Thread: Motor Question?

I have a 20 ft fisher pontoon with a mercury 75hp on it. The boat is rated for a 75hp. A friend of mine has an old bass boat that has a mercury 115hp on it. He just had his 115 rebuilt and he doesn't use it. I want to buy it and put it on my pontoon. What do you think? The motors weigh about the same. Thanks for any input. 1Cove

Andy, I think it would be ok but I think Papa Sage would be the one to ask this.

From my understanding it's not so much the weight of the motor it's the safety and handling of the boat after it reaches a certain speed. If the motors weight is approx. the same, I would try it but be VERY...VERY... careful when you start to reach speeds greater than your topend speed from you previous motor.

I have never seen a 20 ft pontoon with that big of a motor on it, but I have seen some 24+ footers with motors in excess of 100 hp on them...But I am Pontoon Boat illiterate...Will be interesting to see what experienced pontoon boaters say.

I think you should be OK, but i wouldn't enter it into any races now you have more top end!

most boats are under rated for what it will handle . as far as speed it woud not increase it that much but would give it mor pulling power . you may have to change the prop to git the RPM`s that the motor supose to run . mt 20 ft. pontoon has a 40 hp with a 10 in pitch 4 blade . i changed it to a 16 pitch 3 blade and it barley crawled . with the 4 blade it runs about 12 to 14 mph . it will probabley be good if you goingto pull skier or tubes . wouldn`t run it WOT in choppy water it will be bad on the frame i would think .out bord is dezined to run WOT or at recomed RPMS.usealey at 5000 RPM`s.

what you going to do withthe 75 hp ?

I have a 24ft with 135 hp.BUT mine is i/o.A 115 will be fine,I would just call pontoon dealer and talk about pitch of prop.======buy face book when it settles in around 21

The insurance will only cover the motor size the boat is rated for.

Might want to get the Legal Aspect. I wanted to put a 125 hp on a boat rated for a 115 and the legal Dept. said if any one was every injured the first thing that would come out is it was over powered. He advised me not to do it.

not worth it. stay with what the boat is rated for. Too many headaches otherwise.
If you want more power get a bigger boat
as a tid bit of info though--most motors put out more than the rated HP from what I have read. I know on my 150 xr6 it is actually putting out 175 hp at the prop.