ballast bag drain

[Scrib]

How completely do your ballast bags drain ? Because of the Zebra muscles in our lakes you are required by law to drain completely before you leave one lake and go to another. I hope I don't get stopped because my bags always have a minimum of 10% still in them when they quit pumping. I don't know how to get them completly empty.

[chpthril]

Scrib,

One way he have found to get a more complete drain, is to use a check valve in the vent line. This allows the sac to raisin on itself, forcing water to the drain port. This may help on the 2015, as it does not have hard tanks. But, what may work against you, is the floor step down between locker and under-seat area. This is going to naturally hold water as its down hill from the drain.

You may find that you will need to lift up the leg of the sac and pull it up and out of the locker door, forcing water to the back. Another trick that may work, is to get the boats attitude bow high at like 9-10 MPH when you know you are nearing the end of the drain cycle. This will also help get the water toward the back of the sac to the drains.

[Scrib]

Thanks Chpthril, As a rule we drain as we cruise in with the bow high. Does not seem to help much. I think as I have noted before, there needs to be a safety/manual drain to empty these bags especially for a pump failure.

[BCRider]

As long as they are empty enough to lift the manual drain is to disconnect everything and pull them out of the locker and hold them over the side.

[ryfrutiger]

There is a ballast filtration system you can use called, Muscle Mast'R ballast filtration system, I would check out if you are worried about getting stopped. Looks just like a freshwater strainer.

[Stingreye]

I have used a shop vac to suck it out the drain thru hull. with a check valve in the vent, it raisins up like Chp said and gets a surprising amount of water out. At our local lakes, I removed the sacs and tape up the fittings and shop vac as much as I can. Then I hang them to dry. Gets out 99% of the water.

Interestingly, at Lake Tahoe where they require a decontamination, they said the hose lines are the bigger problem that the sacs for them.

[chpthril]

Good point above, but gotta play devils advocate:

From 2010 and up, the tige sacs are in built in house and use a barbed fitting thats glued into the sac. These barbs are tough to get the hose off, as well as the clamp is covered with heat shrink that has to be cut off the first go around.

It would also require 4 filter setups, one for each intake t-hull. Also, are the inspection/prevention procedures clear in stating that the presence of a filter system gets you a pass, regardless of water in the tanks or sacs? I ask because its not an issue we deal with here, so I have not read them in detail.

[Stingreye]

No quick disconnects? What a bummer.... I routinely remove my bags. Glad I have an MLA designed aftermarket ballast system.... no leaks, no air locks, bags quick disconnect for removal

I think those Filters require a reversible pump......if not, it would likely kill fill times with aerators. The filters I do not think work locally here at Lake Perris or Silverwood. Any water = fail and red tagged. There is no decontamination option either (hot water). You just fail and they send you home.

[Thegerman618]

I hand drain my bags on the water after the pumps start surging, and hang drip/dry them after every trip and fold them when I get home. So when I get stopped by the inspectors I just hand them my bags and never had an issue. But I know these newer boats that not really feasible for you guys.

[BlackoutATX]

Are there any updates on this? I'm running into this same problem and its driving me crazy.

[Scrib]

I don't have an update, the dealer has looked at my boat a couple of times and can't seem to make any improvement. I sure wish I did not have an extra 25-50 gallons of water in my boat each time I trailer it.

[chpthril]

What have they done/tried? Did they install check valves in the vent lines?

[Scrib]

No check valves, they shortened one hose, they thought it was binding/pinching. Don't get me wrong I love my Tige but I think their ballast system is a little lacking. I think they need to factor in a safety drain some where, some how. When a pump goes out you are stuck with no way to drain, been there done that.

[chpthril]

Don't get me wrong I love my Tige but I think their ballast system is a little lacking. I think they need to factor in a safety drain some where, some how. When a pump goes out you are stuck with no way to drain,

You can feel good about your tige, cause no tow boat that i know of that has ballast, has a safety/redundant drain system.

[IDBoating]

I think they need to factor in a safety drain some where, some how. When a pump goes out you are stuck with no way to drain, been there done that.

We carry an old school over-the-side cigarette lighter pump for this reason. If we lose a pump, we can just remove a vent line or threaded cap on the sac and connect up this pump and drain the water. All we need is the battery... no engine, no installed pumps, nothing else. Might take a while to deballast everything but at least you CAN deballast everything. Like a second bilge pump, it's a cheap insurance policy; one incident on the water and you'll wish you'd spent the money.

Given ChpThril's comment about glued in fittings, this may not be an option on some boats. But it works perfectly with stock sacs, or custom sacs made by one of the sac companies.

This is an example, I'll bet ChpThril can deliver them: