2017 SSRX 21' Yamaha 90 VS 115

mnlakeboy

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White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Greetings,


I am new to the Bennington Family and the pontoon world.  Previously I had a 19' runabout, life has changed and we want to share our time on the water with more of our friends and family.  Also my kids are adults (young) and want to have their friends on the pontoon for swimming and tubing.   I have a 21' SSRX on hold priced out with a Yamaha 90.  We would love to pull a water skier however realistically (budget wise) our requirements will usually fall into pulling adults and children on tubes with 6-8 passengers on board.


We have an option to switch to a Yamaha 115 for $800 however after asking the dealer (Says it won't make much of a difference) and reading the posts on this forum I need some additional input on this option is really worth the investment (performance - resale).  The SSRX is not equipped with lifting strakes.  I have been told that I might need to add Sea Star to control the torque of the 115 as I will have operators of various ages and physical capacity. Would this $1500 expense be mandatory for the 115?


I have read an article in the forum that maintaining 22 mph is the "Magic" speed for most water sports would the 90 suffice or will I need the 115?  


Any experienced comments about the power upgrade or the 21' SSRX would be appreciated.   


mnlakeboy


(new Bennington owner)
 
mnlakeboy,


I can not speak to the 115hp. I can tell you about our experience with a 20' pontoon with a 90hp. We owned one for 14 years. We bought it when our kids were little. It worked great for water skiing double and slalom. It also worked for knee boarding  and all other water sports. Can't say I am a fan of tubes so we didn't do much of that. What I will say is as our family got older and the kids grew up the 90hp motor began to become inadequate to ski with more than a few of us on the boat. We had to limit the number to five or six and then it was not great. To slalom ski you need to be 26mph+ to be comfortable and keep the spray from the ski out of your face. Knee boarding would be fine 10 to 18 mph works best depending on skill.


We have moved up to a tritoon with a 150hp and this is absolutely adequate for what we do and more. Limitation might be barefoot.
 
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Welcome to the family. The motto here is "more power". I'm not big into motor knowledge but past forum threads will backup the statement, the 90 won't cut it. 


Oh yeah, specs and PICS !!!
 
CapKaz,


Thank you for your sharing your experience.  I really appreciate your comments.  Sounds like you had a favorable experience with the 90hp with a 20' pontoon when your children were younger.  Given mine is a 21' (a few pounds heavier) appears that I will have to select the maximum the boat will accept, a 115 and hope it will be enough power.  


Ice is off my lake, marina says slip will be ready by mid-April so I have another week for research.  Again thank you for your comments.  


Pics to follow after rigging.


mnlakeboy
 
I had a 22sslx with two toons and lifting strikes with a 115. It was fast with two people (35 mph) but with additional people it slowed down quickly. My neighbor bought a 21 slx last year with a 115 on regular tubes and he seems happy. He has two small kids so it's not like he needs to whip them hard. Also, I was just fine with a 115 on cable steering. 
 
SEMPERFI8387,


Thank you for your comments and welcome to Club Bennington.  I hear you about "more power".   My concern is will I need to purchase hydraulic steering assist?  I am wondering if I can get by with a 90hp staying within my budget. 


It will be a few weeks until I will be on the water as Ice just disappeared last week here in the "land of 10,000 lakes".  I will post specs and pics (after it gets rigged) soon.


mnlakeboy 
 
Well I hate saying this, but I also hate seeing someone disappointed later on.


I had a 2075 GLi with a 90hp and with just my wife and I in the boat and the brother in law on the tube, I couldn't shake him off. He is a strong bugger, but unless I wanted to basically do a hard turn which basically stopped him then go full out at a 180 and dang near rip the rope out of the tube, it wasn't happening!  Not to mention I probably had a bigger workout just trying to work the wheel constantly spinning from one side to the next! 


With what you are telling us, you will not be happy with a 90hp, and I seriously doubt the 115 will make much difference when you have a few on board. 


I hate to be negative at such an exciting time, but I also want to be honest so you aren't disappointed or mis - informed. I traded mine in after the second season. I would seriously look to a setup with at least a 150. That is the sweet spot for performance on a toon, especially based on the way you tell us you plan to use it.
 
lakeliving,


Thank you for your response.  It was helpful.  The cable vs hydraulic streering issue continues to concern me as the pontoon will be used by my family that has high variance in physical strength.   Also I don't want to be constantly fighting the torque.  From what I have read torque steer appears to be a real problem above 115hp.


mnlakeboy
 
BulldogsCadillac,


I appreciate your experience and candor.  I get the picture, I am getting a realistic perspective about what 90-115 hp would yield in water sports performance.  What was your speed for straight line pulling of the tube?  


For regular cruising 90-115 hp apprears to be more than adequate for speeds 22-26mph.   Tubing and water sports will encompass 1/3 of the service time.


At this point I have changed significantly (budget wise) since my starting point of 20' SLM with a 50hp (a sweet pontoon).   The deal thrown at me for the 21' SSRX 90hp to hard to pass up.  Thank you again.


mnlakeboy
 
We are currently using a Mercury 90 hp two cycle and cable steering.  I am 65 with several shoulder surgeries and cable steering is adaquate, no issues. However when pulling the grands on a tube it can give me a workout, so I simply quit doing S turns for abit.  On the very first tube rides for a 8 & 10 year old the first words out of their mouths were, "go faster."  Shortly after that purchased the toon shown below.  Welcome to the world of Bennington and this forum.  You and your family are going to enjoy whichever pontoon you choose.  There are many on this forum who have had to make the same decision you are facing now.  A wise contributor to this forum once said, "buying your last boat first" is much cheaper than upgrading a few years down the road.
 
There is a member on here where his sole purpose in life is to warn people of the differences between a 115 and 150. His member name is Kaydano. Reas earth his teachings, he did a great job documenting his struggles with going from a 115 to a 150.
 
The true enabler for watersports on pontoons is the lifting strakes. More hp on a boat without them is just trying to push the toons through the water and the more load the more difficult that is. Our neighbor had a much heavier 25' S Benny with 75 Merc, no strakes, and successfully pulled his 20 somethings on wake boards and combos, with a light load. I don't recall they ever managed a deepwater slalom start, but they could do it by dropping a ski. They also had a Malibu v-drive, so using the pontoon for watersports was more for grins and not wanting to uncover the ski boat.


With all that said, buy the boat that fits your budget and enjoy the Bennington pontoon experience it offers. A little more hp for $800 seems reasonable up front, especially for resale, but don't expect big things from it for sports. It will be a fantastic boat for cruising and carry loads better. You'll also want the resale for the day you decide to move up to a 150/straked SPS hull everyone here will heartily recommend  :p
 
I had a 20ft S series 2 toons and no strakes with 90 and was told by the dealer at the time that it was sufficient. It went around 22 or so. But the minute I put a load on it I was down significantly. I had that boat about 10 months and then upgraded to a 21ft S series with SPS and a 150. The performance difference between these two are night and day. Now the difference between the 90 and 115 I do not have and experience with. If I had to choose between the 90 and 115, I would go with the 115. Also cable vs hydraulic, I had cable on my 90 was fine and would think it would be on the 115 also. I have hydraulic on my 150 and still need 2 hands once in a while.  If you want real  easy then you would need power assist hydraulic. Which I believe for a 115 would not be necessary. 
 
Having tried all three steering systems, unless you're going to the full power assist, save your money and run with cable.
 
The true enabler for watersports on pontoons is the lifting strakes. More hp on a boat without them is just trying to push the toons through the water and the more load the more difficult that is. Our neighbor had a much heavier 25' S Benny with 75 Merc, no strakes, and successfully pulled his 20 somethings on wake boards and combos, with a light load. I don't recall they ever managed a deepwater slalom start, but they could do it by dropping a ski. They also had a Malibu v-drive, so using the pontoon for watersports was more for grins and not wanting to uncover the ski boat.


With all that said, buy the boat that fits your budget and enjoy the Bennington pontoon experience it offers. A little more hp for $800 seems reasonable up front, especially for resale, but don't expect big things from it for sports. It will be a fantastic boat for cruising and carry loads better. You'll also want the resale for the day you decide to move up to a 150/straked SPS hull everyone here will heartily recommend  :p

+1 on what Tom wrote. Two pontoons with no stakes means boring water sports. Ok when the kids are small,the problem is that they won't stay small. And there' s plenty of people on the forum that have the 150 and hydraulic steering that are happy with their steering effort.
 
Last fall my family had the opportunity to take a test ride on a 21 SLX tritoon with 115 Yamaha. with 5 adults on board on a really calm lake we made it up to 34mph. Overall we were really impressed with that boat, but we also came from a 25+ year old pontoon with a 25hp motor. I will say that turning at top speeds required some effort, but nothing crazy. It also wasn't my boat so we didn't try any super tight turns or anything crazy.
 
I came from a 19' bowrider, yes I'm a horsepower nut but also have a budget (or wife) that I needed to align with. If anybody told you that the 115hp boat with 2 toons will be anything close to your bowrider..... that's not correct. If water sports will be the overall use of the boat your best investment would be the SPS/150 package. Our boat would out do our bowrider in anything but 180 turn and let me tell you it's not far off! If you plan on cruising and just some family time with some water sports I'm sure the this boat will be fantastic, plus if this is what fits the wallet for now it's a great place to get started in the Bennington family. The members on here including myself may sometimes seem pushy.... but we're just trying help others not make same decisions we did, myself included! Either way I'm sure you'll enjoy any Bennington you acquire!! Best of luck!
 
I came from a 19' bowrider, yes I'm a horsepower nut but also have a budget (or wife) that I needed to align with. If anybody told you that the 115hp boat with 2 toons will be anything close to your bowrider..... that's not correct. If water sports will be the overall use of the boat your best investment would be the SPS/150 package. Our boat would out do our bowrider in anything but 180 turn and let me tell you it's not far off! If you plan on cruising and just some family time with some water sports I'm sure the this boat will be fantastic, plus if this is what fits the wallet for now it's a great place to get started in the Bennington family. The members on here including myself may sometimes seem pushy.... but we're just trying help others not make same decisions we did, myself included! Either way I'm sure you'll enjoy any Bennington you acquire!! Best of luck!

I want to echo this as sometimes we probably come on strong but it's because we care. I didn't do my research before hand and learned the hard way. I didn't buy a boat that would actually fit my needs. I thought that's what I was getting, but I didn't. I was one as well who had a budget and at age 27 buying my first brand new pontoon I was stoked. Fast forward a few months it was listed on craigslist and I was spec'ing my next (current) boat.


Some dealers will tell you what you want to hear to move boats. We tell you how it is based on experience.


My last piece of advice....TEST DRIVE BEFORE YOU BUY!! That's what sold us on our current setup. After test driving one with the SPS package and a 200 it was evident we needed that setup. No regrets.
 
MNlakeboy, like many have said, you might be disappointed a 1/3 of the time that you're using your new pontoon. 


We also moved from a bow-rider to a pontoon because my two older boys no longer come to the cottage with us on a regular basis. As such, probably 90% of the time we just cruise. However, I insisted upon getting enough HP that when the 10% did show up, we could do it (ski, wakeboard, "exciting" tubing). A friend of ours has a 90HP pontoon but his teenage kids always want to hop aboard our's when we meet up to really go for a tube ride.


So, while this might be a good deal for 2/3's of the time, it probably won't be for the last third. If you can live with that, great! If that will be a disappointment, then perhaps it's not such a good deal. Either way, good luck with your decision.
 
Budget ...,.  :lol:    I had one of those too. Blew that out of the water. Average payment on 10 year loan is $10/$1000. So roughly $15 to go 115. At the very least, resale will probably be easier with 115 once PADS sets in ....  :D
 
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