New Member/Few Questions

[cobbhunts]

Hey all,

First of all thanks to Herb for changing and accepting my "free" email address!! I just purchased a new pontoon and cannot wait to pick it up (Friday). I ended up choosing a Sylvan 8522 LZ LE and went with a 90hp Yamaha - Four Stroke of course. I grew up on pontoons and with 2 girls under 4 I decided to stick with it. This will be the first one I have owned myself though. I must say I am stoked to get out on the Lake with it, but I am wondering how much of a pain the break in deal is. I guess I have a few questions related to my motor choice. I have read and read over the past few weeks trying to make a sound decision, but there's so much info it is both hard to digest, and keep track of it all!!

1) Should I just follow the break in procedure that I am assuming I will get in the owner’s manual?

2) I did get a tow bar and have read about it possibly being a bad idea to tube via the bar. Any suggestions?

3) I did download the Yamaha Ap and it's pretty cool, but it did not have performance data on my boat with the 90hp Yami. Anyone have any idea as to what I can expect top end. I'm obviously not looking to rock the shores with my wake or I would have went a different route than a pontoon. Just curious!! Will it still be fun to tube behind I guess.

4) About how much $$ am I expected to spend on the 10 hour service? I change all the oils on my truck and Rhino and feel like I could just do it myself, but I don't want to miss something and I am not familiar with Marine engines. At the same time if anyone has ever changed the differential on a rhino it doesn't get any more confined or tight spacing than that in my opinion.

5) Any other Sylvan owners around that want to chime in I'd appreciate to know how you are enjoying your toon.

Well, I am looking forward to hanging around. I should get it on the water Sunday if I can get the dang DoMV to answer the D*** phone. Any other tips are appreciated. I will do the shark skin when I can. That seems to be one of the most touched topics around. I hope the stereo is decent or I will be upgrading that as well.

Oh, and my Wife Jessica wants to name it "Jessi's Girls", I personally liked Toon Tang and BallzDeep that I found on here. She didn't.......

[lakerunner]

Hey all,

First of all thanks to Herb for changing and accepting my "free" email address!! I just purchased a new pontoon and cannot wait to pick it up (Friday). I ended up choosing a Sylvan 8522 LZ LE and went with a 90hp Yamaha - Four Stroke of course. I grew up on pontoons and with 2 girls under 4 I decided to stick with it. This will be the first one I have owned myself though. I must say I am stoked to get out on the Lake with it, but I am wondering how much of a pain the break in deal is. I guess I have a few questions related to my motor choice. I have read and read over the past few weeks trying to make a sound decision, but there's so much info it is both hard to digest, and keep track of it all!!

1) Should I just follow the break in procedure that I am assuming I will get in the owner’s manual?
Yes you will get a manual for the motor. Follow breakin to the letter as with computers now they can tell how you ran the motor.

2) I did get a tow bar and have read about it possibly being a bad idea to tube via the bar. Any suggestions?
Not sure on this one. I pull from the molded eyes on back of each log.

3) I did download the Yamaha Ap and it's pretty cool, but it did not have performance data on my boat with the 90hp Yami. Anyone have any idea as to what I can expect top end. I'm obviously not looking to rock the shores with my wake or I would have went a different route than a pontoon. Just curious!! Will it still be fun to tube behind I guess.
If 2 log I estimate 23 to 25 depending on load. 3 log ??

4) About how much $$ am I expected to spend on the 10 hour service? I change all the oils on my truck and Rhino and feel like I could just do it myself, but I don't want to miss something and I am not familiar with Marine engines. At the same time if anyone has ever changed the differential on a rhino it doesn't get any more confined or tight spacing than that in my opinion.
No idea on cost but have dealer do it as they check for problems performance and mechanically.

5) Any other Sylvan owners around that want to chime in I'd appreciate to know how you are enjoying your toon.

Well, I am looking forward to hanging around. I should get it on the water Sunday if I can get the dang DoMV to answer the D*** phone. Any other tips are appreciated. I will do the shark skin when I can. That seems to be one of the most touched topics around. I hope the stereo is decent or I will be upgrading that as well.
For best results and less work should be treated before it ever hits the water

Oh, and my Wife Jessica wants to name it "Jessi's Girls", I personally liked Toon Tang and BallzDeep that I found on here. She didn't.......

Keep wife happy

Welcome, and enjoy yourself.

[Fine Toon]

Hey all,

First of all thanks to Herb for changing and accepting my "free" email address!! I just purchased a new pontoon and cannot wait to pick it up (Friday). I ended up choosing a Sylvan 8522 LZ LE and went with a 90hp Yamaha - Four Stroke of course. I grew up on pontoons and with 2 girls under 4 I decided to stick with it. This will be the first one I have owned myself though. I must say I am stoked to get out on the Lake with it, but I am wondering how much of a pain the break in deal is. I guess I have a few questions related to my motor choice. I have read and read over the past few weeks trying to make a sound decision, but there's so much info it is both hard to digest, and keep track of it all!!

1) Should I just follow the break in procedure that I am assuming I will get in the owner’s manual?

2) I did get a tow bar and have read about it possibly being a bad idea to tube via the bar. Any suggestions?

3) I did download the Yamaha Ap and it's pretty cool, but it did not have performance data on my boat with the 90hp Yami. Anyone have any idea as to what I can expect top end. I'm obviously not looking to rock the shores with my wake or I would have went a different route than a pontoon. Just curious!! Will it still be fun to tube behind I guess.

4) About how much $$ am I expected to spend on the 10 hour service? I change all the oils on my truck and Rhino and feel like I could just do it myself, but I don't want to miss something and I am not familiar with Marine engines. At the same time if anyone has ever changed the differential on a rhino it doesn't get any more confined or tight spacing than that in my opinion.

5) Any other Sylvan owners around that want to chime in I'd appreciate to know how you are enjoying your toon.

Well, I am looking forward to hanging around. I should get it on the water Sunday if I can get the dang DoMV to answer the D*** phone. Any other tips are appreciated. I will do the shark skin when I can. That seems to be one of the most touched topics around. I hope the stereo is decent or I will be upgrading that as well.

Oh, and my Wife Jessica wants to name it "Jessi's Girls", I personally liked Toon Tang and BallzDeep that I found on here. She didn't.......

Hi Cobb and welcome!

I'm new to tooning and I have the same boat, but I have the mercury four stroke 150. I can try and answer some of your questions.

1. I went by what was in the book as best as I could. I didn't go WOT the first few hours. I think the max it stated was 4900 rpm for a few minutes at a time. I read the manual and talked to my dealer about best practice.

2. I have the ski/tow bar and have had the kids tubing from it with no issues. Just last weekend I had the 3 person tube hooked up to it with my teenage daughter and two of her friends in tow. Weight was probably around 300 +/- I had my concerns originally, but after speaking to my dealer, the manufacturer and with real world testing I'm no longer worried about it.

3. No idea on Yamaha.
4. Haven't done mine, so not sure.

5. We LOVE our boat! We keep wondering why we didn't do it sooner. It like being on vacation without being on vacation. It's one of the few places where we get to enjoy family time without distractions. We have a no electronics rule for our kids while on the boat and this might be the first time we don't get the typical "seriously?!", "Really Dad?!" or "come on!" response from them. My point is they love it just as much and they have no problems ditching the gadgets while cruising.

The stereo in my opinion has been better than what I expected, but that's my opinion of course! The mrs is constantly turning it down though

Hope I have helped some.

Good luck and have fun!

[cobbhunts]

Great stuff guys. It is just the standard 2 tube. I read mass amounts of info on the RPT and TT and we really wanted to go that route. The problem we ran into was while we could afford the upgraded toons, we couldn't afford to do both the toons and a 150hp upgrade. From what I read over the last few weeks it seems that if you get the TT or RPT, it's going to need a larger hp motor. Just couldn't do both at this time. Maybe next time!! We are on a small lake as well and maybe a 90hp on two standard 25" tubes will be sufficient. Thanks!!

[WILD MAN]

Welcome!! The other guys answered the technical questions I'll just say I like Toon Tang.

[cobbhunts]

Welcome!! The other guys answered the technical questions I'll just say I like Toon Tang.

Well, I tried, but I got that look from the wife that I would not be receiving any toon tang as reprimand for writing it on our boat. I guess Jessie’s Girls it is!!

[Heatman]

This should be close to what you have.
http://www.yamahaoutboards.com/sites/de ... 18_pnt.pdf

[gramps]

Cobb, Try typing in Pontoon boat tests and you will find a couple of boating mags that test all kinds of brands of toons. Type in your rig also and you may get a hit on it.

I would think you should get 25 to 28 mph with the 90 hp. Enjoy the boat and send us pictures.

[cobbhunts]

Thanks Gramps. I did find some better info from the boating mags. There's some pretty good stuff in those boat test they conducted. Most of the stuff I find has a minimum of a 115 and more common the elusive 150. I'll be happy I am sure, just curious. I grew up on pontoons but we always had a friend with a bow rider to tube behind. Probably 40 plus mph. I know for a fact I've been concussed from tube spills. So maybe it's better to not have the ability to go that fast. Though most of the spills we took were from sharp turns and whipping the tubes out for to one side of the boat!! I am pretty sure I won't be able to achieve this motion on a toon anyway. Thanks

[oldcoot]

Welcome aboard, cobb.....reckon everyone perty much answered the questions....

[MichaelB]

Welcome! Greg will certainly be along shortly. He's got a new Yammmie as well and is a few hours ahead of you. He can answer the 10hr and break-in questions with authority and experience!

[oldmn19]

Greg I have a 90 hp 4s on a 22 ft 25" tubed toon. I pull a tube with 2 kids just fine, can whip them out over the wake and get them really wet, and bumped up and over if they don't pay attention. Thats not at 40 mph either about 22 mph is max on mine towing.the 10 hr oil change is easy on the trailer, the hardest part is having the right oil filter wrench. These filters work on my motor:Mobile One MI-108,Walmart ST6607, Wix 51358, Purolater ML 16817, Wally Mart has the best price, and they have worked fine on my 5 year old motor. I also use a synthetic oil like Moble One for the extra protection, cheap insurance in the long run, IMHO. get your choice of filter then get a wrench that really fits deep on the filter, the ones Wally Mart sells do not go on deep enough, and you can't get the filter to move before it slips off, PAIN in the butt, I finally got a good one at a Auto parts store, sorry don't remember which, sorry. Get a dedicated wrench for the size filter, the kind that fit 2 different sizes, is crap. The whole job shouldn't take 30 min!

[GregF]

I usually use OEM filters. I had a mercury deal for $7 a pop and the Yamaha is a buck more.
I still may keep using the merc filter. It is about 1" longer and easier to grab. It still looks like it fits under the cover.
The filter base is the same.
I use a name brand oil, Penzoil or similar. SN grade is more than Yamaha asks for.

[GregF]

I am still playing with the diagnostic software. I did end up with a cracked version from a guy on Ebay that loads and a cable that looks like a $10 OBDII cable and a 3 wire adapter.

It would be pretty easy to duplicate if you can find the connectors.

[Texoma Toon]

Welcome to the forum........I like Jessi's girls. It does have multiple meanings if you know what I mean....