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YOUR pontoon ideas!

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I'm building a 12 volt pump with variable misting options and even a lawn sprinkler that I call my "thermo-cline inverter". If you're on a lake where July and August water temps get to bath water temps, then this will help that.

I put 15' of water hose on the intake side with a large pvc check valve at the bottom end. Tie a short hose from the output side to a misting system or an adjustable lawn sprinkler to spray everyone in the water with the much cooler water from 15' down. I would like to find an appropriate 12 volt submersible pump because it's quiter but still looking for a low-cost one with enought head to work. I'm sure Bennington's engineers could do better. An initial test at the end of season last year showed promising results. Steve
 
ericscher said:
Pod Drive and/or Diesel Engines.
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I tested out the little simulators that the big cruisers had for their joystick controls. Pretty awesome, and I wish I could maneuver my pontoon that way. I don't know how accurate those simulators are, but I was able to park a 40 ft boat in a crowded slip with only 2ft of clearance anywhere around the boat. That's not likely to happen in real life. :)
 
OK, here is what I want. I need a small generator that I can use when spending the night on my boat, in my camper enclosure. The little Honda below would be awesome. It could sit in my engine compartment and vent out the back. I could plug in my fan, my TV, charge my batteries all night long, while keeping enough lights on for safety. I could even run my blender and make wife a fruity drink. This thing isn't very loud to begin with, but if it sits in the engine compartment it could vent out the back, and it would be even less noisy. It could even drink from the gas tank so I don't have to fill it up all of the time. What's wrong with that idea? :lol:

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Butchkid, great idea and the only issue I see is a safety one. There have been more than a few deaths in Arkansas from carbon monoxide poisoning around the back decks of large house boats. I would check into some sort of detector, maybe a battery one just to keep you and yours safe. The little Honda is a great generator and very quiet. You get what you pay for.... kind of like buying a Bennington. Steve
 
Great point! The cool thing about these things is they chain together if you need more power. The only thing I'm suggesting here is exactly your point, that someone at Bennington actually could put their engineering hat on and make it safe. Designed as an option for the boat, it could be hidden away yet accessable and suddenly it makes my overnight stay on the boat much more of a luxury.
 
I agree stepping up to some space age material for the logs. Maybe carbon fiber, they could be shaped for a more planeing ride instaed of soley displacement. Then make the decking carbon fiber, one piece, extremely strong and very rigid, also very light. Much stronger than the aluminum & wood being used.

Probably expensive but it would be worth it on upper end boats.

Steve
 
Butchkid said:
OK, here is what I want. I need a small generator that I can use when spending the night on my boat, in my camper enclosure. The little Honda below would be awesome. It could sit in my engine compartment and vent out the back. I could plug in my fan, my TV, charge my batteries all night long, while keeping enough lights on for safety. I could even run my blender and make wife a fruity drink. This thing isn't very loud to begin with, but if it sits in the engine compartment it could vent out the back, and it would be even less noisy. It could even drink from the gas tank so I don't have to fill it up all of the time. What's wrong with that idea? :lol:

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Very nice, you should consider the 2000 (which is actually 1600 watt) for the couple hundred dollars more. I have one and all I can say is Honda generators are Sweet!

Steve
 
lakebum said:
Butchkid, great idea and the only issue I see is a safety one. There have been more than a few deaths in Arkansas from carbon monoxide poisoning around the back decks of large house boats.
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I'm not sure how you could manage to accumulate enough CO to hurt yourself in a pontoon boat. :huh:

Not criticizing, just wondering how it could manage to be a factor.
 
I have heard some very good ideas, like the legos, or track type seating, you have holes pre drilled in the floor with caps over them when needed you can remove the caps install a track system ( or its built into the seat bottoms )and lock the seating down this way, this way you could rearange the seating as needed.

Do you need the rear facing loungers (dont be a hater) why could you not run a lounger sideways, like in the rear of a 24'SF remove the fishing seat and the livewell install the battery under the helm or in the storage area and then you could run the lounger behind the sundeck, from port to starboard or vice versa.

I have also noticed seats on other pontoons where the seats fold out or jacknife out to form another lounge area, and if you have one on each side of the pontoon you now have a full sunpad or a place to sleep if staying out all night.

Have you thought about makeing your railing in sections, this way if you did decide to change the seating around say you wanted more room for seating instead of two or three foot of dead space in the front or rear of the pontoon.

I would think it would be very easy to crimp or expand the end to slide into another you could always use plastic inserts to hold down the possible rattle.

You wouldnt have so much railing to replace if it was damaged in a storm, your railing might be able to work off of the same track system as the seating.

How about a headrest on the sundeck, if you had a headrest that would slide out over the railing kind of like what you have in a car or truck or even a foot rest you could slide out at the other end this would accomadate taller people.
 
Eric, It happens. Some of the deaths occured from people floating around the back, not on the boat. It's odorless and colorless and hangs low. I was assuming that if overnighting on a barge they would have some kind of camping enclosure, but maybe not.
 
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4949a1.htm Eric, try this for a better explanation. I googled "carbon monoxide poisoning on a house boat" and got quite a few hits. Sorry I couldn't link it. Steve
 
I looked...

I was surprised there were that many incidents that involve an otherwise open-ish area.

Still, each involved either people whose heads were just above the water line who were in a "fog bank" of CO sitting on the water, or who were in a semi-enclosed space that could hold the CO like a soup bowl.

I find myself wondering if it is possible for either situation to occur on a pontoon boat. Inside the fence maybe... I guess that the quantity of CO and it's rate of production would matter. I can't help thinking though... A swim platform would let the CO just pour off the edge like water.

I wonder if there has ever been any sort of scientific research on this...
 
He stated for use at night with his camper enclosure. If not vented properly, I would be worried about CO.

I know that all the newer houseboats on Lake Cumberland have their generator exhaust go up dry stacks several feet above the upper deck. They hide them by making the stacks flag poles.
 
Ohhhh, good call dmctruby!! That'd be great!!
 
ericscher said:
Oh. Well. Yeah... That would be bad.
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yep I did. I'm a worrier when it comes to things like that, and so I would probably want the camper enclosure to not include the engine compartment. That might be better anyway as a design because then you could walk out of your camper to the rear facing loungers and the swim platform and lay out under the stars. I would think a safety feature could be to force the blowers to be on full time if the generator was on. Coffee in the morning on the back, watching the sun rise while the kids slept inside would be cool. I'm liking this idea more and more.
 
I like Kaydano's slide option idea. When shopping for our new Bennington we came across Premier's Funship ... a double-decker with a slide down the back. That's a really great idea but we didn't want the double-decker, just the slide. There is an after market inflatable slide available but it's not very tall. We'd like to find a detachable fiberglass slide that uses a water pump to trickle water down the slide. It wouldn't be something we want on the boat all the time but definitely when the kids are with us.
 
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