2007 22VE Ballast build

[Jetdriver]

Hey everybody! New Tige' owner, new to me anyhow. 2007 22VE, 255 hours in great shape. It was purchased originally outta Riverside, CA so it has the Xplosion tower and extreme trailer. STOKED needless to say. I've read through a ton of forum info on various builds but have a couple questions for those that have done it.

I'm installing an automated ballast system consisting of two rear sacks and a bow sack. I've purchased 3 reversible Johnson pumps and am putting each on a dedicated 1" thru hull. I've already decided on the spots for the thru hulls and drilled a tiny pilot hole from the inside of the boat so that I have a mark where to use the hole saw from outside. (I barely put any pressure on the drill letting the bit do the work so as to not bust out the gelcoat, not my first time drilling gelcoat, it worked perfectly) I was getting ready to mount the thru hulls and it occurred to me that my valves once tightened on the thru hulls need to be in a very specific orientation in order to be able to open and close them all.
Any tips on getting the thru hulls set in the correct way so when I tighten the valves onto them the valves will be positioned correctly? I was thinking doing a dry fit, basically tightening the valve on a thru hull, marking the orientation on the thru hull and bilge floor with a marker then removing and applying sealant and refitting. Also I'm assuming that you need to use pipe dope on the thru hull to valve threads, is that correct? Any thing needed on the valve to hose fitting? Mine are plastic. Ideas? Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!! I will be sure to take lots of pics throughout the process.

[Greeko]

Hey everybody! New Tige' owner, new to me anyhow. 2007 22VE, 255 hours in great shape. It was a purchased originally outta Riverside, CA so it has the Xplosion tower and extreme trailer. STOKED needless to say. I've read through a ton of forum info on various builds but have a couple questions for those that have done it.

I'm installing an automated ballast system consisting of two rear sacks and a bow sack. I've purchased 3 reversible Johnson pumps and am putting each on a dedicated 1" thru hull. I've already decided on the spots for the thru hulls and drilled a tiny pilot hole from the inside of the boat so that I have a mark where to use the hole saw from outside. (I barely put any pressure on the drill letting the bit do the work so as to not bust out the gelcoat, not my first time drilling gelcoat, it worked perfectly) I was getting ready to mount the thru hulls and it occurred to me that my valves once tightened on the thru hulls need to be in a very specific orientation in order to be able to open and close them all.
Any tips on getting the tru hulls set in the correct way so when I tighten the valves onto them the valves will be positioned correctly? I was thinking doing a dry fit, basically tightening the valve on a thru hull, marking the orientation on the thru hull and bilge floor with a marker then removing and applying sealant and refitting. Also I'm assuming that you need to use pipe dope on the thru hull to valve threads, is that correct? Any thing needed on the valve to hose fitting? Mine are plastic. Ideas? Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!! I will be sure to take lots of pics throughout the process.

Make sure you use a good marine sealant like 3m 5200 on the through hull fittings. I hope the fittings are metal. I would go with metal valves... It is your safety Isolation point... I used a bit of teflon tape and dope on all threads to make it seat easier. Good idea for the dry fit

[chpthril]

Put the ball valve on right after installing the thru-hull while the sealer is still fresh. Once the valve is tight, use your pipe wrench on the top of the valve to rotate the entire setup in order to orient the handle as needed. The uncured sealer acts a great lubricant and will allow the thru-hull to slide. Once the assembly is oriented, recheck the thru-hull jam nut. Use the same below-waterline sealer on all the threaded and hose barb connections that is used to bed the thru-hull. I dont suggest residential/commercial plumbing dope.

[Jetdriver]

All thru hulls and valves are brass, the fitting from the valve to hose is plastic. I'll be using 3m marine sealant. I thought of sliding it as you mentioned Chpthril (seemed easiest) but wasn't sure if that would screw up the seal. Good to hear that it won't.
Thanks for the quick replies and suggestions guys!

[Jetdriver]

Made some more progress on my install today. Got all three thru hulls and valves installed. Cut out switch panel on dash. I'm kinda skipping around doing what I can while waiting on various other parts to arrive.
image.jpg image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

[jslayde1]

Looks good. Nice work!

[WYTige?]

Looks really good, you've got the worst behind by the looks of things. Drilling holes in the bottom of a boat can't be fun.

[Jetdriver]

Thx gents! I'm kinda kicking myself for not just drilling one hole for a 1.5 inch thru hull and building a manifold. That would've been so much easier. I was told it's easier on these impeller pumps to have their own dedicated thru hull so I went that route. Getting the nut tight was a pain in the *** on the third one I did. Hardly any room to get tools on it.

Question for the Tige' ballast gurus. Where is a good spot to run the hose through the floor for the front sack? I have a fly high U shaped bow sack and am planning on one line from the pump into a Y then connecting to both sides of the legs for fill/drain and venting off the top center port. I was tentatively planning on drilling a hole right behind the gas tank vents in the front lockers to bring the hose up outta the bilge/gas tank area then a hole trough the locker to bow storage where the sack will be. Yes? No?
Thanks in advance

[chpthril]

I was told it's easier on these impeller pumps to have their own dedicated thru hull so I went that route.

This is the common thinking from one of the larger ballast retailers. My thoughts on this are, the surface area is:

.75" = 1.77
1.0" = 3.14
1.25" = 4.91

So, if a single .75" thru-hull is more than plenty for a 700 gph self priming impeller pump, how is a 1" not suitable for 2 pumps or a 1.25" for 3 pumps? At gravity to low pressure, the flow rates are about 10 gpm, 15 gpm and 25 gpm respectively. However, in our application, we dont have gravity to low pressure acting upon the thru-hull, at least not while filling, but rather some decent pressure. Whats generating this pressure you ask? Its the displacement of the hull sitting in the water, with the thru-hull below the water line. So in actuality, the pump(s) is not really sucking the water from the lake, but rather then thru-hull is being force fed a supply of water, that im sure is more than enough to keep pace with the demands of the pump(s). As long as the impeller has water, nothing is going to harm the impeller. If the boat is in the water and all the connections are tight, the impeller will have water, regardless of the flow rate/size of the thru-hull. It cant suck air cause theres no where for air to get in. The impeller is going to spin in the pump head, regardless of water supply. So once you factor in that water pressure in the line from the hull displacement, You see that there is no real load placed on the pumps drawing from a common manifold as compared to one drawing from its own .75" thru-hull. The last thing to consider, comes right from the manufacturer. if you look at the inlets of the pump, you will notice internal threads. These accept a .5 NPT fitting. The ID of a typical .5 NPT fitting, is about .5". The pump manufacturer has not issues with a couple of .5" NPT fittings, even 90 elbow, being used on their pump.

[Jetdriver]

It's clear you've done your research Chpthril. You've convinced me, I'm gonna pull out the other two thru hulls, patch the holes and drill one big hole. Hindsight is 20/20.
Like I said, I'm regretting not doing one large single thru hull but I'm in it to win it at this point. Oh well, live and learn. This is a major reason I like to take on projects like these myself, so I learn. I have a vested interest in making my install look good and my system work well. Most shops that work on your stuff don't care at all. Make a mistake, oh well, cover it up and move on. You're just another dollar to them. I'm guessing when you first started doing ballast installs you didn't have it all figured out but rather over the years have learned a lot from other people, your own research, and trial and error. Unfortunately I only have my boat to work on and as such am relying heavily on what I've seen from others builds on T/O and advice people give me. I'm smart enough to figure it out and make it work just fine on my own but that's not the point of being a member of a forum. Hopefully I can learn enough in the process to contribute to another's success in the future. I'm always open to ideas and criticism so please keep them coming!

[skippabcool]

If you already have it in with the separate holes why not leave it? I would think that is a better option than trying to patch them. Mine are in similar locations and were tight but once I got them I haven't had to mess with them any more.

[chpthril]

Dont regret doing individual thru-hulls. There is no design or functionality down side to it. We on occasions do individual or sometimes 2 thru-hulls, one of which feeds two pumps. Other times, we do a common manifold. It comes down to the bilge layout in most cases. Luckily, the bilge of Ve affords plenty of room to go either way. Over the past 8 years, we have improved our ballast designs. This experience comes both doing installs as well as from customer feedback. Many of those installs documented right here on TO, for others to draw from.

[killerbren]

If you already have it in with the separate holes why not leave it? I would think that is a better option than trying to patch them. Mine are in similar locations and were tight but once I got them I haven't had to mess with them any more.

I think he was just being sarcastic and making a joke.

I would like to know what you guys think about his other question though, about how to get the water to the bow. I'm in the process of doing the same thing and I think I am going to try to bring the fill line up to the compartment in front of the helm then attach it to the top of the starboard arm of the bow sac. (I don't think it would be benificial to Y the fill line since my bow sac is always going to be 100% full or 100% empty. This will leave the center port to use as a drain.

[Jetdriver]

Yea, I was definitely joking around. No way I was gonna patch holes to do it over. I didn't mess anything up, just thinking in retrospect it would've been easier and just as good. A dedicated intake for each pump will work great.
I decided to get the ball rolling on running the plumbing to the front. I'm gonna use a Y junction to bring two lines to the front sack because I want it to drain more evenly. If you just have a fill on one leg and drain on the other there is always going to be water stuck in one leg of the sack. I used one inch tube and there is just barely enough room between the tank and the floor for it to work. image.jpg I drilled a couple holes at an angle just in front of the gas vent tubes in the lockers into the bilge area right alongside the stringer. image.jpgimage.jpg then I drilled a hole from the locker into the front underseat storage on both sides. I plan on fastening the tubing down to the floor/wall to make it nice and neat. image.jpg
Front underseat looking back. image.jpgimage.jpg
I also finished drilling holes in the boat (glad to be done with that!) On the side that has the bilge drain it was easy to measure out and see where it needed to go image.jpg I used a dremel to grind the gelcoat on the edges of the hole to a 45 degree angle so the thru hulls don't actually touch the gelcoat to prevent any issues with cracking. I did this on every thru hull. image.jpg This pick is the vent thru hull just sitting in place to see how it looked. Not an exact match to the factory bilge exit but close enough for government work. image.jpg
On the port side I measured best I could from the bilge drain side to try to match them up. With the battery compartment divider there this proved difficult so I drilled a small pilot pilot hole from the inside out and then drilled from the outside.image.jpg
The bow vent thru hull was the easiest. In addition to the 3m sealant on the mushrooms and the back of the nuts, I put a small bit around the inside of all the holes I drilled, intakes and vents. You can see the white of it on this last pick.

[Jetdriver]

image.jpg It wouldn't let me attach the last pic to the previous post so there it is. Gonna fabricate a couple metal brackets for two of my pumps tomorrow and the rest of the plumbing and wiring should come together pretty quickly. Getting pumped to get this thing in the water again! Luckily a buddy of mine has a 2008 22ve and a membership to a private lake northwest of Denver! More to come later!