Water Glide Longevity

[Opie]

Curious if anyone who has installed a water glide, how long ago was your installation, and how is it holding up. Wondering about durability, seems like a great addition for performance without the cost of a third log with lifting strakes etc. which would need pro installation.

[Bamaman]

If you need more performance, do it right. At least go with a 3/4 length express toon. They're relatively easy to install since the original engine pod remains. You'll get 90% of full toon.performance for much less than half the price. But.you will need 90+ horsepower.
WaveGlides are more or less.a.joke by pontooners in the know.

[Opie]

[quote="Bamaman"]If you need more performance, do it right. At least go with a 3/4 length express toon. They're relatively easy to install since the original engine pod remains. You'll get 90% of full toon.performance for much less than half the price. But.you will need 90+ horsepower.
WaveGlides are more or less.a.joke by pontooners in the know.[/quote]

Center log for less than half the price??? From what I'm learning, there is no way to add a third log for less than 1k as you suggest, which is half the cost of the glide with skinning sheets. Upgrading to a third toon from the factory is @2500 with strakes. This adds almost 400 lbs to the boat, so it almost forces going to 150hp which is another 4k additional.... The glide is 130 lbs. and adds almost 600lbs of flotation, and would enable keeping my current 115 motor and from all I've read, it does what its advertised to do. My only concern, and its why I'm posting, is how long does it hold up being made from fiberglass. Was hoping some who have installed them would chime in if they've had them several years.

[teecro]

If they were truly worth the expense they would be much more popular don't ya think?

[WI-RiverRat]

Opie - Hi I've watched the Pontoon Water Glide story for at least 10 years. I have a similar set up to yours - a 22' Bennington pontoon w/ 115Hp Merc. and have dithered over adding a PWG. All the information I've gathered suggests that when properly installed and fine-tuned, they can perform as advertised.

However, my local dealer had one come in on a used boat and took it off, before selling the pontoon. On large, rough water, they said the PWG had a tendency to submarine. On calm water, it performed well. But in the end, they did not feel comfortable selling the boat with it installed.

Wish they had told me, I'd have taken in off their hands. I do think that at $2000+ they have priced themselves out of the market.

Fiberglass durability should be good - but it I did install one, I would use a sandwich of 1/8" alum. on both sides of the fiberglass - flat plate on the inside and angle on the outside.

Good Luck

[ron nh]

What Bama said is the 3/4 center toon is 1/2 the price of a full center toon. I've also heard many people who have taken off the water glide. and last I knew it didn't do anything for flotation, Or at least it wasn't recognized legally to add flotation. I looked into them quite a bit a few years ago, some had success, others had to move it around many times before it dialed in while others had problems with the bow being way to high or way to low, so I think it's also boat dependent, which is a tough sell. But I don't have an answer for how it will hold up. But the fact alone that you can't get an answer to that question is also concerning for there viability.

[DWRAT]

I personally installed a 3/4 center toon by myself and it was a easy job so don't be fooled about install.
As for speed, it added 3 mph with a Mercury 115hp motor.
https://greatlakesskipper.com/boat-part ... ntoon-logs
If you do get a center toon make 100% sure the top mounting brackets angle out instead of in.
If they angle in I dont know how you could drill the cross braces without removing the toon from the mock up.
I used ratchet straps to position the center toon exactly where I wanted it and then drilled several holes and installed the bolts.
Super easy one person job.
Dan

[rancherlee]

[quote="Opie"][quote="Bamaman"]If you need more performance, do it right. At least go with a 3/4 length express toon. They're relatively easy to install since the original engine pod remains. You'll get 90% of full toon.performance for much less than half the price. But.you will need 90+ horsepower.
WaveGlides are more or less.a.joke by pontooners in the know.[/quote]

Center log for less than half the price??? From what I'm learning, there is no way to add a third log for less than 1k as you suggest, which is half the cost of the glide with skinning sheets. Upgrading to a third toon from the factory is @2500 with strakes. This adds almost 400 lbs to the boat, so it almost forces going to 150hp which is another 4k additional.... The glide is 130 lbs. and adds almost 600lbs of flotation, and would enable keeping my current 115 motor and from all I've read, it does what its advertised to do. My only concern, and its why I'm posting, is how long does it hold up being made from fiberglass. Was hoping some who have installed them would chime in if they've had them several years.[/quote]

I'd agree with Bamaman, and your 115 Mercury has a ton of torque and is just about as strong as my Suzuki 140 and should have no problem performing well on a 20' with a 3/4 center tube. Waterglides are tricky to setup properly and are very sensitive to load balance on the deck, where as the Factory has already done the testing/design for the 3/4 or Full length center tube. Resale down the road will be better with a factory center tube to boot!

[Xscash]

so ill add some info since ive had water glides on both of my boats.
on my 21 ft with a 60hp it did nothing for perfomance.....but, it did add floatation which is the reason I actually purchassed it. As a prvious post said, it had a tendancy to dive the nose, but i moved it 6in toward the fron and it ended that issue. I went from having only 10 people on the boat to 14 and it still sat higher out of the water.

On my 25ft Regency with a 115hp I found it added 3mph and 5 people of boyancy. The people at water glide were awesome with giving me all the specs to move it to the new boat at no charge. Again, i installed it slightly more forward than they wanted me to and agin this helped with the nose diving when weighted in the front.

All around I would say it was the best bang for the buck. It did exactly what I wanted it to, add boyancy. The extra speed was a bonus. The install was straight forward, about 40 mins and it took 10 mins with a screw gun to remove it. Would i buy another one?......Hell yes! I bet it would do even more with a larger motor.

xs

[Opie]

Thanks Xscash. How long have you had it installed? is it holding up durability wise? I'm also curious as they state an average of almost a ten mile an hour increase, which you don't seem to be getting.

[Xscash]

I have had the glide since 2011, no issues with it at all. What you will notice, which is also associated with a center log, is some pounding from the wakes and waves in the center of the boat. Not previously notable on a two toon boat. I associate my lack of performance with the fact that boat number one had a 60 horse motor and could not overcome the drag. It did not slow the boat down but it also did not increase its speed. I believe I would have gained more than three miles per hour on my second boat had I installed it where it was recommended, but I understood its characteristics and wanted to avoid nose-diving if slightly overloaded in the front. I did not purchase it for performance reasons but rather to increase my capacity. I believe with 150 horse motor or larger you would see serious gains from this little unit.

[jtsailjt]

If you need more performance, do it right. At least go with a 3/4 length express toon. They're relatively easy to install since the original engine pod remains. You'll get 90% of full toon.performance for much less than half the price. But.you will need 90+ horsepower.
WaveGlides are more or less.a.joke by pontooners in the know.
[/quote

I'm considering one of these for my 22' Flote Bote and have considered both a 3/4 toon and a PWG. It seems to me that the 3/4 toon adds more weight and drag, and I'd need to modify my trailer to support it, but it would add flotation most of the length of the boat. The PWG would accomplish pretty much the same thing without the extra drag that comes from the longer length, and additional weight , and it's light enough to hang from the deck without additional trailer support. I look at the PWG as a shorter 3rd toon that's a bit wider but shorter than a 3rd aluminum toon. Why do say do it "right" in reference to aluminum toon? It's not like the watre or the boat knows what material the surface is made of, just that it provides additional lift where it's needed. You seem to have a bias against the PWG but cite no evidence about why it's a "joke" and how do you know which pontooners are those "in the know?" Do you have personal experience with the PWG or are you just spreading secondhand rumors that you've heard? I'm interested in learning more about these but not from people who don't even have any experience with them.