Best toon configuration for shallow river

JRaymond

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Hi all,
Does anyone have experience with what will and will not work on a shallow river?

I'm chomping at the bit to get a new, or slightly used Bennington. I live in central Pennsylvania and boat on the Susquehanna river which can go as low as 2 ft in some areas. The river has plenty of deep water, but you have to be careful getting to the channels. We run a Yamaha 21AR jet boat because we would destroy props in the old I/O ski boat. Tons of classic pontoons on the river, with no issues, but no 45MPH tri-toons.

I've been looking at the 23 ft "R" series with the ESP package on the tri-toon. However, I've just come across a lightly used 23 RSB with the twin Elliptical package. The Bennington catalog says the twin elliptical is the best option for shallow drafts. Also, the transom is 20" instead of 25" on the ESP. Would this mean the engine hangs lower in the water with the 25" ESP transom?

Can a tri-toon be too big for a shallow river? I would likely use it for everything, cruising, wake boarding, skiing, tubing. I just don't want to make a purchase of this size without knowing if I'm buying too much boat for my body of water.
 
If you're planning on using the boat for everything, go with the ESP and 3 tubes.
 
We have the SPS package and get into some shallow waters here in FL. I can get into some skinny water but that's at slow speed and I trim the motor up.
 
Although the Ellipticals do draft a little shallower you shouldn't have trouble with any set up
 
Where you boating on the Susky? We used to go out of Long Level south of Wrightsville with our jet boat. Now we just putt around Lake Marburg with a 20hp. I know up around Goldsboro and down at Otter Creek you better know what you’re doing or you’ll be tearing lower units off.
 
I have a 2018 22SSX w 150 Yamaha and the Express Performance Package. The center tube runs a 2/3rds of the way down the center. But I have found the back seems to hang low in the water at low speeds. Here’s a picture:


36D6B548-CA27-480C-A3BD-0D659D661892.jpeg

I do wish I had a full center tube....next one!
 
It looks like I have them in the stern somewhere?
 
I run mine on the potomac up and down stream from Martinsburg, WV with a 25" tritoon with a 250 Yamaha. With trimming up, I can get <2' no problem, there are plenty of deep water spots, but also plenty of VERY shallow spots. I have a Garmin that does "hi def" sonar charts so I can map the shallow water pretty well and mark rocks.
 
I have a 22ssbxp triton SPS hull with a 150 outboard. At low tide outside the channels we have many shallows that we navigate to beach etc. under 2 feet is no problem. Just trim up. This boat is incredibly buoyant and we usually have a full or near full load of passengers.

I never owned a pontoon before this one so I don't know if a 2 tube or 3 tube is better for shallows, but my tritoon handles them quite well.
 
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