Bought a new Pontoon Boat

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
1,232
Location
N. Georgia Mtns
Yep. We went and bought a pontoon boat to take advantage of the beautiful, 7000 acre reservoir we live next to. We bought kayaks initially to enjoy the lake but my knees won't cooperate. Haven't owned a boat since I sold our 22' CC we used off of the Florida Gulf Coast and in the Keys. A pontoon boat is something totally different than what I'm used too. The pontoon boat looks pretty straight forward as far as operations go. One thing I need to get used to, and hopefully some input from BITOG members, is that we now live in a seasonal location where people "winterize" their boats. I never needed to do this in Florida since we boated year round.

What we purchased:
2017 Sylvan 818 Cruise with a Yamaha T60LB as the power plant. It's a perfect size for us. It was a close-out with a lot of nice options I won't list unless someone is curious. We didn't get a trailer since we were able to secure a covered slip on the lake (not easy to do on short notice). Just happened to be in the right at the right time. And it is less than 100 yards away from the boat dealers service dock we bought the boat from. I was disappointed I couldn't get a bigger engine but a 60hp was the max rated for our boat. I'm told it will be more than enough power for our set up. I was just used to having alot more power on a boat and it was hard getting my head around it.

Now, by not having a trailer I'm going to be at the mercy of the dealer I bought it from due to logistics. If I'm lucky I might befriend someone who might loan me a trailer just long enough to pull it out of the water and do the maintenance that I can do myself.

Mrs. Sierra048 is on me to take her to the store so I can't get to some of the things I was going to seek some guidance on and answers to some questions I might have. I'll check back later.
 
Oh wow, that's one heck of a boat. When I read "pontoon" I thought it was one of those bare bones pontoons for a couple of hundred bucks that you can attach a small trolling motor to.
smile.gif
 
Nice, congrats, pic please.

Maintenance is pretty easy, I just changed the oil in my 90 hp Merc under 20 mins with the spill :)
Buy Marine synthetic marine oil from west marine when they are on sale,
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Oh wow, that's one heck of a boat. When I read "pontoon" I thought it was one of those bare bones pontoons for a couple of hundred bucks that you can attach a small trolling motor to.
smile.gif




It was an eye-opening experience for me too. The only pontoon boat I had ever been on, and I'm be gracious calling it a pontoon boat, was in the early sixties on a lake in Florida. Two tubes with a rotten plywood deck and no engine. Just tied up in a canal off the main lake we fished from. The price spread between these types of watercraft is unbelievable. From approximately $18k to $80k, and I'd wager to guess there are some people with alot of money and no cares that have one even more expensive.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Bgallagher
A Pontoon doesn't make sense for our family but those things look like a party on the water. Congrats. Enjoy!


Thanks. Except for the nice weather and beautiful surroundings there's not a lot going on up here so it's a no-brainer for us to take advatage of the lake. Definitely not "big city" here.
 
Originally Posted By: stockrex
Nice, congrats, pic please.

Maintenance is pretty easy, I just changed the oil in my 90 hp Merc under 20 mins with the spill :)
Buy Marine synthetic marine oil from west marine when they are on sale,


I'd be glad to post a pic if someone would be kind enough to tell me how. Not much of a techie. And I'm kind of at a disadvantage for doing my own maintenance without a trailer. Owner of the slips won't let anybody do any maintenace, just enough to get a boat going. This is actually the only downer for me because I've always done my own maintenance. I'd like to do it myself while I'm still able. Newly commissioned Vice-Admiral Ms. Sierra048 was adamant about keeping it in the water for at least the first year. She won and I didn't get the trailer to go with it.

Well, Vice Admiral Ms. Sierra048 has determined we now need to go to Walmart, 28 miles away, for some things. I hope to get to the meat of my questions and thoughts when we get back. Again, we're not big city here.

BTW: on a side note I notice a lot of posters can respond to several posters with quotes from the same reply. Can someone explain how I might be able to do that to keep from responding with a post per response? Thanks.
 
Originally Posted By: Sierra048
I'd be glad to post a pic if someone would be kind enough to tell me how. Not much of a techie.


Click reply tab, then click on the fifth box over with the blue up arrow on it. Click browse, select picture, click add files, click all done. It's easier than it first seems.
 
Don't worry about maintenance. It wont need much. Just take it to the dealer (that's 100 yards away, convenient) for its annual maintenance. It wont be that expensive.

If you are really cheap, find a place to park it on the lake and do your oil change and lower unit change while you sip some cold ones.

Or just do it on the slip when the manager/owner is away.
 
Congratulations, It's probably the best time of the year to buy. I have a cousin who has a pontoon boat on Lake Chatuge in NC, right on the Ga line. It's a beautiful place with Emerald green water.
 
Originally Posted By: gman2304
Congratulations, It's probably the best time of the year to buy. I have a cousin who has a pontoon boat on Lake Chatuge in NC, right on the Ga line. It's a beautiful place with Emerald green water.


This happens to be the lake were on as well.
 
There was a man and a women looking at our boat as we were finalizing our deal. They're the ones in the pics on our boat.The pic of the boat sitting without a trailer is identical to ours on the outside and was just a pic I ran across while searching the internet. Never grabbed a pic of the console.







The boat is fully guaged with everything but an hour meter. Built in gas tank, upgraded non-carpeted (Sea Weave Vinyl) flooring, playpen cover, am/fm stereo w/bluetooth (although the speakers are pretty weak even for a non-audiophile), upgraded motor, swim platform with aluminum ladder and one or two more minor upgrades that have slipped my mind. My next post will be getting to my ideas and questions you might be able to help me with.
 
Last edited:
Congrats on the new pontoon! You'll love it.

Growing up we had a lake cottage with a 24-foot pontoon boat that had heavy steel pontoons (which required scraping and repainting every spring). That boat had only a 20HP 2-stroke Mercury outboard which provided more than enough power to get it around the lake. A 60HP motor on your smaller aluminum pontoon boat should be great plenty.

I have many great childhood memories of my time spent on our boat. Enjoy!!!!
 
The vinyl flooring is a huge upgrade! That Yamaha 60 is one [censored] of an outboard. Happy cruising!
 
Thanks everyone. We are blessed and excited, and feel fortunate to be able to own this boat.

Here are some of the things I was wondering about as far as owning this boat:

1) I would like to put an additional battery in to enhance the ability to play the radio while anchored and swimming. Anybody ever put a battery switch in a boat that allows you to switch between two batteries and charge them both while running the engine? Should I get another marine battery or would a regular car battery suffice.

2) Anybody ever purchased a new Yamaha outboard? If so, did you do a 20 hour service before getting on the recommended 100 hour service intervals? Just seems like a 20 hour service is just an extra money maker for dealerships. That should equate to just two tanks of gas before they want to service the engine. IDK. Any thoughts or opinions.

3) As mentioned earlier, the two speakers that came with the boat are pretty weak and I'm not even close to being an audio perfectionist. These things can get kind of pricey so any recommendations on some decent, yet affordable, speakers. Do they need to be marine grade speakers or would regular speakers be good to use. I'm not concerned about them getting wet if that's the major deciding factor.

4) The only gauges that didn't come with the boat were an hour meter and a depth gauge. The factory depth gauge is a little pricey. Same with their hour meter. There are fish finders that provide depth, water temperature, speed etc. This would be my probable route to provide depth readings I will need. There are some spots that get very shallow when TVA starts draining the lake. There are cheap after market hour meters that can be installed on the motor. Any recommendations on affordable fish finders and hour meters?

This is all I can think of to start with. Appreciate any input. If you can think of anything that might of benefit to us, please let me know. And again, thanks for the help.
 
Last edited:
20 hour service is likely an oil change to get the factory oil out. Don't neglect that. Tons of metallic grit and nastiness in the factory oil during break in.

Yes to marine speakers. Regular speakers are not built to handle the humidity and water.

And yes they make switch kits that you can buy for two battery systems. Get a deep cycle marine battery for the radio, and a marine starting battery (likely what is already installed) for the engine. Do a google search for "two battery kit" or "add a battery kit" and buy one of those.

Add some pigtails to the batteries and keep them on a trickle charger when not in use.
 
Congrats on the purchase!

Good advice from bubba, above. The hour meter is especially important to keep track of maintenance.

I would also buy some boat wash, fuel treatment/stabilizer, vinyl treatment and whatever else you think you might need to keep it looking and running great.
 
Thanks everyone. So I'll plan on the 20 hour service to be done by the dealership. I started a thread in the electronics forum looking for advice and ideas on the radio/speakers that seem to be a little lacking in some way. I've researched battery switches and I should be able to get that done myself along with another battery. The only thing that might hold me up is I might have to run some wiring under the flooring requiring me to get up under the boat. Since I don't have a trailer this will become problematic. The dealer does have to come get the boat to replace a malfunctioning gas tank sender unit so maybe they will work with me and allow me a short while under the boat when they pull it out of the water.

AMC, we bought a quart of Yamaha fuel stabilizer and conditioner the day we picked the boat up along with most of the other things you suggested. Much appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top