New pontoon advice

[lovecranking]

My buddy across the street has decided to get a new pontoon. He asked me to go with him to some boat shows coming up to find one. He wants a new 25' with a four stroke to use for cruising with the family and to do some fishing. The pontoon will be kept on the water. So far the only advise I've given him is to buy the most hp the boat can handle. Well, a dealer came back & suggested a 300 hp. I think that's overkill and is going to be expensive. I don't know squat about pontoons. So how about some advice on suggested name brands to stick with, what you should add and any other info he could use.  

[Grey Wolf]

Man talk about over kill !

[HPBB]

The most power when it comes to pontoon is a little different than Bass Boats.

Pontoons are not speed boat, however ther are some that are fast.

The Waco, I think its their 35 footer, with tri-toon and twin 300hp, yes that is twin 300hp. will run in the mid 60's with something like 14 poeple on it. Its also over 100K now that is over kill, but fun

My dad was just bought a 25 foot Crestliner tri-toon with a 150 opimax merc

and my aunt has a 25 foot Sun tracker tri-toon with a 4.3 liter 190 hp V-6 I/O

and our camp boat ( it came with the camp when the family bought it ) it is and older play bouy 22 foot with a 70hp johnson

where he have them  docked, most of the pontoons are 20-28 feet and average motor is a 90hp- 115hp. a few with 150-200Hp and some with 40-60 Hp. most in the 90-115 and the guys that have been running them for year, all say that hp range, 90-115, is the best for that size pontoons

the 150 will push that boat pretty good.

With a 25 footer I would say anything in the 90 to 150Hp range will be good. 115hp being the in the middle.

One thing to look at is a tri-toon. it used 3 pontoon instead of one. It can hold more wieght and has better performance than a 2 pontoon boat

also take a look at the ones that run an I/O. alot of those you can get with a 130hp or 195 hp v-6 for about the same price as one with a 115-150 outboard

if he is going to keep in in the water all summer, which is what we do, get the pontoons cleaned after ever season, and when the boat is docked and not is use, trim the motor out of the water.

You can go realy crazy with all the opions on a pontoon, we looked at some in a 30 foot class ove 30K with out a motor or tailer. But you can find some at a good price. the Crestliner was in the 23-25K range with the 150opimax

[lovecranking]

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll copy & give to my buddy. The tri-toon sounds like it would be perfect for him.

[lovecranking]

I can't believe the price of pontoons. My buddy was looking at 25' Verdan and Triton tri-toons, great looking but the price tag is $38,000 and up.