Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

How far have you guys gone in your pontoon boats. Longest voyage on water.
With my new twelve gallon tank and two six gallon tanks. I think my 24 gallons might just be enough
For a decent adventure. And the new lowrance Elite and standard horizon vhf will help get me home.
Lol my only issue I see is my 25hp tohstsu will make my trip slow at anything less than wot.

Still working on it but at 4000 rpm i'm running 14 mph with the 50 hp so i'm in about the same boat you are but loving the fuel millage.. Been out twice now, about 6 to 7 hours cruising so far fixing to fill up this evening so will know for sure but the gas gauge shows its only burnt 1/4 tank.

Its 76 miles around the sound to Manto NC AKA Outer Banks and 36 miles from my house across the sound.. Not sure we will do it this year but i'm trying to light a fire under a couple more folks with pontoon boats to lets take a trip across the sound , evening in Manto, dining, motel, then come back the following day.

Fixing to jump back on it for two full days under the shed with the weather we have coming but we're coastal and one more thing for safety if your where they work is a PRB. Don't have to be a high dollar one but just coming back to fresh water and seeing how much they help a PRB if your in big water is one up over the vhf. If your power goes for some reason that PRB does not.

Ya VHF was the first thing I added but mounted it over top of the boat using a little Carolina engineering...
Split it off so the vhf antenna is also the am/fm with one of the aftermarket splitters and I think the radio is picking up like 20 to 25 stations now.
Have XM but a nice addition if your not going to bother putting xm on the boat.
About 10 miles out to the sound and turning around by the old target range about a mile out into the sound so far.. Still tinkering doing the custom things, having fun with it.

We ran the full length of Pickwick Lake and back last August. It was a 125 mile day. The water was calm, and conditions were great.

Our plans this year were to trailer the boat up to Chattanooga and run the full length of Nickajack, Guntersville and Wheeler Lakes--locking through. That's about 200 miles one way back to our lake house on Lake Wilson.

Guntersville has a number of places to stay on the water, including Lake Guntersville State Park Inn, The Windham and Hampton Inn--all with their own boat docks.

Unfortunately we are having to put our trip off until next Summer.

A number of full time boaters doing The Great Loop of America have detoured up the Tennessee River, and they say the 650 miles of navigable water (up to Knoxville) is as good of cruising as there is in the U.S. I'll vouch for that.

Although not on a toon, check out this guys stories from his river trips.

The trips are on the lower left of the page. He has cruised almost all the inland rivers. It's some good armchair traveling for when it gets cold out.

http://www.egyptian.net/~raymacke/


Myself, the longest day I've had was around 60 miles on LOTO.

Bamaman wrote:We ran the full length of Pickwick Lake and back last August. It was a 125 mile day. The water was calm, and conditions were great.

Our plans this year were to trailer the boat up to Chattanooga and run the full length of Nickajack, Guntersville and Wheeler Lakes--locking through. That's about 200 miles one way back to our lake house on Lake Wilson.

Guntersville has a number of places to stay on the water, including Lake Guntersville State Park Inn, The Windham and Hampton Inn--all with their own boat docks.

Unfortunately we are having to put our trip off until next Summer.

A number of full time boaters doing The Great Loop of America have detoured up the Tennessee River, and they say the 650 miles of navigable water (up to Knoxville) is as good of cruising as there is in the U.S. I'll vouch for that.

Bamaman, the Tenn. river is definitely on my bucket list.

The farthest we can go on Smith Mtn Lake is a round trip of 80 miles.....done it many times.

Started in Straits of Mackinac under Mackinac Bridge at top of Lake Michigan where it meets Lake Huron, traveled down entire length of Lake Huron to St. Clair River which is approx: 250-275 nautical miles one way. Did return trip also. Total 8 day trip. Stopped and visited family mid trip. Weather cooperated which made it possible. Burned lots of gas but well worth it.

The most I've done in a day is 92 miles round trip. We launched in Sanford Florida and ran to Silver Glen Springs on Lake George and spent a few hours there. I got fuel on the way home and managed to dodge the afternoon thunderstorms. We burnt a bunch of fuel, but had a blast.

Well we have done a lot of 100+ mile trips on the LOTO and Truman and will continue to do so just maybe not so often we've been up most of the arms on Truman as far as we can go.

Well down here in the lower 48 , Texas. We drove over to Louisiana 60 miles and put in on the Red River went down 27 miles miles then went thru first lock then turned around and came back. 7 hour day and very fun time. Here in Texas we do not see many locks (loc) or ever how ya spell it. tri-toon 24 ft w/ 150 merc used aboout 23 gallons fuel.
On our home lake " Lake O Pines its 15 miles long I can almost back up that far, but it makes for a fun day.

LittleRiver wrote:Still working on it but at 4000 rpm i'm running 14 mph with the 50 hp so i'm in about the same boat you are but loving the fuel millage.. Been out twice now, about 6 to 7 hours cruising so far fixing to fill up this evening so will know for sure but the gas gauge shows its only burnt 1/4 tank.

Its 76 miles around the sound to Manto NC AKA Outer Banks and 36 miles from my house across the sound.. Not sure we will do it this year but i'm trying to light a fire under a couple more folks with pontoon boats to lets take a trip across the sound , evening in Manto, dining, motel, then come back the following day.

Fixing to jump back on it for two full days under the shed with the weather we have coming but we're coastal and one more thing for safety if your where they work is a PRB. Don't have to be a high dollar one but just coming back to fresh water and seeing how much they help a PRB if your in big water is one up over the vhf. If your power goes for some reason that PRB does not.

Ya VHF was the first thing I added but mounted it over top of the boat using a little Carolina engineering...
Split it off so the vhf antenna is also the am/fm with one of the aftermarket splitters and I think the radio is picking up like 20 to 25 stations now.
Have XM but a nice addition if your not going to bother putting xm on the boat.
About 10 miles out to the sound and turning around by the old target range about a mile out into the sound so far.. Still tinkering doing the custom things, having fun with it.

What kind of sea do you experience on this trip. Seems pretty open water by looking at a map.

Thank you,

My longest trip... 8 days, about 110 miles, one way, negotiating 2 locks each way, (did round trip), total about 220 miles...

Most cruising time was spent at 3300 rpms - about 15 miles per hour.

Put in at Florence State Park, Lake Eufaula, Alabama, ended at Wingate marina, Lake Seminole, Florida

A trip for the memories....

We operate on LOTO and have had our 25ft Cypress Cay tritoon about 3 weeks. So far we have gone about 50 miles round trip. Our slip is near 7mm but before it gets too cold I intend to navigate her clear to Tantara and back. We have Merc 150 and a 40 gal tank we could theoretically have a 120 mile range, depending on sea condition and our speed and load. Am having a Lowrance chartplotter/depth finder installed this week just for heck of it. My old Garmin GPS works well but has limitations.