr old son on it. Plenty of speed for him out on the tube. But the saying holds true... if you can get bigger & faster go for it, you won't regret it.

Get the max rated hp for your boat, in time you will always want more if you don't.
Now is the cheapest time ever to do it.
Dan

My son has a 20 foot Bennington and the maximum horsepower for it is 90.
The dealer talked him into a 70.
He wished he got the 90.
He didn't listen to me...

the 90 will be enough for skiing and tubing. I have one and it is enough to pull tubers and sking but as uyour kids grow older it will be a little slow for tubing. get the largest engine you can put on it. get a 115 if you can afford it
Mike

Ours is 22 feet long.

The 90 does well on it.

So for 2' shorter it should be fine.

[quote="NonHyphenAmerican"]Ours is 22 feet long.

The 90 does well on it.

So for 2' shorter it should be fine.[/quote]


Same here. 90 on my 22 ft and it's plenty fast.

Braden,
This is question is asked over and over. Yes 90hp will be fine for small kids. It will become less so as the kiddos grow. They do this. We had a 20' with a 90hp for fourteen years. It worked fine until one day it didn't. If this is because of budget go for it. If not go as big as you can afford, you will never regret having more power than you actually need. Most important is have fun.

Thank you for all of the replies. Due to finances, I am currrently looking into used boats. I keep going back and forth between a n aluminum bay boat and a pontoon. With the bay boat being better for fishing and the pontoon having more room to take the family out on. We have been out on a 20ft with a 90hp one time. It had plenty of room, but I was just unsure of the 90. It seemed to do fine, but I was just a little unsure because I was not the one driving. So a 90 is as big as a 20 ft can handle?

I really do not want to go bigger than a 20 ft for a few reasons. First, it seems plenty big enough. Secondly, I will not be keeping it in a slip and will have to tow it around. Third, I just figured that it would be lighter and easier to get up on a plane. Lastly, cheaper.

I have about $12,000 saved up. If that is not enough to get something decent (I don't have time for a fixer upper) then I could always save up a little more and wait til next year. I have see a few 2008 20ft pontoons with a 90hp for sale lately in that price range.