Pontoon Brands

We are in the market for a 20-22 foot pontoon. When at the boat show, what brands should we take a look at?

From what we have seen so far the Sylvan’s seem to be of good value when looking at the Mirage series.

Look at them all. Thats why you paid to get in unless you are there for the mini donuts.

Put Bennington and Premier on your list. Both are excellent brands but on the spendy side.

Also add barletta

My folks had a 22’ Bennington with a 75 Yamaha that was bullet proof for 15 years.

They “upgraded” to a premier with a 200 Suzuki this past year and it’s been nothing but problems. It was propped wrong initially, there were issues with the helm and steering. Steering had to be replaced and it took the dealer and premier a couple months to diagnose the issues and fix. They went without the pontoon for august and September.

Sample size of one but I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about Bennington.

Miller Marine in St. Cloud touts it’s self as the largest Bennington dealer in the country. I would say, if you find one you like in stock buy it.

It would help if you shared what kind of seating layout you want and how you plan to use it. When I was looking for mine, I pedestal fishing seats at the four corners were a must. Because of this, after sitting in some at the show, I immediately crossed many brands off of the list based on seat placement, side fence height, and other things that would make fishing hard.

For a broader comment, there are so many good brands and you really can’t go wrong with any of them. At the end of the day, they are mostly all the same. What’s more important is the number of tubes, the strakes, the underdecking, etc. And most important, a dealer close by that is easy to deal with and, these days, has less of a chance of being back up for months for service.

Also, what motor you want as some dealers and brands only give you limited options.

1. Flooring
2. Craftsmanship
3. Motor

Outside of that an actual pontoon is a pontoon. Many manufactures are tied to certain motor companies now.
Find a layout you like and check the flooring. Some are great some are crap. Less so on the crap now days but not much to those things now that can’t be replaced.
Be prepared for sticker shock as the price of toons is not what it was.

My kid has a 22 ft Bentley that’s a pretty nice rig. Don’t even know if they’re still built though.

We bought a tritoon 2 years ago just before Covid after shopping around quite a while.

There are many quality brands out there with as little as a floor and a few uncomfortable seats to heated seats, full bars, and televisions (yes televisions).

Brands that we were impressed with in no particular order: Premier, Bennington, Manitou, Cypress Cay, Harris, Sylvan

Brands that were easy to rule out: Lowe, Landau, Ranger, Princecraft, Misty Harbor

From there we started to look at features, floor plans, and motor offerings. We knew we wanted a Mercury, Yamaha, or Suzuki. At the time many of the Manitous all had Etec G2s on them. Bennington and Harris were the most spendy across comparable lines, with Harris being the nicest I’d say. Manitou, Cypress Cay, and Premier seemed to be similar to the Bennington offering the same features at a better cost. Ultimately we ended up with a 23’ Cypress Cay tritoon with a 150hp Mercury. We’ve had no issues whatsoever other than the factory cover starting to wear fairly quick.

Francis K wrote:

We are in the market for a 20-22 foot pontoon. When at the boat show, what brands should we take a look at?

From what we have seen so far the Sylvan’s seem to be of good value when looking at the Mirage series.

Sylvans are very nice pontoon for the $. In laws have one. Just make sure it’s 8.5 feet wide and not 8’. They sell a lot of 8’ wide ones also. Not sure if you have a Montego Bay dealer near you but I think they are better built and don’t cost as much as the Sylvans. Benningtons are nice but I personally think you are paying $15,000 more just because it says Bennington. Not worth it in my eyes.

MIL has a Montego Bay. It’s a nice boat.

Look underneath at the welds on the toons and the cross members. See how the thing is actually put together. Look at the hinges on seats and doors, switches on dash, any moving parts in general. Typically the first things to fail. Bennington makes a variety of pontoons at many different price points. They aren’t all high end pontoons, but they all are built very well. Premier makes a nice pontoon also but will be more spendy.
If you think they will be at all beneficial, put Sea Legs on.

South Bay Tri fish and cruise here. Love it! If you are on a larger lake get a Tri. Not sure if they come with carpet anymore but make sure you get sea grass flooring. They rigged mine with a HB5 but they didn’t put a chip in it and it would by a pita to get one in so be clear on the rigging.

There is nothing better than cruising around the lake with the comfort of sitting in your living room.

Enjoy!!!

Are you sure you’re not looking for a 29′ with a 600!

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Dutchboy wrote:

Miller Marine in St. Cloud touts it’s self as the largest Bennington dealer in the country. I would say, if you find one you like in stock buy it.

I know they sell lots of pontoons but just like last year getting them has been difficult so if you do find something in stock I wouldn’t wait too long to buy it or it will be gone. I know the owner of Miller marine and he said he could have sold 2-3 times as many pontoons the last year if he could have got more. Also their service has been great for me.

My Father is about to trade-in his Premier 26′ Tri-toon 225HP for one of the new Sea-Doo Switch pontoons. 19′ 170hp variant. The price is hard to beat. TBD on build quality and longevity but the engines are proven so the only question is on the hull.

Friends have a Sylvan with a 110 Yamaha and love it. I’ve been on it and have even driven it. Handles beautifully and VERY comfortable. Will even pull a kid on skis – might have a little trouble getting an adult up with the 110. Like others have said, check the build of the “wear and tear” parts. hinges, latches, seats, etc. Plastic vs metal. And of course the undercarriage. But I’d seriously consider a Sylvan if I was in the market after spending some time on that one.

In my opinion you need to decide what you want to do with it. When we bought our pontoon last year, we already have a 1850 Crestliner Sportfish with a 150 Merc. So we did not need a fishing or really fast pontoon that could pull tubes. We usually use ours for a booze cruise or anchoring and floating around all day. We ended up buying a Godfrey Sweetwater with a 50 Yamaha. We really enjoy it a lot. I also recommend a trailer. Even though ours is on the lift all summer long, it is really nice to be able to take it in and out when you want and not have to rent or borrow a trailer. We also store it on the trailer all winter which is nice. Last thing is get a quality cover. It really protects it from the sun and bird crap all summer long. I will add we bought ours at Hallberg Marine in Wyoming, MN off of I-35. Very easy to work with and helpful!

My thoughts
Rick

x2 on a Godfrey Sweetwater, that’s what my parents have with a 50 hp Suzuki. Going on 4 years now, still looks like new and the suzuki has been flawless. Only complaint is no speakers up front so the back gets to rock to Z99 and the front gets to hear me singing along

Big Werm they have updated that since! Ours is a 2021 and it has speakers throughout!

I have a Biscayne Bay (upgraded line of Misty Harbor). It’s my only boat and I fish hard with it along with cruising, tubing, skiing. It’s an all-in-one boat that I absolutely love. Even have a trolling motor on the front. Tri-toon with a 150HP Merc. It screams. I have a massive floor locker in the tr-toon for storing stuff. I choose this because it had the best fishing layout out of all of the others I walked through.

Berkshire and Crest are also brands that look very nice. Premier is nice because it’s MN and their thing they like to tout is their molded console, but I just kind of shrug at that.

Many brands only have one or two dealers in the state, so again, I’d go with closest dealer and also what is in stock. You really can’t go wrong with any of them, although I would avoid Tracker. Just get the layout you want.

Stanley wrote:

I know the owner of Miller marine and he said he could have sold 2-3 times as many pontoons the last year if he could have got more. Also their service has been great for me.

Tom is a great dude. They sell a ton out of there, but yeah its been tough to get anything. My son works for the auto dealership doing detail work and his first year there he was doing more work for the marine business at times because they couldnt keep up with all the sales. Now that the auto was sold to the Gillelands they dont do that anymore. He is happy because detailing a pontoon is a major PITA LOL

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Stanley wrote:</div>
I know the owner of Miller marine and he said he could have sold 2-3 times as many pontoons the last year if he could have got more. Also their service has been great for me.

Tom is a great dude. They sell a ton out of there, but yeah its been tough to get anything. My son works for the auto dealership doing detail work and his first year there he was doing more work for the marine business at times because they couldnt keep up with all the sales. Now that the auto was sold to the Gillelands they dont do that anymore. He is happy because detailing a pontoon is a major PITA LOL

I went to Miller Marine late last Spring. They still had some in stock. The middle of the road 20-22′ Bennington with a 50 HP Yamaha was about $45,000 plus tax. Nice pontoon but nothing super special for that price. I went to a dealer close to home that sold Montego Bay and was able to get a 22′ Montego Bay with many upgraded options with a 115 Suzuki for $31,500 plus tax and they added a bunk trailer for $3,500. This was middle of May 2021. I thought the price was unbelievable. I will agree on the Sylvan pontoon also. I looked at them a lot before buying a Montego Bay. For price and quality I don’t think you can beat Sylvan or Montego Bay. But if you want the name like Bennington, Premier, etc you have to pay for it.

Chad Luebker wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Francis K wrote:</div>
We are in the market for a 20-22 foot pontoon. When at the boat show, what brands should we take a look at?

From what we have seen so far the Sylvan’s seem to be of good value when looking at the Mirage series.

Sylvans are very nice pontoon for the $. In laws have one. Just make sure it’s 8.5 feet wide and not 8’. They sell a lot of 8’ wide ones also. Not sure if you have a Montego Bay dealer near you but I think they are better built and don’t cost as much as the Sylvans. Benningtons are nice but I personally think you are paying $15,000 more just because it says Bennington. Not worth it in my eyes.

How much of a difference does 8′-8.5′ really make? Does it add to performance or square footage?

How much of a difference does 8′-8.5′ really make? Does it add to performance or square footage?
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I think its just nice to have that extra 6 inches – feels more open. Of course if money is an issue and you will only have 4-5 people on the pontoon maybe it would make sense to save the money and the extra space is not needed. Always think resale also. When I was looking I didn’t even consider a 8′ wide sylvan but that’s just me.

Bought a 2015 20 foot Godfrey Sweetwater last fall for $21,500, it included a top of the line scissor trailer also. Had the exact layout of what we wanted. Thought it was a decent price. Can’t wait for summer.

Like others have said, go look at some different layouts and see which ones you prefer. There are fishing pontoons and cruise pontoon, one of the main differences is with the layout, seating structure. Layout was one of the top priorities for us.

Some more notes after going through the process of buying a tritoon a few years ago:

Do NOT buy a pontoon where the fence/railing goes right to the very front or back of the deck. The little area outside the railing is helpful for docking, trailering, loading, cleaning, hauling miscellaneous rafts, coolers, etc. We’ve got probably 20″ of deck outside the railing on front and back of our tritoon and didn’t realize how much of a necessity it was until after buying.

Give the bimini design a good look. I thought we wouldn’t have ours up often, but it turns out it is probably up 80% of the time. Some of the designs out there barely cover any usable areas of the boat with shade. Others are less than durable. Ours is NOT a power one, but our next one will be. We will ride with it open up to 20mph or so. Beyond that I bring it down although it would probably be fine at any speed.

Don’t get suckered into more or less boat than you need. Think about where the majority of your outings and time spent will be. I’ve seen enough 18′ 40hp pontoons with 8 people on holidays on the river to know the people are miserable. I’ve also seen 200+hp tritoons putting at idle speed never leaving small inland lakes that are a waste of $.

Think long and hard about transporting the pontoon. If it’s going any distance I would highly recommend a bunk trailer over a scissors trailer. Be sure it has LED sealed lights, a decent step system, and buy a spare for it right away.

Lastly, have a storage plan before buying. There are different philosophies about outside, inside, heated, etc. Regardless of stance pontoons and tritoons are expensive. The buying craze for these the last few years has left a shortage of storage opportunities for those who don’t have their own. They take up a ton of space. The upholstery is vulnerable if not covered and kept out of the elements. I don’t care what manufacturers say about “durability” as the sun, extreme temperature swings, and moisture take their toll. Ours sits outside next to the house with a custom fitting cover that keeps 98% of rain out during it’s used season. In the event something does get wet I’ve got a fan in there immediately. I am under the cover every few days with the onboard charger, checking it is secure, and being sure no birds try to sneak in. Once it is put away in mid October until late April, it goes to an unheated shed with cement floors. That’s the bare minimum I’d do for offseason storage given costs and weather extremes in MN. Just my $0.02

That’s a great point Bucky, especially the front deck. Also nice for fishing off of and the kids to jump off from.

buckybadger wrote:

Do NOT buy a pontoon where the fence/railing goes right to the very front or back of the deck. The little area outside the railing is helpful for docking, trailering, loading, cleaning, hauling miscellaneous rafts, coolers, etc. We’ve got probably 20″ of deck outside the railing on front and back of our tritoon and didn’t realize how much of a necessity it was until after buying.

Give the bimini design a good look too. I thought we wouldn’t have ours up often, but it turns out it is probably up 80% of the time. Some of the designs out there barely cover any usable areas of the boat with shade. Others are less than durable. Ours is NOT a power one, but our next one will be. We will ride with it open up to 20mph or so. Beyond that I bring it down although it would probably be fine at any speed.

Think long and hard about transporting the pontoon. If it’s going any distance I would highly recommend a bunk trailer over a scissors trailer. Be sure it has LED sealed lights, a decent step system, and buy a spare for it right away.

Lastly, have a storage plan before buying. There are different philosophies about outside, inside, heated, etc. Regardless of stance pontoons and tritoons are expensive. The buying craze for these the last few years has left a shortage of storage opportunities for those who don’t have their own. They take up a ton of space. The upholstery is vulnerable if not covered and kept out of the elements. I don’t care what manufacturers say about “durability” as the sun, extreme temperature swings, and moisture take their toll. Ours sits outside next to the house with a custom fitting cover that keeps 98% of rain out during it’s used season. In the event something does get wet I’ve got a fan in there immediately. I am under the cover every few days with the onboard charger, checking it is secure, and being sure no birds try to sneak in. Once it is put away in mid October until late April, it goes to an unheated shed with cement floors. That’s the bare minimum I’d do for offseason storage given costs and weather extremes in MN. Just my $0.02

Good points. Pros and cons about the fence/railing going to the front. Pro is more cushion/seating area for people. Cons were already stated.