2022 South Bay 220 CR LE — Cedar, MN

A 2022 South Bay 220 Cruise LE at Cedar, Minnesota, asking $27,995 at Boat World. South Bay has built pontoons in Middlebury, Indiana since 1998 and is today a division of Forest River — which makes this, improbably, the Berkshire Hathaway boat in the fleet. The LE series is South Bay's value proposition stated out loud: limited floor plans, limited colors, limited options, and a lower price because of it. The 220 Cruise is the classic layout of the breed — bow lounges facing aft lounges across an open deck, eleven seats on a hair under 21 feet — the floating porch, without a single decision to make about upholstery patterns.

Owners like these boats more than the brand's modest fame suggests. The forum record is quietly positive: long-term owners reporting years without spending a dollar beyond fuel, and warranty service described as generous when the small stuff came up. The build backs it — South Bay's structural warranty runs to lifetime coverage on tubes and below-deck welds. And there sits the trap for a used buyer, because the lifetime coverage belongs to the original owner and does not transfer. What follows the boat to you is the 20-year deck warranty and little else. The headline that helped sell this boat new is not part of what you are buying used; price accordingly, and let the survey stand in for the warranty. The good news is context: a 2022 boat from a Minnesota freshwater season is about the gentlest four-year life a pontoon can lead — short summers, no salt, winter storage.

The honest disclaimer: the 220 Cruise LE has no independent test record to cite — the boating press does not instrument-test value-line pontoons from RV conglomerates, so the evidence here is owner testimony and the spec sheet, not a magazine's stopwatch. What the neighbors offer instead is a clean set of trades. Six thousand dollars less buys the same open-porch mission five years older, with a test-proven hull and a Florida sun history to inspect:

Two thousand more buys one model year newer from the industry's loudest young brand, power bimini included:

For a family that wants the porch, the freshwater history, and the smallest bill that still buys a recent boat, the quiet brand is the smart money. This is the one to survey first:

Sources: South Bay factory warranty terms; Forest River Marine materials; owner threads on Pontoon Forums.