Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

OK guys have a 25 foot tritoon with lifting strakes on order. My price quoted us with yamaha f200. Debating back and worth whether to go with yamaha 225 sho or 250 sho... These r the only options because of transom height on boat. At the top of my budget already but I could always squeeze out a little more if necessary.. Just wondering if it's going to be overkill. Figuring Ill get in mid upper 30s with f200 and its super reliable motor I believe... Thxs

200 hp is more then enough.
250 hp would be even better. LOL
I personally would go as big as your budget will let you go.

25ft is a pretty good size boat. there are plenty of times i wished i had a bigger motor than my 225. i know its easy to spend your money, but i'd try to push for the 250.

Seven Marine 557 would be neat!

Speed depends on how heavy your tritoon is. Some with the F200 are reporting as fast as 43 mph, and it appears to be a great motor. When you get over 30 mph on pontoons, the passengers sometimes get a little nervous.

When you invest the big $ on a SHO motor, the boat also needs high performance tritoons--not just three straked 25" toons. I'm a little negative on the SHO motors, as Yamaha has had serious issues with getting the rings to break in properly and a higher than normal incidence of blown motors. I intend to keep my boat a long, long time.

save the money, save the gas, the F200 is the inline 4 Cyl. and will have you probably just shy of 40 MPH or maybe touching 40. My F150 on the 24 triton will hit 39 trimmed and smooth water. I'm actually 24' 9" the 200 will do you fine.

Best advice I got when We bought our toon was go with the biggest engine the boat is rated for. In my case that was 250. Have never regretted it nobody ever complained about too much horsepower!!

I see folks doing near 40 with 150 4 strokes. Mine is 225HP we have only seen 43 one time. Mostly run high 30s with normal loads. Ours is a heavy model with big chairs up front where folks like to sit. Someone said guest can get a bit nervous over 30 and I've found that the case often when newbies are on the boat. Get what you can afford but 200 is plenty. Save some $$ for extras.

"nobody ever complained about too much horsepower!!"

This^^^^^^^^^^^^

but you do reach the point of diminishing returns. The 200 will be all you want I'm sure, unless you are racing.

As far as enjoying water sports, 40 mph is plenty. Barefooters are pulled between 32 and 40 mph depending on their weight. And slalom skiers are pulled between 30 and 35 mph. Do you have a link to the model you are buying. It would be helpful to know what the actual weight of the boat is. Its probably a very safe bet that 200hp will take you to 40mph, but I suppose if its a really heavy boat...

I have a 250 on mine, not regretted it once!

You sure you can't find a boat with a 300 in that price range? More HP the better. you'll regret not going bigger the first time and every time someone comes barreling past you with a bigger motor. Maybe that's just me. But once someones gets a faster toon than me on my lake i'll be looking for twins

While I would love to have the fastest pontoon on my lake, my lake has too many rich people on it for me to compete.... its obvious that no one ever complains about having too big of a motor, but most of us have a budget to work with, and breaking that budget means suffering in other financial aspects of our lives.

I had a 200 in mind when I ordered my boat, but practically speaking, I talked my self out of it. I'm not saying I have regrets for going with a 150, but a performance hull on a tritoon begs for more horsepower.

There's this silent satisfaction you get sometimes when blowing by another boat knowing you got more to go on the throttle. .. at least for me there is.

If there's room in the budget, go big or go home. My next boat will have more ponies.

We have the F200LB on our Berkshire tuition 23' 9" with full length tubes and lifting strakes, and it's a GREAT choice. I was able to get 42 mph once (GPS) and consistently get 40 mph.

I agree with the earlier comment about diminishing returns....... fuel consumption, engine cost, and performance delta...... compare them all using Yamaha's performance spec sheets. I did that choosing Tritoons that are similar in specs to ours. In every case, the F200 was the best overall choice. It gets GREAT fuel consumption.... since ordering the boat new, I've tracked every fill up using my Garmin GPS chart plotter and hour meter. It has tank after tank gotten about 2.4 to 2.7 gallons per hour overall. Another metric is that I get between 4.0 and 4.4 miles per gallon.

I typically cruise at 3000 rpm, which equates to 17 or 18 mph over the water. I also run it wide open each outing for a few minutes, as well as the numbers above include idle, docking, etc.

My boat will take up to a 300hp engine, but when I did all the comparisons, it was clear that the best choice for us was the F200. NO regrets !