Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

...tell me about your boat and Bennington as a company!

Thinking about making a change from my Premier to a Benny. While the Premier is a great boat, I really fell in love with Bennys Q ESP series and especially the Mahogany edition! The Mahogany is big bucks and not sure what would be required for annual maintenance to keep it looking good. I may end up going with a standard Q series to avoid missing valuable time on the water by sanding or maintaining mahogany!

I'm tentatively planning a factory tour for the end of July and hopefully have a new boat ordered by fall and take delivery in the early spring.

Would like to hear from you owners out there on your personal experiences both from a boat performance and customer service perspective.

Thanks!

2001 bennie here. Oldie but a goody. Still one of the most comfortable boats on my lake. Best interiors in the business, and its still solid as a rock after all these years.

Love the boat, love the company. Let me win the lotto and see how fast a new 2550 QCL shows up in my driveway.

Tim

Got ours in '07 after many rides and many looks at two boat shows. I had never owned a boat but Joy way back had a 27' with a 115 motor. She pretty much convinced me to look at pontoons. We got ours from Rinker's Boat World in Houston after he got the Bennington line from Houston Boating Center which Joy and I refused to deal with. Jerry Rinker is such a great guy to deal with as is his whole family. Jerry, who is over 65, still races trihulls. In fact, there are some of his family that are into some seriously expensive boat racing. We attend all we can.

Back to the boat. We have dealt a couple of times directly with the Bennington factory. All great people! All issues were solved quickly and effectively. I cannot praise the construction of the boat enough. Quality throughout. I know a lot of other boats have great quality also. We drove a Premier PTX with an I/O 225HP with Volvo Penta drive. Awesome dealer on Lake Conroe. I did not like the vibration of the V6 just under the floor. Drove a JC Tritoon. Really liked the U-shaped tubes. Did not like the soft filling in the seats. Drove a Godfrey Sanpan - great boat - almost got one with an Etec. Dealer was just not up to snuff. Drove a Harris. Another fine boat. Just could not convince myself to purchase from the dealer in a portable building. Ended up with the Bennington at a great price from an awesome dealer with fantastic service

Sales are flat throughout the pontoon/tritoon industry except at two companies--Bennington and Berkshire.

I've had my 24SSLX Bennie (Yamaha F150) for 3 years, and it's never seen the shop. Therefore I can only go by what all the other owners say on clubbenningtonmarine.com. They're extremely customer oriented as a company--as good as it comes.

Bennington has a pontoon boat that meets every needs--from their entry model S to the Q's in every priceline.

I honestly don't see how they have so many lengths, models and seating arrangements for their boats. They're also an industry leader in styling and seating changes.

Bought mine new in 2010.... other than a few "minor"set up issues when we first got the boat ( which the dealer took care of ) we haven't had a lick of trouble in 5 years of ownership... Benny's are very good boats, but so is Premiere...

Thanks guys!

I appreciate the input! If anyone has been to the factory I would love to hear about that experience also.

I had a Manitou before the Premier and I do like both boats. The hull design and performance of the Manitou was better than my Premier but the Premier gave a slightly better ride in heavy chop had better quality furniture, build and a general better layout overall. I'm switching to the Benny because I have seen them at shows and honestly I feel their build quality and layout options is second to none. I'm hoping this will be my last pontoon purchase for a while!! ... unless of course someone builds a toon with a Manitou hull and Benny upper!!

Thanks again!!

Dan

ishoot, go to the club bennington marine site and look through the owners forum.

Lots of good info and really great people on there.

I have a 2013 and have not had any issues. From posting on the Bennington message board, most all the comments seem to be very positive concerning the company and their customer service.

To get to that website, don't forget the "dot" after "club". It's club.benningtonmarine.com

ishoot wrote: ... unless of course someone builds a toon with a Manitou hull and Benny upper!!


Dan

I was in exactly the same dilemma in 2013, toured both Manitou and Bennington factories, met their engineers and had great discussions about why their boats were so good. Both are fantastic boats and companies (as is Premier), so you really can't go wrong. We demo'd both the SHP and ESP hulls with 250's, on the water and were glad we did. The Manitou demo convinced me I wouldn't miss our Malibu ski boat at all, but ultimately, the ride, comfort, layout choices, and fit and finish of the Bennington won us over. We don't regret it one bit and the local dealer has been outstanding with the few minor nits we've had. I saw the Stancraft when they showed it at the open house in Elkhart. Absolutely gorgeous! I don't know about maintenance, but at those prices you really should have "people" to take care of it LOL. Good luck!

I ended up making a deal today on a Bennington 2572 QRW. I stayed away from the mahogany edition because of the possible upkeep issues. This one caught my eye and I was able to work out a fair trade in and price on this one. Taking delivery this Friday!

Looking forward to try the Benny out!!

Happy boating everyone and thanks for the input on Bennington!!

Dan

Oh gawd I've been lusting after that Benny with the 350 on it since I saw one on the lake a few months ago.

We will need full and complete report on performance and complete domination over all other v6s as soon as you get on the water!!

Congrats on the new Q.... She's gorgeous.... and with a 350 hanging on the back end... nope, this aint your grandfathers pontoon boat! Not by a longshot.... I'll bet that thing will fly.... congrats again.

Nice, I just saw it on the winni forum. didn't put it together till I saw the user name. we saw one on the lake the other day, the people with me didn't believe it was a pontoon till I showed them on line. That's about the nicest toon I've seen, congrats.

Very nice toon! but where is the live well and fishing chairs?