Ballast Woes

[Gschmidt1]

Ok,

I am looking to do a slight upgrade of the ballast system on my boat. After riding my buddies Malibu Wakesetter with around 1500lbs, I decided that I really liked riding at 80 foot, and this means more ballast.

Boat: 2004 Switch V (essentially 20V hull, stripped interior.)

Currently, I have the stock "Switch" ballast, which If I remember correctly, comes to a grand total of 600-800lbs (somewhere in there). Anyway, I have been looking at a couple options.

The first option would be to remove the hard tanks completely, and throw some new sacs in there. The ones I have in mind would just BARELY fit in the back, but I think I could make them work. The rear dimensions (as I measured) are:

20" wide, 22" high, and 42" long (this includes the pumps, not just the tanks.)

I am looking at a deal on wakeworld for a pair of Fligh High Pro X series sacs, which are 16" X 16" X 42", which I believe would fit perfect. At 400lbs each, I get a grand total of 800lbs. The pumps and tubing is already run, all I would have to do is swap em.

However, when I get to the front, I run into a BIG problem. All that will fit in the area of the stock tanks on the drivers side is something that is 16"W X 17" long...which leaves me to using the Fligh High Cube, at 150lbs per. THat means the weight distro looks like this:

800 rear, 300 front.

I know I want to go for 60 / 40, but how the heck do I do this with the super-small front storage compartments? I know there are a few guys with the rival install....how did you handle this issue on your 20v/switch V?

[akdoc]

Schmidt,

That is the problem with the switch. When we had that boat we would run a 550lb. sac in the walkway and put 2-3 people in the bow. We ran stock ballast plus 300 lbs. in each rear locker. If you put 800 in the rear and only 300 in front you are going to porpose like crazy. My only suggestion would be to keep the stock tanks in the front, plumb in a hose for a sac in the walkway and add lead to the bow. That is the only way you are going to offset that 800lbs. in the rear. That boat almost needs a 50/50 distribution.

Good luck.

[my86stanggt]

I have seen those walkway tanks and they don't look too bad and it would help your weight distribution.

[Gschmidt1]

what about the "bow sacs"? If I worked all the leads, could I fit one of those in the front? They are exactly 800lbs too...

[akdoc]

No way you could fit a fly high bow sac in the switch. I have been in a 22ve with one and it didn't have room to fill all the way. We have a 24ve and we have 2 sacs in the front, but I can tell you that the fly high bow sac would not fill all the way in there either.

Believe me man, that is our old boat, you need to add a 550 to the walkway and lead to the very front. You could try and add bigger sacs to the front location of the stock ballast, you can get custom designed sacs from Fly High but they will run you a pretty penny. I would go ahead and take out the rear hard tanks and add the pro x v-drive sacs.

[Gschmidt1]

Thanks for the quick reply, I appreciate it. One more question that I was kicking around: How do they do front ballast on the Rival installs? I know a couple people here have those in the 20V (1500lb?), so there must be some way they do that.

Also Adkoc, would you reccomend a certain brand/type of sac for the front walkway, if we have to do that? I would want something that people could abuse, because if my walkway is gone, I want the sac to be able to take the punishment of a possible fall or something on it.

[akdoc]

Schmidt,

I would use a fly high pro x sac, those things are very durable. We have a rival system in our new boat and we have the fly high x series sacs and they are great. I have a hard time believing that anybody gets 1500lbs. in a switch V without having a sac in the walkway, it is pretty much impossible.

The rival system we have installed uses 4 bags, 1 in each rear locker, and 1 under each bow seat. We kicked around the idea of the integrated bow sac, but wanted control of left and right fill for surfing, so that idea died. The thing about a rival system is that you can use any size bag, so whatever fits best and is most beneficial for the specific boat is what is usually used.

I am going to replace our rear sacs, (440lb. sacs) with the bigger 750's. I will sell you one of my 440lb. fly high pro x sacs for $90 shipped. That will fit nicely in the walkway of your boat.

Let me know.

[Gschmidt1]

Great, thanks for the help. I'll shoot you an email on the fatsac offer.

[Gschmidt1]

I shot you a PM.

[akdoc]

PM sent back.

[Gschmidt1]

Ok, I took a look at the back tanks in the boat right now, and they are connected with 90 deg. elbows, and spider clamps. However, I really have no idea what I would need to get the pro X series bags in there. I would assume the bags are fitted for some sort of pump, so what would be needed fitting wise to hook those up? I believe that the hosing is 1/2 inch, but it is whatever comes stock with tige ballast.

[akdoc]

You are going to have to switch all of the fittings. Look on wakeside.com, they have a ton of different fittings for the pro x bags.

[harv]

I have the 05' Switch V with the Rival system. 2 400# sacs in rear and 2 200#sacs in bow under seat cushions. The front sacs don't fill completely so like akdoc said I usually add extra weight in the walkway unless I am riding with a bunch of buddys, then I put them in the bow.

[Gschmidt1]

awesome, thanks for the info harv.

[harv]

Gschmidt, I was bumbed my first time out with my boat. I loaded up the ballast front and back and the boat bounced like crazy. After some help from these guys especially akdoc, I now fill the rear sacs approx 3/4 full and fill the front sacs as full as I can (say 200 lbs total) and add another 200 lbs up front in the walk way. The wake is really shaped nice and is just above my knees. When I surf I move the weight from the walk way and put it along one side of the boat and empty the non surf side ballast. I also completely fill the rear sac on the surf side. The wake is great with just my wife and I, if we add people to the mix, the wake is a monster!