MY NEW TOY HAVE LOTS OF QUESTIONS

[cutknife]

just bought my first pontoon (manitou osprey pro 22' with 200 e-tec) and have driven plenty of watercraft but nothing this big. first question evenrude e-tec anyone have one and if so good bad or whatever? second manitou, i did alot of homework and found the to be one of the higher rated pontoons out there so any feed back about manitou would be welcome. and last can you leave you pontoon beached for long periods of time. i have a cabin on a small lake but have no dock or lift for the pontoon and really dont want to be pulling it in and out every day. thanks in advance and sorry for spelling and gramer.

[BrianP]

I have an E-Tec too. I purposely tried to get one. I think most engines are fairly good these days, but things I like about the E-Tec:

- No oil changes -- these can be fairly expensive
- You can winterize it yourself while sitting in the drivers seat
- The torque produced makes the motor act more like the next size up 4 stroke (ie. Your 200 will act more like a 225 4-stroke)
- You don't have to do any maintenance for 3 years, and even then it isn't that bad
- You don't have to have a break-in period
- It is extremely efficient at slower speeds -- as the speed goes up it is more comparable (there are debates about which is best -- in the end, I think they are similar).

Good luck with your new toon!

[cutknife]

thanks brain

[OldePharte]

"and last can you leave you pontoon beached for long periods of time"?

I guess it would depend. If sandy with not a lot of wave action, I can't really see a problem. That said, I wouldn't leave it beached (and tied up) without me being nearby. And sure wouldn't do it, if I had to leave it and go back to town/work.

[HandymanHerb]

Another thing with the E-Tec if your out and run out of oil, it will go into limp home mode and keep running for hours without being hurt to get you back to the dock.

[wwind3]

Welcome---beaching causes many problems. Storms will tear you up--bad news if it happens when you are not there to tend it. The water will cause crap to grow on the toons and the galvanic action may eventually eat on the lower unit--at best the lower unit and prop may get gunked up.

[dockholiday]

Welcome

You could use a mooring buoy. They also have something like a bungee cord that you anchor in deeper water and it stretches to let you off load then the tension pulls the toon back out. If west marine doesn't have them think overtons does. If the water depth doesn't vary that much there are something like trailers with rollers you can winch it up on, but they are about 1500 or more.
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... SiteSearch

[dockholiday]

Forgot to mention sea legs. Heard from several people that have them, they work well, just add weight.
doc

[slingshot]

As to leaving your boat on the beach, bad idea. I can think of many things that can go wrong with that situation. Did you consider sinking a block of cement just off shore and attaching a mooring to thigh off to. You could attach a float to it which could hover just under the surface if stealth is needed from the lake police.

PS. Walmart has a sale on digital cameras since yours is clearly not working.

[Woody]

.......PS. Walmart has a sale on digital cameras since yours is clearly not working.

Yeah ! Let's see some pics of that bad boy !

[cutknife]

THANKS to all who responded. I guess beaching is not a great idea (I didn't think it would be) so I'll mabe look up some of your suggestions. Thanks again keep them coming. As for pics the boat is in Montana and I live in Sask. Can. so soon as I pick it up in April I'll get pic's on right away. Still waiting to here from anyone who owns a Manitou.

[Woody]

I looked at the Manitou's , and was close to buying a brand new one until I ran across the slightly used JC Tritoon that I have now. I don't see how you could go wrong with the Manitou.

[lakerunner]

We have a lot of tooners that use pipe to make a rail and using old wheel rims and more pipe make a carriage with a winch . The load toon on carriage and winch it up as far as they make it. some have garages in basements to pull boat into.

[WaltF]

There are a few in here who have em!
Lets see if they speak up!

Dern nice toons!
I'd have one if i had the 'change'.

[JohnO]

just bought my first pontoon (manitou osprey pro 22' with 200 e-tec) and have driven plenty of watercraft but nothing this big. first question evenrude e-tec anyone have one and if so good bad or whatever? second manitou, i did alot of homework and found the to be one of the higher rated pontoons out there so any feed back about manitou would be welcome. and last can you leave you pontoon beached for long periods of time. i have a cabin on a small lake but have no dock or lift for the pontoon and really dont want to be pulling it in and out every day. thanks in advance and sorry for spelling and gramer.

If I remember correctly the Osprey Pro is always the SHP version. If so you are in for a load of fun. I have the 24' SHP osprey pro with a 175 Yamaha on it and it flies (~38MPH GPS. But I think I can hit 40 when I get it propped right)! You should be really flying.

The boat handles like a dream, I can do donuts and jump my own wake while it's still worth jumping. We've pulled some big tubes and done a lot of fishing and just had a blast.

I would reccommend getting the five step versa-trak ladder. Makes it much easier to board from the water.

Let me know what else you need to know and I'll do my best to answer.