2014 Rear Ballast hose set up question

[CarFanatic]

Ok my question is, on the 2014 they have 2 vent lines. One line comes up from somewhere under the floor? Does anyone know what this line would be venting? The bottom hard tank maybe?? I dont really under stand why there are 2 vent lines on the bag, and one Teed in to another so basically 3 vent lines total. Any one know? I am thinking about eliminating one line on the top of the bag.

[Iwndr]

Be careful on what you remove until after you fully trace all lines. I believe that the Sacks are filled from the hard tank vent. I doubt that Tige would spend money on unnecessary plumbing. I will look at mine closer this week and see if I notice any unneeded lines

[CarFanatic]

no sac is filled from the top bag down. I traced that line. I just dont know where the line that comes up underneath and is teed in to one of the top bag vents

[chpthril]

The tank has a vent and the sac has a vent, and they are tied together and share a common thru-hull. The sac is filled vie the front upper port as well as through the bottom 2 fittings as the tank is filled.

[boardman74]

I was told at the boat show By Tony from Tige that the extra vents were added because of a few bags splitting at the seams. The engineers deducted that with the 1200 pumps the bags needed another vent to stop the over pressuring or as a safety incase a vent was pinched off. Basically its over kill to me. There is now 2 vents per ballast location. The line you are referring to is the vent for the tank. I'm sure the thought being if there was an obstruction in the tank to bag line, so the tank wouldn't over pressure. So thats why that vent is T'd into the other vents.

[IDBoating]

Really? Splitting at the seams? Aerator pumps don't generate all that much pressure to begin with, and due to their "open" design (as opposed to an impeller pump) they are much more susceptible to "automatic" pressure reduction due to backpressure (i.e. a full ballast sac).

[CarFanatic]

I figured it was the tank vent. I am thinking of just getting rid of the t line, so I have one tank and one bag vent total. Would this be ok? There are just way to many hoses everywhere in that compartment, you have to keep an eye on them so they dont snag when filling

[boardman74]

@WA..I thought the same thing when I was told that…must be some strong T1200's!!!!

Also as of late 2013 there are now 2 vent thru hulls at each point. Thats why there are 3 on each side front(drain, 2 vent) and 4 each side back(bilge, drain, 2 vent). The front bags each have 2 independent vent lines. The rear has a vent on the tank that T's into one of the bag vents. So the bags have 2 independent vent lines, one of with gets T'd into by the tank vent. Seems like over kill to me, but sure there was a reason. Probably due to a rare case of a problem.

[Ewok]

So the newer surf and pro ballast systems don't piggy back off the vent line from the hard tank but have their own fill pumps? In my setup I have a piggy back line from the hard tank feeding into the bag on top, but I also have a seperate pump for that bag. My theory is that after the hard tank is filled it would help fill my bigger bag on top. The problem is that when I drain the hard tank, the vent for the hard tank feeds into the bag on top, and when the bag on top is sucked dry, there is not enough air to flow back into the hard tank and displace the water being sucked out of that tank. This causes the hard tank to suck water from the fill line into the tank to refill the water that was sucked out from the drain pump, and the tank never drains. On the water, if I want to drain that tank I have to remove the piggy back vent line from the hard tank, so it can draw air and actually empty itself. If I don't feel like doing that I always hit the drains on all the tanks after I pull the boat out of the water, on an incline at the boat launch if it's not too busy.

If the newer systems found a way to vent the hard tank and allow it to piggy back into the bag on top, or just keep the 2 seperate from each other with sperate pumps and vents, then that's probably the reason there are so many vents now.

[boardman74]

The system is a piggy back and only has one fill and one drain pump per rear side. I'm not 100% sure how the filling works between the tank and bag, but from the fill pump it goes to the tank and then into the bag. The drain pump is also on the tank and it has to gravity feed from the bag back to the tank to drain. Not sure how its all working with the additional venting. But for vents now there is a vent from the tank directly to the thru hull and 2 from the bag to 2 thru hulls. Not sure if there are 1 or 2 fill/drain go betweens from the tank to the bag. I can check on Monday if anyone is curious.

It seems like an over complicated and slow system to me. Thats the reason I order with base ballast and add my own "surf" ballast with independent drain and fill pumps for the bags. I have over twice factory weight and can fill or empty from any configuration in 5 minutes. Add a big enzo style sac to the factory surf system and see how long it takes you to drain!!

[CarFanatic]

My 2014 the fill pump pumps into the top of the bag. IT has a drain pump attached to the hard tank.