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How to know if ordered boat has gone into production

Waiting is the hardest part for sure. The other day I was talking to the saleswoman that sold me my boat, and she said she spends most of her time answering "when will my boat be here" questions. She feels really bad for her customers but everyone is feeling the stress in this unfortunate situation.

But it will all be water under the bridge after you take delivery and start making those memories! And now that Bennington and other manufacturers are done taking orders for 2021 models consider yourselves lucky! If you ordered one now the wait is probably 9-12 months??
 
According to my dealer Bennington is still accepting orders .
 
Jack M said:
According to my dealer Bennington is still accepting orders .
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Are they taking orders for 2021 delivery? Because my dealer said as well that Bennington is not longer taking orders for production this year, their slots are booked for the year. Which makes sense, if they are running 5-6 months last month, and its worse now, I can see them being 7-8 months now on a build, which shockingly brings us to 2022.
 
I only asked him if they were still taking orders . He did say there will be a delay . In the past, usually anything built after late June early July has come in as the next model year .
 
Jack just to clarify - sales told me they were no longer taking 2021 model orders and that 2022 orders were still pending updated pricing which would increase 5-8%. Not sure if that conflicts with what your dealer stated.

Thanks
 
I just sent a email to Bennington asking for clarification . I will the post their response when I receive it .
 
scottkp said:
I just looked through my emails and found that my build sheet was 2 months after I placed the order. Is that standard timing, I am not sure?

I ordered late May of '20, build sheet came late July, boat delivered early August. Timing even a year a go was a much different place than what it is now.... I wouldn't expect anyone ordering a boat this year would have a 2-3 month turn around time. No facts to support that but it seems like production time is getting significantly longer. Be patient, it is totally worth it! My most recent boat was a newer twin motor jet boat (single hull) and I will never go back to a single hull after owning a tritoon!

One thing I would stay on top of is your motor & trailer. There was a spot where there was no powder coating on our trailer and it has been 4 months and counting for the new one to come in. Not terribly concerned as my boat is sitting on the "old" one but if you are waiting on a trailer as well I would be checking that just as much as the boat itself.
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My trailer came in 6 weeks after my boat was in.
 
I somehow got lucky on mine. January order date, built last week, and delivered to dealer yesterday. They are bringing it to me next week. 22LL with 150hp. Dealer confirmed that there are continuing foam shortages that are hampering production.
 
That makes me question the quality of the foam, for example the lumber industry has been using alternative polymer products for osb and it doesn't feel the same and I'm unsure of the long term life of the product, now the paint industry can't get the raw material to manufacture paint. I'm under the impression that all of this stems from the frozen chemical plants in Texas, maybe some of yall have some insight into this. It's my understanding that this is industry wide and will effect every product that requires paint during manufacturing, is this also another hitch in the giddy up for Bennington
 
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Called Bennington. Ordered in early February. Was told by dealer end of may, beginning of June receiving. Bennington doesn’t have a build date yet so they now estimate August at the earliest. Ugh, going to be a long summer. Hahah

From bennington ~~~~

“Congrats on your purchase!

I checked on your build and we do not have a date on it. If I had to guess, I would say it will be an early August delivery but we're not that far out in the schedule quite yet to be certain.

We're currently getting caught up from all the supply chain issues due to demand, COVID, winter storms, etc. We plan on ramping up production very soon, and the sooner we can, the sooner we can get through this backlog.

Thanks for being patient and please let me know if I can answer any additional questions.
“
 
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We place our order with dealer Feb 8th... so far nothing!! No fabrication date yet! Sucks.. Dealer tells me maybe in July... don’t know what to do... They holding my $4K that I put down...
Sometimes I feel like going there and get my money back and find a boat in the show room somewhere else... But this expensive build with a LX series 250 hp Suzuki...
What do you guys think ??
 
David6801 said:
We place our order with dealer Feb 8th... so far nothing!! No fabrication date yet! Sucks.. Dealer tells me maybe in July... don’t know what to do... They holding my $4K that I put down...
Sometimes I feel like going there and get my money back and find a boat in the show room somewhere else... But this expensive build with a LX series 250 hp Suzuki...
What do you guys think ??
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I went to my dealer who normally has 100-200 in stock. Most of the boats on the floor had sold signs on them and they are down to 26 units on the website now. In the long run you will be better off with the boat you built even if you have to sacrifice this season. Prices have gone up substantially since the winter and finding what you want will be very difficult. If you wait another year or so you will only be paying more money for the same boat. He said they may have to close for a bit as they won’t have any boats for a couple months.

you could try asking your dealer if they have any reserved build slots for floor models that you could swap your build with so it gets done sooner. If all their build slots are already taken then you’ll just have to wait until it’s scheduled. Good luck!
 
lakelifeMN said:
I went to my dealer who normally has 100-200 in stock. Most of the boats on the floor had sold signs on them and they are down to 26 units on the website now. In the long run you will be better off with the boat you built even if you have to sacrifice this season. Prices have gone up substantially since the winter and finding what you want will be very difficult. If you wait another year or so you will only be paying more money for the same boat. He said they may have to close for a bit as they won’t have any boats for a couple months.

you could try asking your dealer if they have any reserved build slots for floor models that you could swap your build with so it gets done sooner. If all their build slots are already taken then you’ll just have to wait until it’s scheduled. Good luck!
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Crazy
 
David6801 said:
We place our order with dealer Feb 8th... so far nothing!! No fabrication date yet! Sucks.. Dealer tells me maybe in July... don’t know what to do... They holding my $4K that I put down...
Sometimes I feel like going there and get my money back and find a boat in the show room somewhere else... But this expensive build with a LX series 250 hp Suzuki...
What do you guys think ??
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Hang in there, most us that had a custom build had a long wait so we can empathize. The key I think is to distract yourself with other hobbies, trips or toys - time goes faster when you're having some fun and not dwelling on things you can't control.

If you really need to get your fix perhaps your dealer will let you "test drive" one of the floor models every other weekend. They may do it if it means one less angry, frustrated "where is my boat?!" phone call!
 
You may not be able to find much on the showroom floor right now, depending on your location. My dealer only had 2 boats in stock last Saturday, and one of them was being haggled over while I was putting mine in for its annual service. Manager asked if I wanted to trade it in on a new one. I laughed and said, "For what? You don't have anything left. Looking at your lot, I thought you were going out of business." He said they are having trouble getting boats in that they ordered months ago.

If you are still happy with the build that you ordered, I would recommend that you stay the course.
 
We ordered our tritoon in October. We were told it would be built mid April. We called to check on two weeks ago and they said mid - late May. We received an email today that the build date has been moved to July 12th. I have a very disappointed family as my youngest will go back to school in early August. Anyone else having to wait THAT long?
 
Economy Mike said:
You may not be able to find much on the showroom floor right now, depending on your location. My dealer only had 2 boats in stock last Saturday, and one of them was being haggled over while I was putting mine in for its annual service. Manager asked if I wanted to trade it in on a new one. I laughed and said, "For what? You don't have anything left. Looking at your lot, I thought you were going out of business." He said they are having trouble getting boats in that they ordered months ago.
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My dealer has 23 boats left either on lot or on order. 5 are available. They had 43 or so Benningtons ordered. My dealer said they are/were getting sold sight unseen other than photos/video. 75% of them probably went on our 20HP max. lake. They sell Express fishing boats too. Including those they’ve sold over 60 units this year .... and it’s only April. o_O
 
Shaunain said:
We ordered our tritoon in October. We were told it would be built mid April. We called to check on two weeks ago and they said mid - late May. We received an email today that the build date has been moved to July 12th. I have a very disappointed family as my youngest will go back to school in early August. Anyone else having to wait THAT long?
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From my reading on here and my experience that is not normal (even in this day and age). I put my down payment on my boat October 24 and had a build date of Jan 13. Boat was at the dealer by February 1. From my research the biggest factor is the size of the dealership and how many build slots they were allocated. My dealer is a large volume dealer so my build time was good. Yours may be a smaller dealer without many build slots. If that is the case they should have bumped one of their “floor” ordered boats and put yours sooner. If all their allocated slots were full with sold models then yes you would have to wait. Either way that would be very frustrating.

I would go in and ask your dealer if they have any available slots before that with an unsold boat you could switch with. If they say no it doesn’t hurt to ask if they might have a demo boat you could take out once or twice a month to make your family happy. If they are a good dealer they should at least be sympathetic to your situation. Keep us posted and good luck.
 
Shaunain said:
We ordered our tritoon in October. We were told it would be built mid April. We called to check on two weeks ago and they said mid - late May. We received an email today that the build date has been moved to July 12th. I have a very disappointed family as my youngest will go back to school in early August. Anyone else having to wait THAT long?
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Something isn’t right here.
I placed my order October 31 and had a build date of mid Feb and a delivery at the dealer (minus engine) Feb 25. Boat was in the water April 3rd. My dealer is a small dealer in east Texas. So if I got my boat April 3, and you haven’t, something is very wrong because I doubt my dealer had any volume “pull” when it came to orders.
 
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