RZ2 basic ballast to Surf plus

[skippabcool]

Looks good.

[IDBoating]

Looking great!

One suggestion: I'd tyrap the pump wiring to hoses or other mounted objects so there is no chance of it getting involved with that rotating part on the front of the v-drive. Rubber bands deteriorate with time and you really don't want loose wires getting wrapped around something.

Looking forward to more photos!

[mls6722]

Ewok, That looks great. Did you keep with the plan to vent the factory 250's into the new sacs? I am curious to see how that works. I was thinking of doing the same and Chpthril raised the issue that it might prevent letting air back into the 250 when draining. Since my 250 is a hard tank, it must have air coming in to let it drain.

Can't wait to see the wave.

[Ewok]

I hadn't thought about letting air back into the hard tank to let it drain, but it might help drain the main sac...I don't know what will happen, I hope to find out this afternoon.

[Ewok]

Looking great!

One suggestion: I'd tyrap the pump wiring to hoses or other mounted objects so there is no chance of it getting involved with that rotating part on the front of the v-drive. Rubber bands deteriorate with time and you really don't want loose wires getting wrapped around something.

Looking forward to more photos!

I'm on it, I've got a big pouch of zip-tyes to clean everything up with.

[Ewok]

Well, I didn't get on the water today. It took a while to clean up the wiring and zip-tie everything so it would look nice. It also took a little while to put the finishing touches on the hoses and make sure they were angles right and blah blah blah...

It's done! I'll post more pics later, I'm tired and I've gotta go to work tomorrow. After test fitting the bags with air I can't wait to see what happens when they are filled with water.

[IDBoating]

Well, I didn't get on the water today. It took a while to clean up the wiring and zip-tie everything so it would look nice. It also took a little while to put the finishing touches on the hoses and make sure they were angles right and blah blah blah...

Time spent making sure things are done right is never wasted. Your patience will be worth it! Can't wait to see more photos and surf that monster myself!

[Ewok]

OK, long time coming, here is most of the write up for the ballast install. I don’t have pictures of the wake at this time, it’s been too windy to go out this weekend so here are some shots of the install process.

I started by opening up all the compartments to get a look at how the factory system is wired and plumbed, since I’ll be piggy-backing off the factory hard tanks. So I tested and labeled all the hoses and wires going to all the pumps. Then I took out the two pumps to add my “T” so I can get two pumps on the same thru-hull. If you don’t remember the design, here it is:





The next thing I did was clean up the locker area and flush mounted the factory battery switch in red and added a second on/off switch, flush mounted, in black.





Then I got to work. I put the bags in the locker area and filled them up with air. I then planned the locations of where to run the fill, drain and vent hoses and marked the back area of the locker to drill out a location for the drain fitting to match up with the drain pump. Thanks to WABoating for having the proper size hole saw for this part. After I marked and drilled the locations for the hoses to be run, I took the pumps off the factory mounts and began the puzzle of trying to get them to fit while having room for air to escape and keep the pumps primed. This is the configuration I came up with, it all fits (barely) and on my very short test run in the lake a few days ago, the pumps were primed and filled the bags.



After I put the pumps in, I ran the hose to the compartments following similar routes to the factory hoses, here is what the lockers look like:




I pulled and replaced the plastic channel holding the engine locker dividers down and replaced it with aluminum U-channel. I added U-channel on the back side of the engine dividers too so they would not bend in and possibly melt on the engine.



Here is what the locker area looks like with the bags empty. I added check valves to the fill lines of the new bags plus the vent lines from the new bags so the bags do empty all the way. I also noted zero difficulty in emptying the factory hard tanks even though they do not have a proper vent to allow air into the tank when it is drained.



A few notes about my install. Chpthrill hooked me up with a 1” inner diameter tubing setup to help maximize the fill and drain times. When I went to add the extra fill port on the sack from the factory drain line, I noticed that the factory drain was a ¾” inner diameter tube. Luckily, the outer diameter of the tube barely fit into the inner diameter of the Flyhigh 1” quick disconnet fitting. I was able to heat up the tube and used a 2 part epoxy called PC-11 to secure the factory ¾” tube inside the flyhigh fitting and it stayed dry for the short lake test that I have has so far.



Here is a shot of the extra thru-hulls I installed for the drains from the new sacks. I used the factory thru-hull vent locations for my vents from the sacks.



I did not get around to splitting the front ballast bag but I don’t think I’m going to need to. I filled it during my test and the wave looked great with just my wife and I in the boat plus the wakesurf side ballast and all the forward ballast full (400 lbs in the bow). I’ll add a little more to this thread when I get more water shots and some speed/taps setting too.

I also did not add the cross over either. I wanted to make sure my additional fill ports in the bag held before I added more to the bag. I also could not find a good place to mount the valves to stop the crossover the way I intended. My idea for a crossover is to T off the drain pump line and tie it into one of the fill lines of the opposite tank (I might have to add another fill port on the bag). When I want the crossover to happen I could put that rubber stopper in the drain thru-hull and have the water diverted to the other bag.

Big thanks to Chpthrill (Mike, from Mikes Liquid Audio), WABoating for extra parts and sounding board for the ideas leading up to this install, and Skippabcool for sending me the wiring diagram for the switches to make them light up like my factory switches would.

[majestic]

Nicely done Ewok

[Iwndr]

Very Nice work Ewok now its time to enjoy!

[skippabcool]

Very nice

[IDBoating]

Looks better than professional. Those switches are nagging at me now... I may have to follow your lead and flush mount mine so I'm not ashamed when your boat is around.

Can't wait to see the results!

[Ewok]

Ok, had the boat on the water for a little this afternoon. Fixed the few little leaks I had but the vent lines are not working. I added check valves and routed the vent line to the opposite side of the boat. I can blow through the vent lines just fine, the check valves are in the proper direction, but when the bags were full the vent lines only let a trickle of water through. I had to turn the pumps off so the bags didn't pop. I have the vent lines on the most forward port on the bags, any ideas?

On a positive note, the check valves in the drain lines worked well in preventing air from getting back into the sacs and they drained down flat. Plenty of room for boards in the lockers going to and from the lake.

I guess the next step in trouble shooting is to try a different port on the bag and remove the check valves and see if the vent lines get flow.

[IDBoating]

I can blow through the vent lines just fine, the check valves are in the proper direction, but when the bags were full the vent lines only let a trickle of water through. I had to turn the pumps off so the bags didn't pop.

That's worrisome, since I believe I have the same check valves and I plan to install them in my vent lines as part of my speed-doubling mods this season. I'm very interested to see what you learn. Perhaps we can troubleshoot this weekend if you come out to the lake?

[mls6722]

Ewok, The install looks great.