Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I recently picked up a new toon. It’s a 1996 Grumman fish n fun. 18 ft on a 1997 bobcat trailer. It was brought to Idaho by a local guy who travels a lot and finds toons in other states at good prices and sells them here. The market here is nuts.
Anyway, it got an Evinrude 40 hp. Overall condition isn’t bad but the seats are weathered. The colors are terrible- unless pink and teal are your thing.

On the agenda is possibly doing a motor swap to something bigger. (Not sure how big this can go and if it’s advisable to push that... I read 50 hp is max for this boat but could a 60 or 70 work?)
Replacing a section of fence that was removed to allow for a trolling motor. (Maybe replacing all the fence as it’s pretty dinged up. Not sure I want to start doing seats because that will lead to a color change; flooring, seats, Bimini, etc. I’m thinking I should keep this cheap and sell it when I find a bigger one. (Out of the area)
Haven’t decided yet so I’m still looking at options.

So that’s about it....

Looks like a great project.

When looking for a low cost pontoon, finding one with "good bones" is the answer! Carpet, seats, railing and helm are all DYI stuff that you can schedule to do. That looks like a great start.

I often joke about my super expensive pontoon boat that came with a free lake house, because it was part of a package deal. When I first saw it, I was thinking that it would be a "one season" boat so that I could save up the cash to buy another. Nope - we love the old girl, so she is going nowhere! It's old but very roomy and reliable, so we use it every few days.

Marc K wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2019 3:28 pm

When looking for a low cost pontoon, finding one with "good bones" is the answer! Carpet, seats, railing and helm are all DYI stuff that you can schedule to do. That looks like a great start.

I often joke about my super expensive pontoon boat that came with a free lake house, because it was part of a package deal. When I first saw it, I was thinking that it would be a "one season" boat so that I could save up the cash to buy another. Nope - we love the old girl, so she is going nowhere! It's old but very roomy and reliable, so we use it every few days.

Agree completely with Marc. I expected to be satisfied with one season from my 2003. We were able to get it in fantastic shape with a really good cleaning. Now in the 2nd year of it, I am hoping to go at least one more year before redoing the whole baby.

-Paul