new to the forum and Bennington

tompands

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Just bought a 2015 Bennington tri-toon with a 150hp Yamaha 800hrs. Looked around quite a bit before pulling the trigger on this one. There's so much junk out there. The seats need to be cleaned but their not rotted yet, still have some life in them. Any advise on cleaning them would be helpful. I need everything for this boat, ropes, fire extinguisher, anchor, first aid kit , life preservers everything is missing. Thats the difference buying privately or thru a dealer. I paid $14,800 , out the door, and it came with a 2024 aluminum trailer. I feel like it was a decent deal. I wanted the bigger engine. I wanted a yamaha. And the tri toon was an extra bonus, I didn't even know it was a tri toon until I got there to look at it. The boat and motor was $9000, trailer was $4000, plus tax,tag etc, etc. I was trying to keep in the $5000-$7000 range but like I said it's all junk, 40hp engines and dented pontoons. So got it home today, now the clean up starts. Pontoons are relatively clean, no dents, stains, or corrosion. I would like to shine them up but maybe not. Whats the going opinion on that??? There a few minor things that it needs, can't get the radio to sing, it lites up but no music. Might have to replace it. and it's got a bildge pump mounted on the rear of one of the tubes , hooked to a hose coming up into one of the rear compartments, and the hose just ends. Nothing in the compartment. . The only bad thing about this boat is the state number on it, which my wife is loosing her mind about, it's number is FL6663**. She was not happy when she seen that. But anyways, any suggestions or recommendations are always welcome and appreciated. new to this whole pontoon thing.
 
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Welcome to the forum. Sounds like a good deal for sure. That pump in the back of the toon should be for a livewell. The shaft on the impeller rusts through and snap off. The pump runs but it’s essentially not spinning anything. Easy replacement as bass pro sells the same one still. Upgrade to the 800 gpm or it won’t pump water up.
 
yeah that pump doesn't even look like it's hooked up, wires are just dangling and hose goes nowhere. Probably just going to remove it, I'm not a big fisherman so I really don't need it.
 
If you wont fish, or fish much, probably not worth the trouble of putting in a working one. Out of curiosity, do you know what model you bought? From a basics layout, that sounds like a very nice deal: Tritoon with150HP Yamaha is such a great combination. 800 hours is a lot, but if maintained, it’s a trustworthy motor.

In the short run, you could just bring along a portable Bluetooth speaker for music until you address its native sound system. Heck, we have even started using our JBL Bluetooth speaker when beached just to have better peace of mind on battery usage (although I know the audiophiles amongst us are probably aghast at that idea). :p

Can you tell for sure it’s radio vs speakers? Also on the bright side, since the radio lights up, you know it’s getting power, so that eliminated having to trace some power issue.

Being a 2014, you should have traditional marine vinyl seats. Those allow a much wider range of cleaning products - really anything that’s okay’s for vinyl. Hopefully others can chime in with some good ideas, but if nothing else 303 makes a very thorough lineup of vinyl cleaning and vinyl protection products. Many other good options out there too.

Anyway, congrats on your new to you Bennington and welcome to the forum!
 
Haven’t even started on the radio. Can’t be too complicated, I’ll figure it out. I used a starbrite mold and cleaner, and it worked amazingly. Seats look brand new. Now I’m going to put 303 protective on them. Pretty much just doing the initial cleaning. As far as motor goes, I think it was taken care of, all filter have 2025 dates on them, motor is clean, starts right up first lick. We’ll have to wait and see on that. I think I got a good one.
 
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