Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Thinking about buying this boat. It would be the second boat I've owned and I'm kind of new to boating and have no one to draw info off of so any thoughts or information is appreciated thanks.

Don't do it unless you want the same ride your use too, a pontoon is a much stable platform and doesn't beat you to death.

Now this would be faster than some pontoons, but quite a few would beat it in speed and ride, just say NO and come to the toon side

What Herb said. I was a hard convert but I will never go back.

Took me forever to convert to a a Tooner. Best change I ever made. I still love my bass boat to though, but mainly on the toon all the time. I have looked at the deck boats myself, not fond of them, the room is way less than a toon, you almost seem cramped in IMO.

Avoid bayliner like the clap. If your really interested in a deck boat then look at starcraft or a hurricane

Check for wood in the stringers, deck and transom. I don't think they do that anymore but I don't know when they stopped.
Unless the boat is wood there is no need to have any in it! my

Had a toon traded it for a deck boat then back to a toon. Worst thing i ever did was trade for deck boat. Best thing traded back to a toon.

I would stay away from crapliner. sorry had one once cracked hole twice first time was only 1 week out of warranty they would not fix(never hit anything). I had two runabout before started looking at deck boat wife talked me into a toon. love it now all I can do is think of all the things I want to do to it and all the place I want to take it after I get a trailer for it and a truck to tow it. Go look at a toon and take a ride you will be hooked.

I'll try to be as unbiased as possible here, considering I'm a pontoon owner on a pontoon forum...


For what I use my boat for, that deck boat wouldn't suit my needs. Doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad boat, it's just not for me compared to a pontoon and here's why:

- fiberglass shouldn't be beached and definitely can't touch rocks. I beach my pontoon every weekend
- deeper draft would also make it difficult to beach and climbing on an off the front at a sandbar would be tough. I've had fiberglass bowriders and it sucks having to climb on, as well as lift my heavy wet dog on it too.
- I/Os are annoying for maintenance, run deep and can't be tilted out of the water (and I often forget to run the blower).
- Leaks in the outdrive bellows means your boat will sink. Pontoons don't.
- I'm tired of bilges that have to be cleaned and bilge pumps that break
- the whole rotten floor and stringers on older boats is avoidable with a pontoon
- the ride and stability of a pontoon is greater
- the safety of the pontoon's fence for the crib midgets
- fiberglass boats are heavy and more of a PITA to trailer


Those are the main reasons why I wouldn't trade my pontoon for that deck boat. Though for strictly watersports, the v-hull would likely be better.


For the Bayliner haters, I'm gonna respectfully disagree. Yes, they're entry-level boats, but they do an excellent job getting families on the water for cheap and I don't think they deserve the hate they get. A large part of their bad reputation seems to stem from their truly terrible runabouts they built in the '80s. Yeah, they were junk and to make matters worse they liked to hang those awful Force motors on the back of them too. Since then, Bayliner has come a long way and builds a decent boat at price not many can touch. This is also a double-edged sword though, as some theories say that used Bayliners are more likely to be poorly maintained because they're often purchased by first-time boat owners who don't know what they're doing. Whether that's true, I don't know. I've seen some very expensive boats in pretty sad shape too.



Anyway, get a pontoon.



LC.

All good wisdom and information concerning I/O deck boats. The ride will beat the cajones off of you and that 4.3 liter, while a fine V-6, will be way underpowered for a boat that size and with the loading capacity of a deck boat. There are some nice "deck" boats made by Sea Ray but with a 22 degree dead rise V-hull that ride very nice and can be found with big block V-8s to scoot you along nicely.

Always keep in the back of your mind what was said by LocoCoco about the bellows, bilge and sinking.

If you like plenty of hands on maintenance get yourself an I/O.

trucky wrote:
Always keep in the back of your mind what was said by LocoCoco about the bellows, bilge and sinking.

If you like plenty of hands on maintenance get yourself an I/O.

Amen, brother!!

I just sold my chaparral deck boat and bought my first toon. So glad I did. I wouldn't go back.
As for bayliner..its a good inexpensive entry level boat. But you get what you pay for. Generally under powered. Personally I would never own one all though my first boat was a Bayliner. If you want a deck boat an plan on keeping it, look at other boats.