With so many options at the market, buying a pontoon boat is not an easy task.
There are many factors that you need to keep in mind before you make your purchase. A pontoon boat is a big investment. That’s why you need to think about it thoroughly before you decide.
Identify The Activities You Want To Use Your Boat For
If you don’t even know what your activities are, how do you know you need a pontoon boat?
A pontoon boat can be used for many things. You need to find out the activities that you want to do.
That will make the shortlist really simple, and you will know what you are looking for.
If you are taking it for fishing then you need to make sure your pontoon boat has a fishfinder built-in.
If your priority is to cruise with friends and family, then you should look for pontoon boats with huge space. More space means you can carry more people.
Inflatable:
Choosing a pontoon boat with two or three tubes depends on your budget. Also, how fast you want the boat to go. If you want more speed for watersports, skiing then you need three tubes. More tubes mean more speed.
But if you are looking for cruising, then you can go with two tubes. As they don’t speed up that much and are easy to control.
Identify the pontoon boat’s power:
For your adventure comfort and your cruise members’ comfort, you need to identify the power of the boat.
If it can’t put up enough power to carry all of your loads then you shouldn’t buy it. Also, make sure the engine doesn’t produce too much smoke. It will pollute the air around and scare the fishes away.
Honestly, for cruising purposes then you don’t need much power. But if you cruise with a lot of people then you might need some hefty power.
For fishing purposes, you need more speed. You can go after fishes faster in that way. Fishing pontoon usually doesn’t carry many persons anyway.
Design:
A pontoon boat is a vehicle. We all want a good looking vehicle. If you are going on cruises with your friends and family then you need something to show off to them, right? Why not the fancy boat that you own.
Pontoon boats don’t cost nearly as much as a cruising ship. But the pontoon boat made for cruising doesn’t look half bad.
Value:
You can’t focus all of your attention on the design. You need to calculate the fact that whether the purchase is providing any value to you. If you go cruising for like once a year, why purchase a boat? Isn’t renting better for you? But if you are purchasing it for going skiing once in a while or you are purchasing it for fishing. Then the purchase makes a ton of sense.
When you aim a certain model, compare that boat to other boats at the same price range.
Try to find out which boat provides the best value for money. Even if that boat looks a little bit less beautiful compared to the one you choose, you should go for the better value one.
Warranty:
Warranty plays a big role in any kind of vehicle purchasing. It’s a vehicle with an engine. The engine can have issues. You need to take care of that engine. That’s where warranty comes in. If your engine has issues then you immediately need to put in warranty.
You don’t want your boat to die in the middle of the ocean.
The best advice I can give you is, think of it as you are buying a vehicle. Your decision making will be a lot easier.