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Congrats Zeeman!!!
 
Congrats on the new ride!
 
Congratulations to each of you. Sounds like you both have exciting summers ahead of yourselves. Enjoy the new boats.
 
I am new to this forum and almost a new Bennington owner. Currently waiting to complete purchase of a 2021 20SLV. The value end of the Bennington line seem to be selling quickly and are a bit hard to find at this point this year. My wife and I have been searching for a smaller pontoon to purchase with my son and his wife to replace the son’s old speed boat with a bad engine. We all agree that a new pontoon boat will be more reliable, practical for our application and useful during pandemic times. It did not take long to focus our search on a new Bennington. This will be the first pontoon boat for any of us. It will be docked and used on a river at my son’s in central Indiana. We are a couple of hours away but it gives us more excuses to get together.

We had decided on an available boat at a nearby dealer and finalized on an acceptable out-the-door price. The only issue was they could not get the motor we preferred as many options are in short supply with significant lead times. That boat was to be configured with a 50 HP Yamaha. About an hour before we got back to the dealer to complete the sale they sold it. We then followed up on two recent arrivals at another dealer that was further away but configured with the more attractive 90 HP option. After agreeing on the boat, price and delivery to our location we learned that the motor had not come in yet. We are waiting on a 90 HP Suzuki motor to arrive, which is anticipated for this week. We are adding a Hoosier brand float-on trailer from the same dealer so we have more flexibility for storage and maintenance.

We are working to get things ready for when the new boat arrives, hopefully by the coming weekend or shortly thereafter. I have a few questions where I hope new owners and seasoned owners with similar configuration can help. Our boat will be docked on a moderate size river at my son’s small floating dock in the river. I want to minimize the opportunity for pontoon or deck edge damage.

On the 20 SV series, which comes with 25” tubes, what is the approximate height from the water line to the top of the deck, unloaded as it would set at a dock? I will be purchasing new boat fenders and want to select a length that works well with this boat and dock. Based on inputs I found on this forum I am considering Polyform G4’s that are 6.5” dia x 22” long. My initial plan is to hang them from the boat railing with Taylor Made fender line clips on the railing. Any lessons learned I should consider?

Anyone have river mooring experience and suggestions on how to best protect from occasional floating debris, such as trees or branches.

Anyone have a recommended dock edge bumper that they really like?

Anything you wish you would have inspected more carefully or ask about at delivery?

I am open to anyrecommendations for the new boat and I hope to be a valuable contributor to this forum in the future.
 
Thirdcoast,
I also dock in a river. I use (4) 6.5" x 22" fenders with Taylor clips. No issues. I do recommend leaving enough slack in the lines when tying to the dock to account for any sudden changes in river height after rains, any windy conditions that create choppy waters, and definitely use spring lines to reduce the amount of movement the pontoon has to prevent excessive banging into the dock.

When I picked up our pontoon, the dealership did a great job going through all of the features, the dos and don'ts, how to break in the motor, timing for the first service, etc.. Took about an hour. I did bring several items up that looked 'not quite right'. Since all were cosmetic, such as a small hole in the bimini and a broken strap on the front seat that only allows the seat to open up so far to protect the hinge, they made a note of them and put in a claim to have fixed after boating season (Late October or November here in Wisconsin).
 
Congratulations! All I can tell you as this has been our first year is to learn all the safety rules and take the DNR class. I can also tell you I am so pleased with the quality of the Bennington, even in the family value series they cut no corners. We have had a blast on our boat this summer and this year has been one of the best and one of the worst I can remember if you know what I mean. The boat has been a sanctuary from all the other crap. This forum is also a great way to learn from people who have been there and done that. Once again congrats! Oh and by the way you will be much happier with the 90 versus the 50!
 
Thanks Zeeman and Titletown Mike for your inputs. Looking forward to getting our Bennington.
 
Zeeman said:
.... Oh and by the way you will be much happier with the 90 versus the 50!
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It seems that I may never know how much happier I would be with a 90 HP. The Suzuki DF90A that was to have shipped last week and be at my dealer today now will not even ship out of the warehouse until 8/31. With reliably good boating weather ending around mid-October in our area if I can't get something in the water soon it hardly makes sense to buy a boat at the end of the season, use it for a couple of weeks and then have the cost of winterizing and storage. Based on history and the motor shortage issue I would not be surprised if the date does not slip again.

The dealer has a Suzuki 70 HP available now and I will either go that route or likely delay the boat purchase until next year. A 90 HP is the biggest that you can put on my intended 20 SLV. The 70 HP engine saves about $1000 and it likely could be in the water by this weekend.
The decision: The boat I intended to get vs. whats available vs. no Bennington this year. Who knows what may come up next year. Thoughts? The boat will not be used on a large lake (will be on a moderate size river) and likely very seldom used for skiing or tubing.
 
If it were me I think I would consider the 70 but that maybe because we are slow cruisers and I see a huge difference between top end of a 70 vs 90, Sure I will see a lot of others that say wait on the 90
 
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If you hold off, will you still order at today’s prices? depending on your use a 70 may be fine for you. I’m on year 10 on a 20hp lake.
 
thirdcoast said:
It seems that I may never know how much happier I would be with a 90 HP. The Suzuki DF90A that was to have shipped last week and be at my dealer today now will not even ship out of the warehouse until 8/31. With reliably good boating weather ending around mid-October in our area if I can't get something in the water soon it hardly makes sense to buy a boat at the end of the season, use it for a couple of weeks and then have the cost of winterizing and storage. Based on history and the motor shortage issue I would not be surprised if the date does not slip again.

The dealer has a Suzuki 70 HP available now and I will either go that route or likely delay the boat purchase until next year. A 90 HP is the biggest that you can put on my intended 20 SLV. The 70 HP engine saves about $1000 and it likely could be in the water by this weekend.
The decision: The boat I intended to get vs. whats available vs. no Bennington this year. Who knows what may come up next year. Thoughts? The boat will not be used on a large lake (will be on a moderate size river) and likely very seldom used for skiing or tubing.
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I would think the mph difference between the 70 versus the 90 is just 2-3 mph. I get 22 mph on my 90 with a full load which is fine for us on our small lake. I would guess you could get pushing 20 mph with a 70 depending on load. IMHO 20 mph for a small waterway is plenty. As the other posters have stated depends on how you want to boat.
 
Thirdcoast,

Though the prospect of a new boat is certainly exciting, I would take the delays as a sign to wait on the purchase. You noted that you would be using the boat on a river at least some, so the extra horsepower of the 90 would be good to have to deal with current.
We bought our boat mid-season, and negotiated free winterization and storage for the first year. Perhaps you could do the same if you decide to wait for the 90 Suzuki this year, especially since they have changed their story on its arrival date. Trust me, they don’t want to be stuck with that boat going into next year.

Alternatively, you could begin the process of speccing the exact boat you want for next year, including the 90 hp engine of your choice.

Either way, good luck and happy boating!
 
Another consideration when docking and maneuvering on a river is weather helm, and it’s always better to have more HP for that. It was unusually windy on our lake last weekend, and my friend and dockmate, an extremely competent and experienced boater, had difficulty at one point getting his 25’ Cobalt out of his slip in our tight cove with his 350 CI/ 350 HP Volvo-Penta under the deck.

Additionally, the cursed ‘rona has made it a sellers‘ market in the boating world. Next season you may have more negotiating power.

Just some other thoughts I had...
 
Update: I decided to go with the available Suzuki 70 HP outboard in order to take delivery this season while the weather is still good. Life is too short to wait till next year, and who knows what will happen with pandemics, pricing and availability in the spring. It is definitely a sellers’ market with high demand and increasing lead times for boats and motors. The available boat I was looking at, a 20 SLV, is what Bennington calls the value line with a factory established no haggle price packaged with popular options at that fixed price. The boat met the basic criteria of what I was looking for and as configured it seemed to be a good value. We added a trailer to the package. By waiting it’s doubtful I would get a better price or package for what we were interested in. On Friday at the end of August I completed the purchase and did a shakedown and prop selection run with the dealer tech. On Saturday the dealer delivered it and the trailer we included in the package to the desired location and put in the water with no additional fee for delivery.

My wife and I are sharing this boat with my son and his wife and so far everyone is very happy with the boat. We have made good use of it with the motor already past the 20 hour break in interval and first oil change. The 70 HP Suzuki outboard turned out to be a good choice with adequate power for our particular situation. Zeeman was right on speed - the 70 will do 20 to 21 mph with light load. The lead time on the 90 HP we considered waiting for ended up going from a couple of weeks to potentially a couple of months. The build quality of the boat is good and I found nothing I needed the dealer to correct prior to delivery. Overall very happy with the choice.
 
Zeeman said:
Hello all! We just bought our first Benny and took it out for the first time Friday. We have done a lot of research before buying and this was about a two year process We are totally in love with this boat! We love to fish and are slipped on Brookville lake in Indiana. It’s a small lake so we didn’t need a big boat and we wanted to fish mostly and also be able to enjoy what we call “bobbing” in the water. We decided on the SFV 20 with a 90 Yamaha as an entry level boat and honestly it has everything we need for this particular lake. I have been reading all the good thoughts y’all have on this forum for the last couple of months and we would appreciate any tips for the newbie. The video that Semperfi had on covering the boat was an awesome help so thanks so much for posting.
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What speed can you get her to WOT with proper trim?
 
mowdoc said:
Use fuel stabilizer every time you fill the tank. I like Stabil 360 but any stabilizer will make starting much easier if you don't go out often enough.
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Really? My future 20SLG has a 24 gallon tank (21 gallons usable). The fuel at my dock contains no ethanol. You suggest I need to put Stabil 360 in every time I fill up? I probably will fill up when it's half full; I don't plan on letting it get close to empty.
 
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