thanks chpthrl-ballast upgrade started

[sandm]

first off, I'd like to thank mike for sending me a pretty complete ballast upgrade for my 22ve. I swapped a few small things out and am designing it a little differently than he recommended, but the kit came complete for what he suggested and he has been AMAZING as far as tech support goes..

the goal was to get a better wake on the regular side. never fill the goofy side so that was not a consideration and we only wakeboard a few times a year and don't use ballast, so again not a priority..

Mike sold me an "enzo" style bag for the rz2/22ve earlier in the season and it works great, but fill/drain times are SLOW. the purpose of this is to increase them. he recommended adding a tsunami fill and a tsunami drain using 1" lines. I decided to change that up and use the 2 slightly faster tsunami's to fill along with the 1" line and use the 2 rule's and 3/4" lines to drain as we are usually cleaning up and bs'ing as we drain so that time was not as important. didn't take a before pic and didn't really take any of the compartment as you all know what that looks like, but here's the belly with the added pumps. tried to keep it as clean as the factory setup.

this weekend, drilling the additional drain in the hull. first time drilling and a little nervous, but I think I've read up enough on it to make it successful

for the record, it was a pita to remove everything to get at this floor access, but after raising the panel, install was a breeze. good thinking tige....

[skippabcool]

Looks good.

[chpthril]

Thanks for the kind words, I appreciated the opportunity to work with you. Install is looking great and I know you will be pleased with the results.

Thanks,
Mike

[mnpracing]

Sandm, do the rear fill lines have check valves on them?

[Miljack]

Only comment is on the PVC "ball valves" instead of real seac*%@$ between the through-hulls and the aerator pumps. If one of those breaks, you better be headed for the trailer!

[sandm]

those are stock to the boat. I would see a pump breaking before one of those ball valves breaks.

[sandm]

got a chance to work again today.

bag is all plumbed in. 2 tsunami pumps with 1" hoses should fill quickly. I swapped the fill/vent on the outside top of the bag per mike's advice as I had a little leakage out the vent when full..


location for the second pump. might need to replace it with a higher flow as it's pumping to the other side of the boat and has an uphill jaunt to get there.




and now for the hard part...
drilling the new thru hull. went pretty good. I think..

[IDBoating]

That white bodied pump coming off the T looks like it might be slightly "inverted". The outlet fitting is facing up, which is good, but the unused 1/2 inch port is also "up" and the inlet looks like it might be too close to horizontal. Ideally you want the path from the thruhull to the hose to be "uphill all the way" so it will automatically clear bubbles and avoid priming issues. Maybe the photo angle is tricking me, but it looks like a bubble might not naturally flow up and out of the hose. Might be worth checking.

Nice looking install, keep up the clean work!

[sandm]

thanks. will check it out.

been a lot of work, but it was refreshing to hit the panel yesterday night and hear all the pumps fire up. means I did at least part of it right too bad the water test isn't until next spring..

[mnpracing]

Scott, can you post up some details on how the wiring was done, with the relay and tapping into the TT Medalion panel?

[sandm]

will do. cleaning up the wiring tonight.

[sandm]

Here's the wiring pic. the black electrical taped thing above the black box are the 2 relays. one for fill, one for drain. you can trace the red/black power/ground wires to the bottom of the medallion panel. there are also connections up above as well. the 2 red covered connections with a green and red wire are the ballast connections from the relay to the medallion panel, then the brown wires that were connected to the panel go to the 4th plug on the relays. the 87a is not used in the center. chpthril's instructions are pretty straightforward.. much cleaner than adding another switch like my dealer wanted to do. this will work just like factory.

not my best job at hiding the relays, but it'll work and is quite easy to remove if needed. mine probably looks cramped as well. I moved the medallion unit and the black circuit breaker unit up 1.5" for the sub box to fit.
more on that later

[mnpracing]

nice job! are there redundant switches for everything or just the 4 switches shown in the pic? so if TT goes out, you can only empty the ballast? Again, thanks for sharing this, it will make my install go much better.

THanks,

[sandm]

only 4 switches. it's my understanding that with the key on, you can still adjust the taps/drain and fill ballast using the fusepanel and "bypass" tt. have not tried and hope I don't ever need to

[boardman74]

Yeah thats the same set up thats on my 2013 RZR. All the stuff in the TT and thats all thats there if it goes out. I will bet there are owners that don't even know that is there!!!