Heads Up on After Production Ballast Install

[chpthril]

They are positioned in the front half of the rear storage and they run up under the bench seats taking up that space. I have them in the front storage compartments taking up half that space on each side. I have four tanks. two in front and two in the rear. I figure if I have to give up space they should be bigger and give me more weight. I seldom have 12 people on the boat to ballast it down.

Agree...........Much diff then the Ve, huh. With sacs, you only loose storage when filled.

[wminnich]

No people - No gas - Needs Ballast

So, I'm down to my last quarter tank of gas with just one adult and a kid on my boat while they give me a tow. The wake was looking a little on the mellow side. I'm glad I got the ballast put in my boat. I'm sure there are a lot of advanced skill sets out there that might desire more than the factory ballast...but it is enough for me to make me cry for my mamma!

Last week we had a boat load of people, a full tank of gas and full ballast...I think everyone felt it was a good setup.



BTW: Some one was out on Wylie today in a near solid white Supra? on the SC side. That guy has talent! Very impressive moves.

[wminnich]

How quickly we get used to ballast.

You know, I'm already routinely adding more ballast in my boat. Having an extra sack filled up in the walkway really perks up the angle of the wake. So, I'm using about 1400 lbs of ballast on a regular basis now.

Perhaps next year, I'll look into adding some additional sacks to my ballast system. Not sure how I'll get that all integrated. But I'll worry about that next year.

[chpthril]

Tige makes a great wake right out of the box, and only gets better with a little more weight

I think you could "daisy chain" from the hard tank vent to the fill port of the new sacs and parallel a drain pump off the factory drain pump with little work.

[Ks]

Can you expand on that a bit? I really want to add my extra sacks into the factory plumbing, do I need to add a extra pump to drain? and where would I put that? and would I wire it into the factory pump for that side?

Has anyone added more to the factory system?

thanks

[anhaney]

We are going to try to modify my factory system this winter and put a complete systems into a 24V for another member. When we do the system we will keep a build materials list and put the whole systems together and sale all the parts for the systems with or with out installation. We will take pictures and build a thread on it kinda like DOMSZ06 had for his stereo this last year.

We are currently working on the build materials list. I hope to meet up with him on Thursday for lunch to start narrowing it down.

[chpthril]

Can you expand on that a bit? I really want to add my extra sacks into the factory plumbing, do I need to add a extra pump to drain? and where would I put that? and would I wire it into the factory pump for that side?

Has anyone added more to the factory system?

thanks

Yes, you will need a drain pump for each added sac and it will need to be as close to the sac as possible.

I think it could be done with minimal modification. I would tie the add-on sac drain pump right to the factory tank drain pump (both wiring and plumbing). May need to increase the breaker a little (from 10 amp to 15 amp for example).

The only possible problem I can see that might pop up, would be the hard tank may vapor lock, draw a vacuum, while draining if the sac collapses and cuts off the vent. This could be solved with a check valve T'd into the vent hose from the sac fill hose. *shown in 2nd pic*

You will need per side:
pump
hose
clamps
wire

[anhaney]

Yes, you will need a drain pump for each added sac and it will need to be as close to the sac as possible.

I think it could be done with minimal modification. I would tie the add-on sac drain pump right to the factory tank drain pump (both wiring and plumbing). May need to increase the breaker a little (from 10 amp to 15 amp for example).

The only possible problem I can see that might pop up, would be the hard tank may vapor lock, draw a vacuum, while draining if the sac collapses and cuts off the vent. This could be solved with a check valve T'd into the vent hose from the sac fill hose. *shown in 2nd pic*

You will need per side:
pump
hose
clamps
wire

I would also put a ball valve in the fill line to the sac from the hard tank. This way if you did not want the sac to fill but you want to fill the tank you can close the water off from going to the sac.

[chpthril]

I would also put a ball valve in the fill line to the sac from the hard tank. This way if you did not want the sac to fill but you want to fill the tank you can close the water off from going to the sac.

Good idea, anhaney, except with the current diagram, the check valve would prevent the hard tank from venting during fill and breathing during pump out.

Will have to do some real thinking later. Brains works better at night after a few beers, then in the am after a cup of coffee

[talltigeguy]

I haven't visited this thread in a while, but I have a problem with the diagram.

Using the hard tank vent as the fill for the sack might not work very well. At least in my system, the vent hose does not pump near enough water. For example, compare the trickle that comes out when the sack is full, to what is going in when the sack is empty.

Is a hard tank different? I think it has to do with the vent at the top of the bag requiring more pressure to get good flow. It seems that using the pressure in the tank to fill the sack is not as efficient as going straight from the pump.

I know for sure that if I filled a second sack from the overflow of the first, it would take forever to fill the second sack.

[chpthril]

I haven't visited this thread in a while, but I have a problem with the diagram.

Using the hard tank vent as the fill for the sack might not work very well. At least in my system, the vent hose does not pump near enough water. For example, compare the trickle that comes out when the sack is full, to what is going in when the sack is empty.

Is a hard tank different? I think it has to do with the vent at the top of the bag requiring more pressure to get good flow. It seems that using the pressure in the tank to fill the sack is not as efficient as going straight from the pump.

I know for sure that if I filled a second sack from the overflow of the first, it would take forever to fill the second sack.

Thanks Tall, just when I fixed anhaney's "wrench" you have to go and through another in

I see the prob, these pumps are not designed to produce pressure, just volume. So, once the tank is filled, the volume will drop as it now has to build pressure to force water, already in the tank, out the vent into the sac.

Ok, back to the drawing board.

[anhaney]

I am glad you are drawing this system mod up Chpthril. Post the new mod.

[chpthril]

Ok, here is #4. This would require a separate fill pump for the sac and a switch to actuate it. Cant parallel the pumps wiring as you would not want to run both pumps at once if you wanted to fill 1 tank and not the sac.

The best place to mount the new pump would be at the manifold, but that would require a new manifold because I doubt you could remove the PVC plug. Dont know how it would work just T'ing into the fill hose between the tank a tank fill pump.

[chpthril]

Solved it use a diverter valve after the factory fill pump. This would allow the use of 1 pump to fill 2 ballast sacs/tanks. Fill the tanks only, ore switch valve to fill the sac when the tank is full.

[Jason B]

The pumps aren't really that expensive considering how much time it would save to just add another pump to the new sack. More time playing and less time filling that way!?