Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I just got this 28' pontoon. Very excited for the summer.

I was wondering whether I should replace the hardtop with a bimini. The hardtop has some advantages, it stores fishing poles etc. The bimini seems more convenient for towing or taking down until the sun gets old.



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Any advantage to keeping the hardtop I'm not thinking about? Anyone know of a good convertible bimini top that I won't have to take a loan out for?

I would stick with what you have, until it doesn't perform how you want anymore. Unless of course, this top can not be easilly taken down for travel (if traveling often). If you can fold that down, then I'd say leave it. I know you asked for up sides, but another down side is, if it is really windy all of the sudden on the lake, you can take a bimini down, and still drive/ride in the boat. It may be hard to drive that with the hard top down. Then again, the hard top may take wind better than a bimini as well. You could always purchase the bimini, and install it on the front.

I always thought that I wanted a toon with a hardtop like the one you have, until I rode in one. That top rattled, squeeked, and vibrated so loudly that you could not talk to the person next to you. I would get it off and get a soft top Bimini.

We have a hard top on the toon we bought last fall. I'm going to put a bimini on it for ease of going on the lake with some wind. We only have a 25hp motor and it struggles with the hard top acting like a large sail.

Plus, its a pain in the butt to take down at the end of the season to travel home. Its older and looks kinda crappy too. I think it will make our older toon look much nicer.

My in-laws have a new Premier pontoon and I love the way their bimini is setup and operates. Definitely worth the extra to buy to buy the metal hardware and larger square tubes and higher quality fabric.

until i read all the other posts, i was going to say keep the hard top. that boat is so big that if you want some sun, you have more space in your bow than most have on their entire boat. i never thought about the noise factor.

my premier has the older style bimini with the pins rather than the newer little clips. its definitely alot harder to put up and stow with the boot in place than my tracker regency was. its not that the tracker was nicer, it was just alot smaller so it was easier for 1 person to do it quickly.

I have a hard top and we love it. I dont get any noise and vibration.
My wife wont even think about getting a bimini, The protection from the sun and heat after a long day on the lake cant be beat. I leave mine up all year. I only have to tow it around fifteen miles to storage for the winter and the building has tall doors so it is not a problem.

Use it a while and see what you think, you have more side board to catch wind than the hard top will catch.

I can't tell, what is your top made of ?, your top seem not to be made like the old one's that made noise and your front deck is bigger than my whole toon so you might want to add a Bimini to the front.

You don't say where your at but in Florida that would come in handy, plus being a hard top you can enclose it easy for camping.

a noisy hardtop needs to be tightened up, that's all. less than a one beer job.
a little silicone or spray oil helps, too.

FloterBoter wrote:a noisy hardtop needs to be tightened up, that's all. less than a one beer job.
a little silicone or spray oil helps, too.

And add a little dyna mat that would kill the noise