People in the United States love to spend time on the water. The vast majority of people in this country live within about an hour’s drive from a waterway. In terms of the economic impact of the recreational boating industry, every year, it adds more than $121.5 billion. This figure includes direct, indirect, and induced spending. At least 650,000 jobs have been created, directly and indirectly by this industry. It is responsible for the creation of about 35,000 small businesses. Many people are on the lookout for pontoon boats for sale. If you are looking for this kind of used boat for sale, there are some things you can do to get the right one.
- Start by inspecting the used pontoon boats for sale. Before you make a purchase of any used vehicle, you need to spend some time looking it over. Here are some things you need to check on pontoon boats for sale.
- Look at the hull. This is the most important part of your inspection. You need to see if you can see signs of any patches that were added to the hull, hole or cracks that were repaired or are still visible. If you see problems here, it can be evidence that the boat was in a crash of some kind. If there are problems with the hull, you should keep looking for your used pontoon boat. This is not the one for you.
- Check out the pontoon logs. Check to make sure they are straight. You need to also make sure there are no large dents, cracks, holes or other issues with them. If it looks like you are going to need to do a lot of repairs to the logs, you should keep looking.
- Look at the laminate. When you look at the parts of the boat that are under the water, you can get a good idea if the price that is being asked for the used boat makes any sense. If there are bubbles, waves, cracks, or wrinkles in the laminate, it may show that when the boat was made, not enough care was taken on this.
- Check out the furniture. When a used pontoon boat has not been properly cared for, there will be tears and cracks in the chairs on the boat. This can also mean that it was not maintained nor was it stored in the right kind of space. This may not be a deal breaker in and of itself but may indicate other parts of the boat were equally neglected.
- Make sure the person selling the boat has the legal right to do so. When you are looking at used pontoon boats for sale, or really any kind of used boat, car, or truck, you need to be sure that the person selling it actually owns it. The last thing you need to do is spend money on a used pontoon boat only to find out later that it was stolen. If you are working with reputable boat dealers, this should be less of a concern but if you are buying directly from an individual, it worth looking into.
- Make sure the boat has the blessing of the NMMA. That is the National Marine Manufacturers Association. That is the premier organization that can verify the boat’s quality. They make sure that all boats have been manufacturers that have used only materials for the boat that have been approved by the association. Their seal of approval, which can be seen as a sticker on a boat, also signifies that the factory where the boat was built had passed an inspection by the association. You should only consider buying boats that have received their approval.
- Give the boat a test drive. You would not buy a car without taking it for a test drive and you should apply the same standard when you are looking at used pontoon boats for sale. See how long it takes to warm up the engine and how it handles. This is one of the best ways that you can tell if the boat you are looking at is the one for you. Buy it f you like how it handles.
