Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

My wife and I are fortunate to live in an area with a lot of boat dealers, and a copious number of pontoon brands are represented.
The two closest dealers are 5 & 10 miles from our house, and both have been enjoyable to work with thus far. One carries Harris and the other, Premier.
Both brands have a layout we love (Harris Solstice and Premier Solaris RF).
Now that the "local dealer" factor has been checked off our list of requirements, does anyone have any advice, insight, experience, wisdom, or guesstimations that I could use when comparing the two brands/models?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks.

Redowl

It's very nice that you have quality dealerships so close to you. There are wide distances in the U.S. where there is relatively little competition in the boat business, much less find pontoon boat specialists.

It's so easy to get hung on one brand, when there are 3, 4 or 5 brands of pontoons/tritoons that are perfectly comparable. You could not go wrong with either a Harris or a Premier brand boat--premium brands.

Now, how about sitting down with the salesmen and spec'ing our comparable boats? Try to get as close to Apples to Apples as you can get, and using the same horsepower engines. Try to use the same brand of engines, if possible.

If both dealerships are of equal quality, let the price speak. On front end, let each salesman know that they're in competition with the other. Remember, there can be a substantial difference in price between engine brands, when any of the major brands of engines can do a perfectly good job.

Good luck, and enjoy your hunt!

Which ever you choose you have a great toon

I'm a bit biased but we just signed for our new Premier Solaris RF today and we're very happy. Now, of course, your choice will depend largely on your preferences. But, lakerunner is right, whichever one you choose is solid.

ChappyEight wrote:I'm a bit biased but we just signed for our new Premier Solaris RF today and we're very happy. Now, of course, your choice will depend largely on your preferences. But, lakerunner is right, whichever one you choose is solid.

Chappy, we've had a chance to spend time on the Solstice & Premier and I think we're leaning towards the Premier (but that's not set in stone).
How are you liking yours so far this summer? Are there any features you have that you don't like, or anything you wish you would have gotten?

Thanks.

R.O.

Well, I'm not Chappy but as a Premier owner I can chime in with my experience if I may.

We love our Premier. We (as opposed to you) DO NOT have a local dealer. Our dealer is about an hour and a half or more away, but we went with the Premier anyway.

As for likes or don't likes, or a wish list?
Don't like
- The fact they used the center log lifting eye to attach the winch strap. There should be a point to attach the hook to as the standard hook doesn't fit properly into the lifting eye. We finally just bent the spring latch out of the way to keep us from being "those guys" on the loading ramp that seemed to take too long getting their boat in the water because we were struggling to get the winch strap disconnected.
- That there was not a depth guage nor GPS as a built in option for the helm (at that time).
- If the table is not installed, there are only a couple of cup holders on the whole boat.
- Having to "winterize" every fall (due to being an I/O) only to have a great warm spell where I can sit on the boat in the barn and dream about boating.

Like
- The double bimini, dual batteries, PTX (an absolute must in my opinion for the performance), comfortable seats, vinyl covered swim platform, and center toon ski locker. Oh, yeah. And I really like the 220 hp I/O, even if it means having to winterize and "summerize" every year.

Wish
- A camping enclosure. More than once I have wished for this and will likely eventually have it incorporated into the boat.
- That an in-dash GPS would have been an option. I'll probably also eventually have one of these mounted to the helm but being built in would have been much cleaner looking.

Good luck to you. Get a boat you are going to enjoy.

stickman wrote:Well, I'm not Chappy but as a Premier owner I can chime in with my experience if I may.

We love our Premier. We (as opposed to you) DO NOT have a local dealer. Our dealer is about an hour and a half or more away, but we went with the Premier anyway.

As for likes or don't likes, or a wish list?
Don't like
- The fact they used the center log lifting eye to attach the winch strap. There should be a point to attach the hook to as the standard hook doesn't fit properly into the lifting eye. We finally just bent the spring latch out of the way to keep us from being "those guys" on the loading ramp that seemed to take too long getting their boat in the water because we were struggling to get the winch strap disconnected.
- That there was not a depth guage nor GPS as a built in option for the helm (at that time).
- If the table is not installed, there are only a couple of cup holders on the whole boat.
- Having to "winterize" every fall (due to being an I/O) only to have a great warm spell where I can sit on the boat in the barn and dream about boating.

Like
- The double bimini, dual batteries, PTX (an absolute must in my opinion for the performance), comfortable seats, vinyl covered swim platform, and center toon ski locker. Oh, yeah. And I really like the 220 hp I/O, even if it means having to winterize and "summerize" every year.

Wish
- A camping enclosure. More than once I have wished for this and will likely eventually have it incorporated into the boat.
- That an in-dash GPS would have been an option. I'll probably also eventually have one of these mounted to the helm but being built in would have been much cleaner looking.

Good luck to you. Get a boat you are going to enjoy.

Thanks for the reply Stickman! I appreciate all the feedback.
I was interested to hear your point of view on the PTX - that's something my wife and I are wrestling with. I'd like the 3rd 'toon and the improved performance, she thinks it's just me wanting to spend more of our money.
We're not necessarily 'go fast' people, but we do have a young family and will use the pontoon for entertaining a large group of family and friends on a regular basis.
Aside from an increase in speed, what else makes the PTX worth the extra $$$?

Thanks again!

R.O.

Well, this is the first/only pontoon we have owned, but I grew up spending nearly every weekend on my dad's homebuilt toon, I would say other than speed, the 3rd toon adds to stability.

I traded up from a runabout (19.5' Bayliner Capri) that had a 5.0L V8 in it. I didn't want to give up performance completely as we had family members who still liked to go fast, but had grown to the point where the runabout was not going to cut it any longer.

My brother has a 2 log toon and I have ridden on it several times. Comparatively speaking though, I think our 3rd log gives more bouancy, a smoother ride, ability to handle rougher water better, and the PTX (being a larger, flat bottom log) allows tighter turns and handling more like the ski boat we gave up. Believe it or not, when we crank the wheel over on our boat, it banks into the turn rather than a flat turn I was used to on a pontoon.

I guess from my perspective, the 3rd log just gives more options for when you want something more from your ride. If you are ALWAYS going to go slow (i.e. Little Big Town's song - Pontoon), then a 2 log is probably fine. But, if you think you might want to whip some young people off a tube once in a while and watch them go skipping across the water, go with the triple.

redowl wrote:

stickman wrote:Well, I'm not Chappy but as a Premier owner I can chime in with my experience if I may.

We love our Premier. We (as opposed to you) DO NOT have a local dealer. Our dealer is about an hour and a half or more away, but we went with the Premier anyway.

As for likes or don't likes, or a wish list?
Don't like
- The fact they used the center log lifting eye to attach the winch strap. There should be a point to attach the hook to as the standard hook doesn't fit properly into the lifting eye. We finally just bent the spring latch out of the way to keep us from being "those guys" on the loading ramp that seemed to take too long getting their boat in the water because we were struggling to get the winch strap disconnected.
- That there was not a depth guage nor GPS as a built in option for the helm (at that time).
- If the table is not installed, there are only a couple of cup holders on the whole boat.
- Having to "winterize" every fall (due to being an I/O) only to have a great warm spell where I can sit on the boat in the barn and dream about boating.

Like
- The double bimini, dual batteries, PTX (an absolute must in my opinion for the performance), comfortable seats, vinyl covered swim platform, and center toon ski locker. Oh, yeah. And I really like the 220 hp I/O, even if it means having to winterize and "summerize" every year.

Wish
- A camping enclosure. More than once I have wished for this and will likely eventually have it incorporated into the boat.
- That an in-dash GPS would have been an option. I'll probably also eventually have one of these mounted to the helm but being built in would have been much cleaner looking.

Good luck to you. Get a boat you are going to enjoy.

Thanks for the reply Stickman! I appreciate all the feedback.
I was interested to hear your point of view on the PTX - that's something my wife and I are wrestling with. I'd like the 3rd 'toon and the improved performance, she thinks it's just me wanting to spend more of our money.
We're not necessarily 'go fast' people, but we do have a young family and will use the pontoon for entertaining a large group of family and friends on a regular basis.
Aside from an increase in speed, what else makes the PTX worth the extra $$$?

Thanks again!

R.O.

Just tell the wife it give additional flotation if one of the other logs are damaged. So safety would be a good answer.
doc

Just tell the wife it give additional flotation if one of the other logs are damaged. So safety would be a good answer. doc

Well, yeah. I guess you could just say that. (I never was good at few words. Get it from my mom!)

Redowl, if you can, take her for a ride on a two-log toon with comparable engine and then the same day, if possible take out the triple log. If she can't tell the difference then you have a whole other issue. Our neighbors have a two log and after riding on ours just once they noticed the difference immediately, especially if the water is choppy or rough.
We go over the waves generated by all the big a** boats and don't have to slow down.
Show her this forum where a lot of guys are adding a third log.
Finally, resale value for a well maintained triple log toon will be much better.
Hope all those arguments help!

bassn386:

Have you ever ridden on a Bennington with the twin 32" ellipticals and full strakes? I understand they'll run off and leave comparable horsepower tritoons by 3-4 mph, but you give up a little in handling. They'll also handle an extra 1000 lbs. passengers vs. 25" twin toons--almost comparable to a tritoon boat.

When you get into every boat company's top line tritoons (with the 250 hp ratings), the price differential is great--$8K+. By the time you add $3K for power steering, you're talking serious money.

I'm looking for the best all round performance available out of a 150 hp motor.

stickman wrote:

Just tell the wife it give additional flotation if one of the other logs are damaged. So safety would be a good answer. doc

Well, yeah. I guess you could just say that. (I never was good at few words. Get it from my mom!)

Brilliant!
With a toddler at home, how could she possibly refute the safety angle...