Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hi all

New to the forum.....

In the market for a 24’ Tritoon to take my family out on the water. 200 Hp min.

Wanted to gauge everyone’s opinion on underseat storage. I am looking at a 2585 Avalon with a 250 Honda. The Avalon underseat storage is a bit different from what I have seen in others which would be a molded plastic seat base. The Avalon looks to have a welded aluminum frame to support the seats.

Any advantages to one vs the other. Neither one appears to be really water tight.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ron

Never seen that type before. IMO NO boat seat will be water tight that opens..... very little might get in but some always will I would think. Might gets some in but not a ton.

I had a Tahoe, sister company to Avalon, and it had that type of a seat frame. Now I have a Harris, which is more like the other type you describe. They both work fine, but I think that the Tahoe had more overall space.

I have a Tahoe as well , same company as avalon ( it's like Chevy / gmc trucks) and like the huge seat bases. As mentioned there is no such thing as a water tight seat on a pontoon but how they "breath and drain" is huge.

My bases are vented open and water could run under them from the deck. There is a mesh material that keeps everything off of the floor. The advantage they (Tahoe/avalon) offer is they dry out really well if they do get wet. They also do probably have the most storage available.

The roto mold bases probably offer the ability to make a more custom curvy base than the aluminum frame , but as a functional item you can't beat it! Here's what mine look like. They are vented at the stainless steel and at the floor. I'd show what fits inside but the boat is tucked away for the winter yet lol

I would not trade my under seat storage for ANYTHING.
I have a Harris and they are almost waterproof with water run off ditches under the seat so if water does get between the seats very little goes into the box, so far I have had none go in there.
With that said, if you are one of those that puts wet stuff in a sealed compartment you will grow mold. Always dry things before storing.

It appears there are two primary methods of water instrusion protection.

Some of the roto molded bases have channels built into the top of the seat base that is deigned to catch water and route it out the back of the base or even overboard. Others have vents in the base of the base designed to give some ventilation to the storage area, presumably to help dry things out and lessen the chance of mold growth.

On my Sweetwater, they bases have th rotomolded channels in the top and a few holes predrilled at the lowest part of the base.

No matter what the setup, I don't think I've ever seen one that is waterPROOF. And I seriously doubt that if you threw wet towels, life vests, etc into any of these bases that you wouldn't have to worry about mold

steve1313 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 21, 2021 2:35 am

No matter what the setup, I don't think I've ever seen one that is waterPROOF. And I seriously doubt that if you threw wet towels, life vests, etc into any of these bases that you wouldn't have to worry about mold

Totally agree there. We have very little water get in (rotomolded bases) and we are careful to check for moisture during clean up after coming back in. Being in a sand environment, we generally hose down seats, and sometimes inside them. Wipe 'em down, towel dry 'em out. Luckily, my lift is at the house, so if need be, we leave the seats open for a while to allow air drying.



-Paul