Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

So I have a 99 Suntracker with a force 50 motor that the top cylinder broke a ring landing. I am currently weighing my options of replacing that piston or just getting a new motor.

The force is a 24 inch motor and the anticav plate sits about 5 inches below the bottom of the motor pod. Also where the motor sits on the transom, it is also dropped down 5 inches.

Here is a pic with my current setup.


So can I run a 20 inch motor on this boat. I had issues with this motor last year blowing out the adapter plate gaskets between the powerhead and leg. I found a couple small cracks around and flattened the plate but haven't had a chance to test it. I don't want to spend the money repairing the piston for it to continue blowing out those gaskets.

95% of the pontoon run 20" shaft which looks like what you should be running.

I was thinking most pontoons ran 25" shaft motors--commonly called XL motors.

When the SHO Yamaha's showed up, they were only available in 20". Bennington had to have a special SHO option where the back of the toons were cut low enough to handle that motor.

The only problem with the cowling of 20" motors is that they get extra wet from all the strange water flow that goes down the middle of a triton. They actually have a lower center of gravity.

To answer the question on this thread: Replace your motor with a 25" motor.

Thank you Seon, I was wrong in the way I measured it. Measuring the correct way I have a 20 in motor which also corresponds with the model 50ELPT

Good to know you've got the right measurments. Best of luck.

Generally 20" long shaft motors will actually measure anywhere from 20-23" from the clamp to the cav plate and extra-long 25-28". My Johnson 70hp is 22" and the Suzuki DF140 XL I just picked up is 27". Most all older pontoon are setup for 20" long shaft engines, especially twin tubes with the standard motor pod. I've seen very few 15" short shaft (OLD 70's models) pontoons. Personally I would toss the Force as far as I could as parts are expensive and hard to come by for them, though yours looks to be an end of production model that's basically a relabeled Merc. I know of only one guy that likes to use the Force, Obi-wan