Jbort's Custom Ballast Upgrade

[st68]

Looking good... have to like the play play action shots!!!

[jbort]

yes - I really do. Its lots of fun.

[chpthril]

Rear storage wall complete and ready to install. Engine side panel will be done in the morning. Once these panels are back in place, I can drop in the sac and blow it up. from there, i can lay the hoses in and finish the plumbing.

[thtrog]

Looking Good!

[chpthril]

Storage walls complete and installed. Drain pumps plumbed. Sac laid in and filled with air for test fit. Finishing up the fill and vent lines and then it will be ready for a dunk in the lake.

[Iwndr]

Nice Work Mike

[tnvolgrad]

How hard was it to remove the batteries and factory tank? Did the old step "e.g. where the batteries were housed" come out pretty easy? Looks like you only had to build a new wall for the rear - what did you make it out of/process?

Nice work - looks like that is the route that I am going to go. Given you took the left side rear factory tank out - probably makes sense to do the same to the right. Do you know if there is anything under the right side shelf? I assume it is there to match.

Last question - how much time do you think you spent completing the job?

[chpthril]

Tn,

In side of an hour, I had the walls/batter box out, batteries out (tag the cables) and the tank pulled. Its not a major operation, although I have heard that the alternator needs to be pulled in order to slide the starboard tank out.

The walls are are built out of .5 marine ply coated in resin. I was able to get both panels out of a 4x4. There is a composite material made by AZEK, but its about $110 for a 4x8 and was a special-order.

The engine side panel was easy to one-off; pealed off the carpet, laid it on the ply and traced it out but using a straight-edge to include the missing corner. The back panel was mocked up in cardboard because its a total build up. I will have about 7 to 10 hrs in the project.

On the starboard side, the tank pushes out the taps motor, but not to the degree as the batteries. I will take some pics and measurements here is a little bit when I get to the shop.

[chpthril]

Factory hard tank.

I took some time this afternoon to measure the capacity of the factory hard tank that was removed.

At best, it will hold about 25 gals/210Lbs.

[robert theisen]

that is a great looking job chp.it looks like factory to me.if the hard tanks only hold 210 lbs those bags will be a MAJOR improvement. i'm sure jbort will love it!

[jbort]

Boat came home today and it looks even better up close and for real. Can hardly wait for warmer weather. Mike did a super job and the Wetsounds Ws-420 sounds great too. jb

[mls6722]

This is really nice. I love the details and the photos. I am interested in adding / replacing my ballast on both sides. I have the same factory tanks as Jbort. My boat was missing the factory bow sac, so I was thinking of a sac that fits in the same location. Did you do anything with the bow ballast? When you say it was completely separate plumbing did you add separate fittings into the hull? Chp, would like to hear what you think are the best options. I am sure the first question is what will I be using it for. I have never surfed, but want to be able to surf both sides. From what I've seen, the wake-board wake is enough for our skill level with the factory ballast, but may want more as we get better.

[chpthril]

This is really nice. I love the details and the photos. I am interested in adding / replacing my ballast on both sides. I have the same factory tanks as Jbort. My boat was missing the factory bow sac, so I was thinking of a sac that fits in the same location. Did you do anything with the bow ballast? When you say it was completely separate plumbing did you add separate fittings into the hull? Chp, would like to hear what you think are the best options. I am sure the first question is what will I be using it for. I have never surfed, but want to be able to surf both sides. From what I've seen, the wake-board wake is enough for our skill level with the factory ballast, but may want more as we get better.

For the bow, the Fly High w711 sac is the ticket. Should be a fairly simple swap out, but may need to change the fittings from the factory fittings to the Fly High Quick-connects.

We did not do anything with the factory bow ballast, it was left intact.

For Jborts new custom sac, we utilized the existing fill and drain pumps, as well as added a couple of new 1100 GPH (gallon per hour) pumps to speed up the filling and draining. This did require a new thru-hull mushroom in the bottom of the boat.

A pair of custom sacs to replace the factory hard tanks is the ideal setup for surfing, but presents a unique challenge when adding a little ballast for wake boarding. The Ve boats like to have, at a minimum, a 50/50 % weight split front to rear. Even better, they like a 60% front/40% rear weight split. So, filling a pair of 1K Lb sacs in the back would probably result in a crappy wake unless you were able to add that amount or more in the front. For this, its best to go through a little trial and error and figure out how long to run the rear pumps in order to get the right amount of weight so its not too heavy in the rear and you have a washed out wake.

You can also add in a couple sacs with their own pumps just for surfing. Although this gets a little more involved as far as plumbing and install, but it would keep the factory tanks intact for boarding and have a pair of 600lb sacs in place for surfing.

[mls6722]

Chp, PM sent

[majestic]

This is really nice. I love the details and the photos. I am interested in adding / replacing my ballast on both sides. I have the same factory tanks as Jbort. My boat was missing the factory bow sac, so I was thinking of a sac that fits in the same location. Did you do anything with the bow ballast? When you say it was completely separate plumbing did you add separate fittings into the hull? Chp, would like to hear what you think are the best options. I am sure the first question is what will I be using it for. I have never surfed, but want to be able to surf both sides. From what I've seen, the wake-board wake is enough for our skill level with the factory ballast, but may want more as we get better.

If you want to check out the 22ve surf wakes in person let me know. I have 1000lb sacs on each side.