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YOUR pontoon ideas!

  • Thread starter Retired Team Member1
  • Start date
How many hour drive are you from Michigan?
 
I'm having anxiety from having to wait til the weekend to get out on the water and you post that? Man, I need a drink!
 
Chas, we're going out in about 30 minutes.
 
cwag911 said:
Chas, we're going out in about 30 minutes.
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You had to go and poke the bear, didn't you? I know I'm supposed to be productive today but can't think of anything other than being on LKN!
 
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When you change your profile pic I loose track of who is who for a second!!! With that said I am probably due for a change as well!
 
Actually, waiting for our daughter to come back from a job interview at Chesterbrook Academy here in Denver. Then......laketime.      B)
 
Wow, Tommys back !!

And with some hot friends!!!!!!
 
lakeliving said:
I meant being able to see the girls when they change, not you!!!!
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Just from a safety standpoint, they may not have their sea legs yet and I'm sure you would hate for a big wake to make them accidentally fall and hurt themselves. Yeah, for safety!  Tommy, what is on all their hats?

(in case some of you didn't notice, most of their hats are the same, and they are wearing hats)
 
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BulldogsCadillac said:
Just from a safety standpoint, they may not have their sea legs yet and I'm sure you would hate for a big wake to make them accidentally fall and hurt themselves. Yeah, for safety!  Tommy, what is on all their hats?

(in case some of you didn't notice, most of their hats are the same, and they are wearing hats)
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I'm still trying to figure out how much he was drinking to let them stand on the seats ...... 
 
Why are they not wearing their uscg approved flotation devices?!?
 
Rockie69 said:
Why are they not wearing their uscg approved flotation devices?!?
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I don't know but they have USMC approved flotation devices .......  :)
 
We were in a cove, with nothing that could create wake. And they're all great swimmers. I wasn't drinking and would never allow such a thing if my better judgment told me no. The hats are for a 40th birthday. (The girl in the pink)
 
I'm sure she's ecstatic you shared that with the world! Never would have guessed 40.
 
My 2375RCW  (with ESP) is in the shop for the first maintenance on a new engine (250 Yamaha) and working of the delivery punch list.  This is our second Bennington and really am pleased with the boat so far.  Disappointed in failure of Bennington production quality control.

  • Console door does not fit evenly.
  • Port and bow gates misaligned
  • Stainless steel rub rail badly scratched.
  • Production trash in the center pontoon bilge and between toons and deck
Local dealer is working hard to work out the kinks but clearly QC was missing.

Thoughts on product changes

  • I would like to see a wider and possibly longer, center toon hatch.
  • Recommend the pontoon "eyes" be lowered a few inches.  "Eyes" on the upper part of the pontoons are great without the decks but with fore and aft decks on the RCW they are hard to access.
  • Not certain what the inverted u shape brackets you put on some models are called.  They are mounted to the deck, outside at the base of the panels.  Catalog shows them on some "R" models and not others.  My boat did not come with them and I miss them.  They were perfect on my last Bennington for spring lines.
 
We have spring lines on both sides on those brackets.  I don't understand why they would stop mounting them. 
 
Just put a new boat on order and I first have to thank all of you for the wealth of valuable information we received from the forum. Still waiting on a build date and I know spring is several weeks away, but this is going to make for a long rest of the winter. In the meantime, a few things we would have liked to have seen offered:

  • A dual battery option with automatic isolation between the motor and house batteries (instead of just the manual 3-way switch - TomS appears to have the proper setup in a previous post and in his gallery). We custom-built an auto isolation setup on our previous runabout 18 years ago and much prefer to reserve a battery for motor use only with the other dedicated for accessories (primarily the stereo). I understand some may like the simplicity of the switch (so they could still keep that option) but we don't like the idea of having to remember or having to manually change the switch position, thus potentially forgetting to charge both batteries. With the popularity of higher-end stereo systems and accessories, coupled with the relatively small cost of the modern off-the-shelf auto-isolation relays available these days, really surprised this wasn't an available factory option. We saw another pontoon manufacturer at the Chicago show in January that had this so hopefully Bennington will soon follow suit. Realizing they already offer many options for battery setups, I think this would be a popular and much appreciated one.
  • We ordered an ESP so it will have a sizeable and deep well in front of the transom that screams safety hazard (granted, it's a boat but this just looks like a painful accident waiting to happen). We'll have a 250 outboard so it will only have a ski pylon instead of the tow bar offered on the lower HP engines (which seems to also serve somewhat as a protective rail around the hole). I would like to have at least seen some sort of removable plate/cover down in that opening (but towards the top as much as possible just enough to allow the motor to clear when fully raised). Granted, because of the motor it can't sit flush with the deck but I'd rather have a much shallower hole and potential trip hazard than a big deep cavity that can cause some serious injury, especially with little ones and all. We have some ideas on how to address it but has anyone had the same concern and installed a solution?

As far as options and features, that's all that comes to mind for now (at least that I didn't readily notice in previous posts). Thanks again to all the members for all the information! Keep it coming and once we take delivery, I hope I can contribute some worthy input as well.
 
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Congrats on the new boat! 

My 13 year old dog fell in that transom hole on our last trip out last year. It looked painful. 

I totally agree on the battery switch being a problem. That is one of my biggest frustrations with my boat. I don't really mind switching it all that much, but getting to the switch is a total pain. Pull a cushion off the lounger, pull the plastic battery cover thing off, switch, then put it back together. Then hope you remember to do it each time. We camp on our boat so each night we have to switch it to the house battery so we don't accidentally kill the starter, but a lot of times we forget to switch it back to 1+2 in the day to keep them both charged up. Or even worse, we forget to switch it to just 2 at night when we're staring at stars. 
 
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The only advice I can offer is spend the $65 and get a battery combiner. Then all you have to worry about is turning it off at the end of the day. Your house and starter batteries stay separated when the motor is off and combined when running... automatically! I love mine. http://www.yandina.com/c100InfoR3.htm

bcpnick said:
Congrats on the new boat! 

My 13 year old dog fell in that transom hole on our last trip out last year. It looked painful. 

I totally agree on the battery switch being a problem. That is one of my biggest frustrations with my boat. I don't really mind switching it all that much, but getting to the switch is a total pain. Pull a cushion off the lounger, pull the plastic battery cover thing off, switch, then put it back together. Then hope you remember to do it each time. We camp on our boat so each night we have to switch it to the house battery so we don't accidentally kill the starter, but a lot of times we forget to switch it back to 1+2 in the day to keep them both charged up. Or even worse, we forget to switch it to just 2 at night when we're staring at stars. 
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