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**mls6722** · 05-09-2016, 04:25 AM

What a beautiful boat. You will love it. I have a 2008 22Ve with the factory ballast and here is a link to my ballast upgrade.

Adding ballast to 2008 22Ve - mls6722
http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16870

You will find many upgrades where the factory hard tanks are removed and it will be a much simpler upgrade than mine. I guess I might like to do things the hard way.
Here is my opinion: if you remove the hard tanks and move the batteries aft on the port side and taps pump and blower aft on the starboard side, you will have a great surf wave. And it will still work good for wake boarding.
I had fun with my project, and I like the result. Just search the forum and you will see many options. You will certainly want to add or replace the aft tank pumps with bigger pumps for the added ballast sacs. It won't be a true piggy back. Holes will be necessary. I never touched the front ballast on mine it is stock. 2 fill pumps and 2 drain pumps.

You have at least 2 forum members near Spokane who are great resources. Waboating and Ewok are both great to connect with.

Welcome and congratulations!

**chpthril** · 05-09-2016, 12:12 PM

Lest start simple. The stock ballast is 900# and consists of a single U shaped bow sac. Spec'd at 400, but I think its a little more but not more than 500#. A pair of rear hard tanks across the transom are 250# each.

Whats the largest standard sac you can piggy-back? W705 rear seat bottom sac for about 600#. Whats the largest custom sac? about 1000# custom 1-off that fits over the battery and TAPS structures.

Will either of these piggyback setups work well? no

Whats the best way to get the most weight? Leave the hard tanks and their plumbing intact. Relocate the batteries and TAPS motor and put in a custom sac with its own plumbing. Less involved but 250# less weight........pull the hard tanks and return the locker to the state of no ballast and use custom sac with the OEM plumbing.

**sandm** · 05-09-2016, 12:16 PM

if you don't mind the wait times, just buy chp's bags you swap in and away you go. he will also sell you pumps if you want to decrease that fill/drain times. I have not messed around with the goofy side yet but all I had to do was add his custom sack to the regular side and the wave was 10X what it was from factory.

fwiw, I left hard tanks in and batteries as-is. you can also add dual fill pumps on the rears with no added holes if you piggy back 2 pumps off each rear fill hole, just make sure one pump off each intake goes to each side of the boat. this is the way chp set me up.

**duffymahoney** · 05-09-2016, 03:04 PM

I am helping him with it, but honestly I don't know much about the Ves. Anyone in the spokane area install ballast systems?

**mwelp** · 05-10-2016, 07:44 AM

Wow - appreciate the insights!

Mis, you had quite the project. Makes it clear to me I don't want to take that on myself! Bigger pumps makes sense.

chp, thank you for the straight up advice. Going with one of your suggestions sounds good to me. As Duffy says, I definitely need to find someone in Spokane / CDA area to do this work. Then see which of these options they could take on. I also need to know how to get ahold of you about getting sacs and pumps etc. I tried private msg yesterday but your mailbox was full. How long does it take to get custom sacs?

sandm, your solution sounds simple. You mentioned swapping out sacs but sounds like you just added a second sack on the one back side with its own pump. That sounds super simple and may be plenty effective for a newbie like me. Whats your total ballast weight now?

Thanks again Duffy for all your help.

Appreciatively,
Michael

**duffymahoney** · 05-10-2016, 03:36 PM

If it was me I would keep the stock 250's. I think that space is neat and under utilized.

Can't he just splice off the fill and drain pumps to new fill and drain pumps for the custom sac? So no new wiring or switches would be needed?

**chpthril** · 05-10-2016, 04:28 PM

So no new wiring or switches would be needed?

A system could be design in which no new or additional switch would be needed and minimal wiring.

Can't he just splice off the fill and drain pumps to new fill and drain pumps for the custom sac?

Yes, but its not going to be a very user friendly system. It would fill ok but a check valve would be needed to prevent passive draining. Going to fill slow as I think that 08 was using 750 GPH pumps. Draining is where the real issue can be. The sac will likely be left with water in it. This is because its relying on gravity to drain to a pump thats on the same plane as the hard tank and pump. next hurdle is T'ing into the existing drain pump given how its connected to the tank and its position related to the batteries on the port side. With a tall custom sac tied into the OEM ballast, you will for sure, get passive draining through the drain line. So more work and hose to eliminate.

**duffymahoney** · 05-10-2016, 04:36 PM

I meant splice off the wiring, not the plumbing.

I would install 1 new drain and 1 new fill pump per side, use the stock wiring and switch. I would then, take the take vent and run it into another fill port on the custom sac. That way the sac will fill quicker. Run the empty lines to the opposite side so no passive draining. Thoughts?

**chpthril** · 05-10-2016, 05:59 PM

Sorry, miss read. yes, we do that all the time, even on new boats with the medallion and murphy TT systems.

The issue with using the tank's vent line in that manor, is the possibility that the collapsing sac closes off the tank vent and the tank tin-cans.

**ChrisSnow** · 05-10-2016, 06:13 PM

Originally posted by chpthril View Post

Sorry, miss read. yes, we do that all the time, even on new boats with the medallion and murphy TT systems.

The issue with using the tank's vent line in that manor, is the possibility that the collapsing sac closes off the tank vent and the tank tin-cans.

You could tee off the mid position to a vent to deal with that. Gravity should take care of the rest :-)

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

**chpthril** · 05-10-2016, 06:31 PM

True but when you connect the tall sac to the lower tank, they will want to equalize. This equalizing will end up with the tall sac passively draining through that T and out of the thru-hull outlet. Now you are fixing an issue that wasnt there before. This is why I suggest leaving the OEM ballast intact.

**mwelp** · 05-11-2016, 05:17 AM

chp sounds like when adding any new custom sacs in the back they should ideally have their own pump and independent plumbing system. Maybe their own wiring and switches too? Is that one of the easiest ways to add significant more ballast? Another layer of difficulty is to do the same with the relocating of the batteries and TAPS motor?

**mls6722** · 05-15-2016, 01:39 AM

2008 22VE - wanting to know best upgrade from factory ballast

I am going to offer my suggestion. I believe, the best option is to add the custom sacs without keeping the factory hard tanks.
here is the changes.
1- Remove hard tanks
2- Move batteries and Taps pump/blower into the space where the hard tanks were - this is a simple move and no re-wiring is required
3- build new side and aft walls for the compartments to eliminate the steps.
4- you could keep the existing fill and drain pumps but they will be slow. Better to get new larger fill and drain pumps. Keep pump switches and wiring. I drilled new holes for the fill pumps. It may be possible to mount the larger pumps in place of the existing aft fill pumps, but I'm not sure.
5- new fill, drain and vent hoses. Cross the vent and drain hoses to the opposite side of the boat.

The above is my suggested approach for a great surf wave.

**mwelp** · 05-15-2016, 10:30 PM

Thanks mis, I can see the wisdom of keeping the same switches and wiring.

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2008 22VE - wanting to know best upgrade from factory ballast

2008 22VE - wanting to know best upgrade from factory ballast

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