Our new Bennington Pontoon boat

The family and I are getting a Bennington Pontoon boat for the lake house. I thought I would share some pic's with ya
Its a 25 footer with the 5.7 350 Mag. Power stearing. Led Lighting. Water temp depth gauge. Alpine head unit. Rockford Fosgate interior speakers, 2 10 inch Rockford subs, Rockford Amp. Ipod hook up. 20 inch galley. Under bimini LED lights. Fish finder.

350? damn!

you'll love it.

This thing is super plush and comfy. Top speed is suposed to be between 48 and 50 Mph. I drove a friends 22 foot Bennington with the same V8 last week and I could not believe how fast it is. "No joke" it would get out of the water and on plane faster than my Air Nautique. It rides super smooth threw the rough water. My family is super stoked to be geting it and this weekend is gonna be it first outting.

Yea the 350 5.7 is pretty cool. The motor options are a 4 cylinder 3.0 top speed around 24 Mph. 302 5.0 V8 top speed around 40 Mph and the 350 5.7 Mag V8 top speed around 48-50 Mph. We didnt look around at the outboards. The biggest outboard motor you could mount in this boat was 225 HP I have no idea what the top speed would be with a 225 Hp outboard. The thing is when you get a outboard you cant have a factory swim platform. Thats a big reason we went with the I/0 is so we can have a swim platform. Looking forward to spending time on the water with the family. I never thought I would be getting excited about a pontoon boat.

thats the first i/o pontoon i've seen. I really like how the transom is setup. Looks like it would work a lot better than others i've been in.

GPS?

Does it have an Alpha or bravo outdrive?

Sweet! Whenever I hear "pontoon boat", I still have the 80's style with astro turf, smoky 2-stroke, and rickety aluminum seats in mind. Man, they've come a long way. I'm sure you guys will have a blast.

Nacho: The fiberglass swim deck it pretty nice. Its suposed to sit out of the water a bit further than a tridational ski boat but I bet it will work fine for batroom breaks LOL.
Keven: Im not sure what outdrive it is whats the differance. Is one better that the other.
Fatsac: True that. Pontoon boats have come a long way. They still have the traditional old school pontoon boats with some of the things you talked about so nothing changed in that aspect. Its the performance and luxury pontoon boats that look new to the market. Bennington has their "Q" series boats that look to nice to sit in. check out some shots of the interior of the interior of a "Q" series Bennington here. http://www.benningtonmarine.com/q_series.htm

Damn G, you need to load that up with peeps and use it as a chase boat when jetskiers and wallys cut you off in the Nautique. I'd love to see the expressions on their faces when a pontoon is chasing them down doing 50 loaded with an angry mob. Very nice.

That's one plush pontoon boat !

whats the plan for the stereo system? heheh

Can you say drop down flat screen? The Q looks like a theater room on a boat!

Sweet! Those things are soo much fun..

I rode in one of these last year at Powell. Twin 496's in a pontoon boat! It was crazy!

Watch the video!

Megatoon

BTW, Nice boat G!

(Message edited by bocephus on June 22, 2007)

What is the plan for the system in that baby? I am sure you already had it scoped out before you signed the papers!

Good lord, that thing is faster than my mastercraft. The Bling Bling II has arrived. How many 12W7's will you be able to get into that thing?

Nice boat.

Grant - That looks like a great addition to the Bling compound. I just have a few questions -

Did the helm drink holder come pre-loaded with a Coors Light, or was that the photographer's personal stash?

When will you be installing the tower to mount the Stripper pole and spotlights?



How do you plan on installing the slide?

Grant,
What model is yours? Is it the 25' Q series?

How many W7's are you gonna slap in that Biatch G. I think you could easily double you current set up...

you guys are great. How many W-7's? Wheres the stripper poll gonna go? LOL
come on do your realy think Im gonna put a stripper poll and W-7's in the famly rig???


So seriously the stripper poll can be mounted in the back no problem. I all ready have one on order. And I plan on installing the mother of all stereo systems in this boat. The 3rd toon is gonna be a giant sub box. Look Out!
Wakeshoe: its a R series
Flak: I had to re look at the pic's to see WTF you were talking about. No that not a Coor's. Look again closer.

It's a red bull... what do i win?

A free SF Red Bull come get it.

I hear if you put a few ~500lb sacs on the benches along one side it throws one hell of a surf wake. It also helps if you have a few people leaning off the same side....

My brother picked up the boat from Nor Cal Master craft Sat morning. Like most new boats we had/have some problems with our's Problem #1 Dead battery as soon as we launched. They thought because the stereo played the battery was fine. I even tried turning the boat over at the ramp and it spun for a second so I thought it was fine. As soon as we put it in the water and gave it a try the battery gave in. I felt like a total Wally. Big brand new pontoon boat clogging up the launch ramp with a huge dead boat in the water. It worked out ok I got over my embarrassment and pulled the boat out of the way with out to much trouble so others could launch. I all ready had my boat in the water so we ran up and got some jumper cables and gave the new boat a jump and we were on our way. The boat wasent cleaned and a few other things were not right. It was kind of a bummer. The family was like WTF is up with this thing? After we got over the B.S we loaded the boat up for our maiden voyage on the lake everyone took turns driving and loved it. Its fast smooth quite and easy to drive. We took it to a cove and popped a nice bottle of bubbly and celebrated our new toy. It was cool just hanging with the family on the water. Nothing like hanging out on the water with the ones you love.

Have any of you heard of EVOLUTION Powerboats? They have a pontoon / tritoon series that they label "Not your parents pontoon boat."

http://www.evoboat.com/

You can option up to 275 HP! They sell their stuff on ebay for like $5-9K less than their website too.

Any feedback on them would be cool.

congrats Grant! thats an awesome boat! enjoy it

Ya a buddy of mine got a bennington deck boat and it by far the sweetest deck boat I have ever seen.

275 is that all

http://www.playcraftboats.com/record.htm

The record-breaking speed was reached with a Mercury Twin Pro Max 300X Outboard motors

Thats a cross between the MC CSX, MC X80 and the Svfara SV696 Evolution... Bennington should come out with the same layout on a wakeboard boat hull!

I only see one thing missing (from the photos at least)...a BBQ

the drive is a mercruiser, that boat is sweet man, sucks that they did not clean it and prep it right. Was the boat New or used? Either way a new battery should have been included in the prep fee and it should have had a new battery and been clean. I am glad you took lemons and made lemonade and now you have it home you can give it your own personal detail which we all know is better than they will do at the dealer. Congratulations

g whats your ideas on the system? dont tell me that your not doing one. congrats on the new bling boat

Nice Grant.

Where is the LED illuminated stripper pole?

Our boat is A-OK it has and will hopfully always remain up right. Here are some pic's from 4th

Jerry: Nothing but somthing small that makes sound
GD: The best ones are at the Gold club in SF. Stay out of the Champaine room its not worth the extra $20 per dance.

damn G that is the nicest pontoon I seen to date...

Looking at this pic the 25 foot pontoon boat dosent look much bigger than the 21 foot bling bling. Its unbelievable how much room this thing has. Its great having a boat that you dont have to watch what you have to load on it. All the water toy's and rope's bouys have a place with plenty of more room the family loves this thing. Its fast and super smooth in the chop. Its pretty funny watching this thing fly by you while your bouncing in roller's @ 15-20mph this thing is flying by you at 48 mph

Damn, is that lot next door for sale?

Grant, did you ever decide on the type of cooler/refrigerator you were going to install in the pontoon? If it's the fridge, where do you think that it will go?

Sinko:
I think the lot is sold but the owners havent started building. Dosent look like they plan on starting anytime soon. Im sure if you threw $900K at them you could get it. LOL The house next door is for sale 1.2 Mill
I got a 90q Yeti cooler for the Bennington. It fits perfict in front of the door on the passenger side and takes up no room on the floor. It works great as a seet. The only down side is you have to slide it out of the way if you wanna us the side door.

yo! G you got a link to that house next door, my father in law is looking at place for a corporate retreat. I told him about Tulloch and he was interested, and that's right in thier price range, they were looking at a place in Santa Cruz that was about 1.8 mil for a 1/3 of the year share, so to own a place for 1.2, I am sure that he would like.

albinorhino: I dont have a Link 4 the place but here is some pic's of it.


get a ahold of Bern, Andreas's hot wife she can show you the place bern@garlic.com

Thanks dude I'll forward it to my father in law, looks pretty sweet, any info on the place, location wise now that you have a place there? How's the community, life there, etc?

watch out that drivers seat will suck u in and not let you up. its way to comfy. my parents sell benningtons that their dealership n they are by far the most plush pontoon boats i've ever seen.

Grant,
I dropped a line to Bern, thanks just waiting to hear back from her

Ryan: What dealership do your parents have?
Pontoon boats are just like in boards in that the all have their good and bad point's, I had seen things on Sun trackers that would have worked out great on our Bennington. Also Preimer had some really nice features JC tritoons were really sweet, Kinda like having to choose between MC,CC,Malibu, Each good and bad point's. But I agree the interior cushions on the Bennnington are super soft and sit very well. I was told from a factory rep the foam was made for Bennington from the Sealy mattress company. That might explain why they are so comfortable .

Mike: Bern and Andreas also build cutom home's They have 2 houses that are under construction and for sale now. One has a dream garage. 3000 sq feet. With a garage stall big enough to fit your boat and truck with the tower up. Have your Father come up and see the place's make Bern take you out in the Lambo

I will pass that message along to Bern when I speak with her, I can see it now 200mph down the highway between there and Modesto, I even know what stretch she can do it on! As for the Garage, SWEET! We are looking for a place to do that, and may infact have my parents put up a barn at the ranch just to store our toys! How big are the houses on average in the community? With a 3000 sqft garage, they must be reasonably large.

my parents own Bohner Lacefield Marine in Fresno, Ca. we've been in business since 1939 it's just been giong down the family tree.

Started on the Upgraded system.

Here are some Before and After pic's of the engine compartment.

good stuff g. lets hook up the disco ball. "shinny disco balls" what are you puttin in it? will we see some dub 7s or 4 dub 7s 10 inch? what ever you do im sure it will dump

(Message edited by ponte_06_x2 on July 26, 2007)

Onboard vacuum? Sweet! I figured it would be a Dyson canister.

Are you going to set up another onboard charging system? Did you fab that plate for the battery tray?

Looks good...