ChuckP
Well-Known Member
Hello fellow Bennington owners! This is my first post so I thought I'd make a "grand entry". We currently own a 2007 1850Gl with the Super Sport package that we purchased new in late 2006, well for a few days at least. The first people that came to look at it made an offer on the spot for exactly what I wanted out of it! So it is time to move on and in a few hours I'm going to the dealer to order our new 2275GCW with ESP and all the toys. I wanted to go RCW but since there is no option for yellow we had to stick with the GCW, it would be so cool if there was some form of custom order program. But anyway....
My main question is on the choice of power, our dealer seems to be a Merc and Yamaha shop. I have a Yamaha now and its been a great motor but Im told that I can't get into the VMAX outboards because they only come in 20" shaft? Now like most of us budget is a concern but I may be willing to stretch a bit if there is a good enough reason. I know that the 225hp Optimax would squeak into the budget, but I can option up and got with the Optimax 200 and still come in under $40k so that sounds like the screamin deal to me. How is performance? Any real reasons to go more than 200hp? What kind of weight am I looking at with boat/motor/fuel/4 passengers? We do plan to tube and so a little skiing and wakeboarding too as this boat is not only replacing our other Bennington but also a Crownline 185ss. We live on a good sized inland lake.
For those who have the center tube storage, do you use it alot? My wife is sold on the idea, but its a $1000 option that I'm not sold on.
What about going full boat on the stereo (Sony/Kicker upgrades, amp, sub)? Thats another $1000 and I love good sounding music but Im wondering if this is like a car in that usually the upgraded stereo's are only marginally better than stock and you can do a much better system for less $$$. Is this true of the Bennington systems?
And what about raised helm? Don't have one now and don't think Im missing anything really, just not sure with the larger boat if it would help?
This has been a very long first post so time to wrap it up. Thanks in advance!
My main question is on the choice of power, our dealer seems to be a Merc and Yamaha shop. I have a Yamaha now and its been a great motor but Im told that I can't get into the VMAX outboards because they only come in 20" shaft? Now like most of us budget is a concern but I may be willing to stretch a bit if there is a good enough reason. I know that the 225hp Optimax would squeak into the budget, but I can option up and got with the Optimax 200 and still come in under $40k so that sounds like the screamin deal to me. How is performance? Any real reasons to go more than 200hp? What kind of weight am I looking at with boat/motor/fuel/4 passengers? We do plan to tube and so a little skiing and wakeboarding too as this boat is not only replacing our other Bennington but also a Crownline 185ss. We live on a good sized inland lake.
For those who have the center tube storage, do you use it alot? My wife is sold on the idea, but its a $1000 option that I'm not sold on.
What about going full boat on the stereo (Sony/Kicker upgrades, amp, sub)? Thats another $1000 and I love good sounding music but Im wondering if this is like a car in that usually the upgraded stereo's are only marginally better than stock and you can do a much better system for less $$$. Is this true of the Bennington systems?
And what about raised helm? Don't have one now and don't think Im missing anything really, just not sure with the larger boat if it would help?
This has been a very long first post so time to wrap it up. Thanks in advance!
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