What is SPS, Express Tube, etc?

[Tin Diesel]

I just have my ol' 2007 tritoon that I bought used so I never bothered to research the types of 'toons. So, when I see all these discussion of various configurations I remain perpetually confused. If there are others like me, the following is from the Bennington website as of August 2020:

I don't know if these are just the 'performance hulls' and there are other 'non-performance' hulls, or if this is all that's available. I'll let other experts comment.



Then, the types of tubes:









Working from home... have some down time!!!!

 

[Tomc]

Thank you Diesel. I had the same confusion and always trying to look things up. This is a great summary. I never came across it while looking up while folks were talking about it.

 

[Jack M]

I have a 2020 with the SPS and the "performance foils" are not full length . My dealer had been out of boats until this week ,going today to compare .

 

[Potomacbassin’]

If you have the brochure there is a page that gives the performance characteristics of each toon option. Essentially the more toon surface area the greater planing ability, speed, fuel efficiency and less draft. The SPS, SPS+ and ESP add more structural rigidity and design to handle higher HP motors. It comes down to where you plan on using the boat and for what purposes. A calm 500 acre lake with cruising in mind might only necessitate a 90hp or less (even an electric) so an ESP would be completely unnecessary. But if you are on a 10,000+ acre impoundment or Great Lake etc. and want to pull tubes and get to point B in a hurry, your HP requirement will go up and thus your structural design (toon selection) needs to match. That’s probably an over simplification but just one way to think about it.

 

[Tin Diesel]

My 2007 tritoon is an I/O and carries the moniker "Super Sport". I think it's configuration is a bit unusual... I'm wondering how many others have this? I don't think they make anything like this anymore.

The port and starboard pontoons have full lifting stakes all the way down both sides. The center pontoon also has lifting strakes on both sides, but the center pontoon only goes about 2/3 of the way back before it terminates into the engine nacelle. The nacelle is a very large v-keel which I'm sure ads quite a bit of lift at speed (see second photo). So, there's a total of 6 lifting strakes plus the engine nacelle for lift.

Another unusual feature are the front bow wave deflectors (if that's what they are called). They are boxed in, as shown in the third photo. You'll also note in that photo how the under-skining stops and the front of the center-toon storage compartment is exposed. I get a lot of water into the center'toon in choppy water, and I plan to complete the under-skinning and run that 5-inch vertical skirt further forward to stop that. The second photo also shows how the center 'toon meets the engine nacelle (you probably have to zoom in to see it) . Lots of unusual angles and not-very-smooth transitions, it seems.

I think outboard strakes were dropped because of turning performance issues, but we never turn tighter than would spill a drink, so it hasn't been a problem for us!