Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Looking at a 25 Legacy SHP with a Honda 250 V-Tec motor. I am partial to the Merc Verado as I ran a 250 Vrod on my Ranger 620. What kind of speeds do you think I would get with the Honda ? I have read some test reports that the Hondas were not up to par on top speed with the etec ho's optis and verados.

I've also been looking at the new BF250 as an option on a 23' Manitou. I talked to Greg at Manitou and there just aren't any reports with the 250 on pontoons in the field yet. I've searched everywhere and all I could find is a single JC test report on a 25' which was in the Honda promo. It swings a bit bigger prop with a different ratio so it may take awhile to sort out the typical setups. Please let us know what you're able to find.

For what it is worth, I have a new 25 ft Manitou Xplode (love it) with a Suzuki 250SS on it. With myself, the wife, 2 kids, and our water sports gear we've hit 50 mph. This is also with a fair amount of gas in the tank also. On a calm day less the additional bodies, gear, and gas, I'm very curious to know what she will run.

I tested some other tritoons, Manitou's with the SHP are the best!

My guess is that the Honda would perform similarly to the Suzuki?

The Legacy is absolutely gorgeous boat, and it is THE top performing hull.

I looked at the Manitou's before buying my new Bennie. We just don't have any good dealers closeby stocking any boats. The dealer I visited (340 miles away) carries Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and ETEC. He's been in business since 1972, and is completely objective on the above brands.

They used to equip all pontoons/tritoons with Honda outboards--until ETEC got their act together. Now, he only stocks the VP hulls with 150 hp ETECS, but he said they'll run circles around the 4 stroke motors out of the hole, and they are 3-4 mph faster (43-44 mph). I've heard the Hondas are very trouble free, but they're expensive--and not the fastest motor on the market. Who knows about the new 250 hp motor, however.

The boats I was looking at were ordered at new boat showing a year ago. Manitou gave the dealer the H.O. motor for the price of a regular ETEC and he got a deal on a $700 option package. They also charged something like $500 for the center hull storage that's well over $1,000 the rest of the year.

It's nice that you really cannot go wrong with any major brand of outboard motor. An in water demonstration might be warranted.

One of our local Manitou dealers has a 23' X-plode SHP and a 25' SES SHP, both rigged with the Suzuki 250SS. They also sell Merc, E-Tec, Honda, and Yamaha SHO's, but Honda has been their go to pontoon motor. I thought maybe they rigged the Suzuki strictly on price, but he quoted only about $600-700 difference vs the Honda 250 or Yamaha 250 SHO.

GaCarolinaTn wrote:For what it is worth, I have a new 25 ft Manitou Xplode (love it) with a Suzuki 250SS on it. With myself, the wife, 2 kids, and our water sports gear we've hit 50 mph. This is also with a fair amount of gas in the tank also. On a calm day less the additional bodies, gear, and gas, I'm very curious to know what she will run.

I tested some other tritoons, Manitou's with the SHP are the best!

My guess is that the Honda would perform similarly to the Suzuki?

Cool info! I'm looking to get a 2013 Manitou 25 Xplode with a 300 e-tec early next year. Was hoping to be able to hit 50mph in it.

50 mph with a 300 HP Etec shouldn't be an issue!

Given the right conditions, I would expect 55-60mph!

SHP hulls are the best on the market, which is why I bled a little more than I wanted to when I bought mine a few weeks ago.

Good luck!

Yes they are, and yes it will... Thank you very much!!!
Bryan