2018 RZX 3 ballast questions

[Brandon161]

Hello,

I am looking at 2018 RZX3. I currently have a 2016 Supreme S238. I honestly love my supreme. But Tige interior is very appealing to me. I have been looking at different posts. Am I reading things correctly that there is no PNP plumbing for ballast in the bow of these boats? Also, do they use one pump to fill and one to drain? Or just one reversible pump? The Supreme uses reversible pumps that work really well and they are mounted on the back
transom wall, so super easy to access if they need maintained. How hard are the pumps to access in a RZX3?

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Brandon

[chpthril]

Tige uses aerator pumps. So really no service to be done as long as you winterize them. Fill pumps are easy to access under floor. Bow drain pumps I do not think are too hard to access and I think the rear drain pumps are easier to access then of previous models.

There is bow ballast, but no factory plumbing for additional bow ballast.

[Brandon161]

That is kind of a bummer on the pumps and lack of plug and play for the bow.

Thank you for the information,
Brandon

[chpthril]

Where would you place additional bow ballast?

[Brandon161]

I assumed there was a place under the front seats to put a bag. Like every other surf boat I have been on. Is there no space?

[chpthril]

Its it already occupied by the bow ballast?

[freeheel4life]

18s have a bunch of plastic dividers and storage under bow seats. If a guy wanted to get clever he could probably vent the subfloors into some bags in those storage areas. Draining would be the issue(would have to backdrain or add a separate drain pump).

Id just run lead or some throwovers.

[Brandon161]

Okay. That makes sense. I was just asking. I truly have no idea what it looks like under the bow seats.

[chpthril]

So the 18 went sub-floor? Last one I got a pocking around in, was a 17, and it had a bow sac under the seats.

Even then, I cant think of any manufacturer offering PnP bow plumbing above what the factory bow weight is.

[freeheel4life]

It runs together in my head Mike but I'm fairly certain you lift the seats and there's divided storage space in the 18s.

[Brandon161]

I don’t think we are on the same page here..... take my supreme for instance. There is no hard tank in the front. But there is a hard center tank. In the bow there is room under the seats to add a bag. And the plumbing is there from the factory. Same with axis. Mastercraft. Moomba. Nautique. But it sounds like the Tige is not made / setup for that.

[freeheel4life]

So I believe you are partially correct...I can't speak to new Axis or Naitique(not a dealer for them) but PnP on MC is model dependent and most models are rear PNPs only. Most models are hard tanks up front and no additional PNPs up front for MC. Moomba runs a subfloor bag and some get an overflow bag in the bow under the seats. Same thing tho, model specific. Some older Craz/mondo/mojo had tanks subfloor and bag over top but believe they went to bags subfloor those as well in recent model yearsSupra is all subfloor up front as well with no additional PNP.

Pretty much anything can be added to any boat. Is just time, $, and energy. The push in the industry had been to keep everything subfloor so storage is maximized.

ZX1 and some other Tige models are running PNP up front for ballast though I just dont remember 18 RZX3 being one of them. Been wrong before and will be wrong again. Hopefully someone can post pics of their bow on an 18.

[bsreid]

The rzx line up has bags under the floor in the bow area that are not visible unless you lift the floor panels up. In the bow storage there isn’t a ton of room to put a bag, the most you would get would be 200lbs.
I’m a strong believer that the rzx3 hull needs additional bow weight so I run a bunch of lead up front.
Fill pumps are super easy access under the center floor, as well as the drains just need to unscrew a few panels.

[Brandon161]

I run 1000 pounds of lead in my supreme. Which I plan to keep. How much is needed for the bow?

[bsreid]

I would say about 500 in the bow and 200 in the surf locker is a good start. Move the bags in the surf locker to the surf side to clean up the wave.