The bad thing about tritoons

[fasttoons]

Fuel economy. The normal fiberglass monohull runs about 30mph at 3000rpm. Nice cruising speed good fuel economy and less wear and tear on your outboard.
If you read all the tritoon tests they run between 10mph-20mph at 3000rpm. So the tritoon doesn't become efficient until your at about 4000rpm.
Most of us like to run at 3000rpm most of the time. If we are running with friends that are in a fiberglass monohull we have to run at higher rpms to keep up.

[CapKaz]

Fasttoons,
But just think how much better the ride is on your tritoon, how much more room you have. We have had both types of hulls and I for one will never go back to a run about for the family boat. I might have a ski boat if I won the lottery, but for an all around boat nothing beats a well equipped tritoon/pontoon.

[MH Hawker]

if you have to worrie over a few gallons of gas i suggest you take up golf.

[illinoid]

The bad thing about tritoons is I don't have one...yet.

[Bamaman]

Go find the deck space (square footage) in full hulled boat and see what your fuel mileage would be.

You'd be pushing a 30' boat with a big block I/O engine.

[Bryden24shp]

The bad thing about tritoons is I don't have one...yet.

I can take care of that problem for you!
http://www.ezfender.com/Premier-.html

[illinoid]

Looks great Bryden...how to convince the Admiral.

[rancherlee]

Apples to apples though? 24' tritoon vs 24' cruiser? With just 3 people I can get on plane and back off to 3500rpm and cruise at 20mph and sip gas, but mines only a 20'. Buddies 18' Lund with the same 140hp engine cruises at roughly the same speed and he only has about 4mph on me at top end.

[Capt. Dan]

Having owned a pontoon and now a triton I honestly can't think of a negative that would take me back to a pontoon. The only negative I can come up with is that the boat is heavier and harder to push off the beach when we beach her -- hardly worth considering a significant issue.

[Littlehoe]

Fuel economy. The normal fiberglass monohull runs about 30mph at 3000rpm. Nice cruising speed good fuel economy and less wear and tear on your outboard.
If you read all the tritoon tests they run between 10mph-20mph at 3000rpm. So the tritoon doesn't become efficient until your at about 4000rpm.
Most of us like to run at 3000rpm most of the time. If we are running with friends that are in a fiberglass monohull we have to run at higher rpms to keep up.

I must be an odd ball I guess cause I am WOT most of the time, 6000 rpm and let her eat.... I buy my toys for fun not fuel mileage!

[PlaynDoc]

The bad thing about tritoons is I don't have one...yet.

my opinion, too.

[Ryan_in_Virginia]

I'll be honest that I hadn't much considered this, but you also have to factor in how you use it. With a V-hull, it seems wrong to be puttering around in displacement mode, not on a plane. But with a pontoon/tritoon, unless we're pulling a skier or tuber, it seems much better suited to cruising slowly, not to mention stopping, anchoring, picnicking , swimming, beaching, etc.

Your point is well-taken, as I really hadn't given that part much thought. It's just that in reality, for the way we'll use it (I'm guessing based on our experiences with rentals of different types), the pontoon will use a lot less fuel for the same # of hours spent "boating"--however you define that.

And with a family of five hoping to bring other families with us, it's the only option.

[robertm]

Dam near every time we go out there are 11 people on board. That’s 6 adults and 5 kids. I challenge you to find a V haul boat that can accommodate our group in half the comfort.

There is a place for everyone on the boat to sit comfortably (with room for more). Amazingly the boat swallows the immense amount of stuff everyone brings, a good location for two huge coolers, a giant blow up raft, two kitchen sized trash cans, 15+ life vest stored away, a grill too cook on and still a bit of room left.

I don’t know if I’m getting better fuel econ or not compared to a 24 ft V haul but I’m confident you’d need a 40ft V haul or probably greater to have equivalent room and comfort.

For my family and our needs/desires there isn’t another type of boat out there at double the price that can match a pontoon.

[mpilot]

It also depends on the type of open bow you have....my boat is 20ft and has the 5.0 in it and burns a good bit of fuel but even at that length it's around 3300lbs dry which makes it among the heaviest in it's class. It rides like a much bigger boat in rough water, but at WOT it's burning around 20gph at around 50-53mph depending on load. A comfortable plane speed was around 22mph and 3300 rpm burning around 10gph. On the pontoon we have on order, the engine data tests with a 150hp Mercury show around 5-6gph to go that same 20-25 mph range. In my case the new boat will be much more efficient, granted we are going from a heavy boat with a carburetor engine to new EFI outboard. I do lose around 10mph on the top end but I'm okay with that because even though our bow rider was about as good as you can get for that size range it won't even come close to the tritoon.

For a newer comparison the Chaparral 21 SSI with 4.5 200hp Mercury burns 6.6 gph at 3000 rpm going 27.5 mph for a mpg of 4.2. The new boat will run 25.2 mph at 4000 rpm burning 6.1 gph for a mpg of 4.1. At the top speed of the tritoon (40mph) the tritoon will burn 15gph for a mpg of 2.6 and the Chaparral burns 12.3 for a mpg of 3.2. The big difference is on the bottom end though and the variety of speeds along with a little more efficiency below plane. The Chaparral stats are 1000 rpm 5.8 mph 1.6 gph, 2000 rpm 9.9 mph, 3.7 gph vs the pontoon 1000 rpm 4.2mph 1.0 gph, 2000 rpm 7.8 mph 2.1 gph, 3000 rpm 16.4 mph 3.9 gph, 3500 20.7 mph 4.9 gph.


That boat is actually close in weight to our boat but 2 feet shorter with much less room, and there really isn't much difference at cruising speed, only a little difference at 40mph and more top end. The inherent advantage any tritoon has over any bow rider is the ability to go different speeds at lower rpm efficiently(between idle and 20mph). If you notice in the above numbers I can go 16.4 mph burning a similar amount of fuel as running 10mph with the bow rider.

[mpilot]

And to add the above reply that is for an I/O. For an outboard the Chaparral 21 Suncoast with 200hp is actually fairly close to the Tritoon with a 150 in mpg and gph performance, but again with a ton less room and not as good of a ride. There is a slight mpg and gph difference above plane speed but the Chaparral is also a 2-3 foot shorter & 1000lb lighter vessel with 50 more hp than the tritoon.

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/per ... s=imperial

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/per ... s=imperial