Bentley vs. Manitou Pontoons: Which One's Right for Your Lake Days?

We get this question a lot at Buck's Island: what's actually different between our Bentley and Manitou pontoons? Both are solid boats, but they're built with different goals in mind, and knowing that upfront makes it a lot easier to walk onto our lot in Southside and know what you're looking at.

Bentley: Built to Just Work

Bentley keeps things simple. The tubes are heavy-gauge aluminum, the rails are powder-coated, and the seating is durable vinyl — nothing you have to baby, nothing you have to worry about after a summer of kids climbing in and out with wet feet. You still get the features that actually matter on a lake day: a removable table, a Bimini top for shade, plenty of storage for coolers and tubes, and a sound system that gets the job done.

Bentley is priced to be an easy entry into pontoon ownership, and the company backs it up with a limited lifetime structural warranty plus several years of coverage on everything else. It's a boat built for people who want to spend their money on gas and good weather, not on features they'll never touch.

If you're after a dependable family cruiser — something to take the kids tubing on Saturday and grill out on Sunday — Bentley is hard to beat for the price.

Manitou: Choose Your Level

Manitou takes a different approach and actually gives you two paths depending on what you want. The Leisure series is built the traditional pontoon way, with pricing that competes directly with Bentley. It comes with Fusion sound systems, enough power to pull a skier or wakeboarder, and the flexibility to add options as your needs change.

Then there's Manitou's premium side — the XT and LX series — where things get interesting. Instead of standard aluminum decking, everything from the deck up is built in fiberglass, the same way a traditional runabout is built. That construction keeps the boat surprisingly light, so you notice it in the acceleration, the handling, and how far you get on a tank of gas. It also just looks different on the water — cleaner lines, a more finished feel. Add in digital displays with wake tower control, fiberglass gates, and cushioned furniture, and you're looking at a boat built for people who want their pontoon to feel like an upgrade, not just a compromise.

Manitou works whether you want to start close to entry-level pricing or you're ready to spend more for a genuinely different boat.

Performance is where Manitou really separates itself, though, and it's not just marketing talk. Their V-Toon hull design drops a larger center tube lower than the outer two, and that difference in height is what keeps the boat from doing the typical pontoon thing of banking to the outside or cornering flat through a turn. Step up to the Sport Handling Package and you get thicker aluminum components and Barracuda nosecones for an even smoother ride in chop, plus enough horsepower capacity to genuinely surprise people who think "pontoon" means "slow." However you use the boat — cruising, pulling a wakeboarder, or just getting across the lake quickly — it handles more like a boat built for speed than one built just to float.

So Which One Do You Pick?

Honestly, it comes down to how you use your boat. Bentley gives you everything a family needs without any extra cost tacked on. Manitou gives you room to grow — start where Bentley starts, or move into fiberglass construction and a noticeably different ride if that's what you're after.

There's no wrong choice here. The best way to figure it out is to sit in both, take one out on the water, and see which one feels right. Stop by Buck's Island at 4500 Highway 77 in Southside — we've been helping folks find the right boat since 1948, and we're happy to walk you through what's currently on the lot.