Okay guys. I'm thinking of purchasing one. I did a search here and did some outside reading and stuff. I have questions. Has anyone seen or tried or owned a Black Bear Pontoon? They seem to have much larger diameter tubes than the other manufacturers. What are the advantages/disadvantages to that? The others I'm considering are the steelheader (anyone know the price ?), and maybe the outcast 900 or Buck's new Bronco Extreme 9.

My goals:
9 or 10 footer
Spend around $1k
Be able to portage fairly easily
Take my dog on the back
Drift rivers from small to Sauk/Hoh size and complexity

Thanks

I'll try and answer a few of you're questions

Larger tube diameter is a good thing as long as the tube design is a good one.just because you have a larger diameter does not make the boat handle any better all it does is give you more weight capacity.How that tubes hits the water is critical to how responsive it is and this is what makes some boats much beter at handleing tuff water conditions.

Of the brands you asked about stay with the Steelheader,and still that one may not fit all you're needs....hope you have a small dog
Happy shopping....Os

Onchorynchus,

I read your goals and cant think of one boat that would definitely meet all of those. The outcasts are nice because of cost and the ability to portage/carry (especially the newer alum. frame ones--amazingly light) For bigger rivers the steelheader would probably be better, but will be much heavier especially with any decking. Like Osprey said, hope you have a small dog as none of these are prime for that kind of thing.

My advice would be to pounce on a used one, you'll be able to get the bigger 9/10 foot versions your thinking about. A new 9 or 10 foot model will most likely run over $1000 new, and you need to get composite oars no matter what, most of the oars that come stock with these things suck. I use cataracts on my outcast 800 and they are great, and they are two piece.