Kyle's 24V Ballast Thread

[kjohnson709]

Hi Mike, thanks for responding. I have the fill check valves about 6 inches back from the actual fill pot on the bags. mostly they are flat in position. I did take the fill hose off the bag and put it on the side of the boat to test the flow (straight uphill & over the side of the boat). When I did that I experienced the sharp stop of flow as you mentioned because the weight of the water was holding the flapper down. But when installed at a flat angle I am getting full flow to the check valve and then just a trickle after the check valve.

The smaller 3/4 inch vent valves appear to be working fine as I can easily blow through them.

I will try to pull the fill lines off the fill pumps and do the blow test right now.

[kjohnson709]

The more I look at it the issue you mention about water flowing back and locking the flapper closed on the check valve. In the bow I have the check valve in the midship locker and then the fill line runs up and around into the bow cavity and into the sac. Perhaps when the fill pump shuts off the water is flowing backwards? When I tried to blow through this valve there was definitely pressure because I had to push a lot of air through and then a bit of water came out of the fill bag connector. Is so I might just remove the check valve on the bow fill line. Since the fill hose goes up and over i doubt it would passive drain?

In the starboard side rear i never had a complete stoppage of flow to the bag only very very slow flow. I did blow through both rears though and they seem fully clear.

[killerbren]

If you want to get more water out of your bags, at the end of the day prior to putting the boat on the trailer i'll just run the empty pumps while going surf speed or a tad slower, maybe like 8 mph. This puts the bow high and forces all the water to the drain end of the bag. When i'm done there is almost zero water in the bags.

[kjohnson709]

So Mike came through in a big way and sent me replacement check valves for my ballast kit because the original ones had a habit of either locking up and not allowing water through (either direction) or restricting the flow after the check valve to just a trickle. I offered to pay for these or send the defective ones back and Mike wouldn't have it. He even sent them 2-day shipping so I had them for this memorial day weekend! Can't say enough about the service from of MLA! Here is pictures of the new valves. Once installed the flow is noticilbly bettwer and I didn't have a lock up issue at all this weekend.

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Here are also a few pics of my wave. I am still dialing it in. These pics are with both lockers full (approx. 1100# in each) and the bow full (approx. 400#?). I then put my DIY suck gate on as far back as possible and just below the water line.

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And here is a picture of the old girl looking patriotic!

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Killerbern - your tip also worked out great to drain excess water out. Also I believe the new check valves helped compress the bag and drain nearly everything out.

[kjohnson709]

Wave pics above are @ 9.5mph with taps at about 3.

[MooseX]

Nice clean job!! Cleaner than my 24V for sure.

Next if you want a BIG wave you could go with:

1700 lb sacks that go under the seats too

250lbs midships in the front cabinets + two 150 sacks on swim platform and a couple more you can move around the boat.

I had 2600 lbs per side and the wave was pretty good. i didn't have a suck off gate though so we ran most of the weight on one side . it was a leaning sonovabitch



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[kjohnson709]

Thanks for the compliments. I decided to use 1100# bags because we use all of the storage under the seats and in the midship lockers. Usually I have 7+ people on the boat and I need all the room I can squeeze out. But ya, your wake above looks enormous!