My ballast epiphany

[shawndoggy]

I've been running too much.

Yesterday on our 2016 T22, I ran about half of what I usually do.  I turned all pumps on and when the center tank was full I turned everything off.  900s in the rear were maybe 1/3 full.  No bow sack (though we do have 150 in lead up there).  Wedge down.  Ran about 11.

Very reasonable bow rise, very reasonable RPMs, very good fuel economy.  I can get a 10% bigger wave with twice the ballast and twice the fuel.  

[TimbrSS]

I've had similar results on my 247 with GSA...  Wedge, 900's in locker half full and no bow ballast ( and 500 # lead) vs. 900s full and 1000# fat sac bow triangle (still with lead). but gets more like 15% - 20% better fully loaded. I can't say the rpms are that much higher with more weight though.

[Stevo]

blasphemy, 

Fake news.., nothing to see here

[UWSkier]

'01 VLX also.  With my surf setup, the ballast ninjas say it should be unsurfable.  It is, after all, a slalom machine with the engine in a curious location.  I run about about 1500 LBS and manual wedge and my big behind can surf a good 10 feet behind the platform.  This, plus some VAB and the 381 turning about 2300 RPM is a perfect setup for us.

[bamaboy]

Did you surf it or just look at it?  

[shawndoggy]

yes, I surfed it.  my baby airs were just as "impressive" (sleep inducing to teens).

[ahopkins22LSV]

Pics? What are you a n00b at this?

[shawndoggy]

photobuckit ruined it for me.  

[IXFE]

@shawndoggy I had a similar (although maybe less dramatic) experience. 

2015 LSV - 1000 in each locker + 1000 in the bow

2016 LSV - 800 in each locker + 650 in the bow

No noticeable difference 

[teamerickson]

Pics. Or, an invite!

[ahopkins22LSV]

1 hour ago, teamerickson said:

Pics. Or, an invite!

Agreed. I'm going to need you to fly me out there, feed me and let me surf for a few days to determine whether or not this is an alternative fact. 

[Bawshogg]

I been trying to explain this "theory" to many folks over the years... and I abide by it. 

Funny..  I went hog wild on my RI257 in attempts to see what we could get out of it. Now this boat comes with over 6000lbs stock ballast. I added another 2klbs in lead just to see what the results were.. Now mind you , I am not a epically good surfer, I'm good enough to "KNOW" what a good wave is and what a great wave is only due to many years .:. and many many many demos on almost every differnt brand of boat out there. 

Here's what I found... 2k lbs achieves about a 7% better wave than 1000lbs. At the expsense of increased fuel burn, higher bow rise, and an overall more cumbersome drive. I effectively shaved weight and kept shaving it until I noticed a big difference in push and firmness... REALITY... boat really only NEEDS 600-800 lbs if you run NO crew.. like 2 guys , one driving , one riding. You have to tow all that weight around to boot. It just doesn't make sense. 

The only thing you really notice with excessively more weight is... the wave is HARD... like concrete hard.. and in stock form it's no slouch to begin with. I have  resorted to 400lbs on my side and 300 on the other side. Now I have a pile of Wakeballast bags in my garage.?

 

 

[AJwakedevil]

On 7/4/2017 at 0:03 PM, Bawshogg said:

Now I have a pile of Wakeballast bags in my garage.?

 

 

So how much to ship to MN?

[05hammerhead]

2 minutes ago, AJwakedevil said:

So how much to ship to MN?

Thats what I was thinking...

[AJwakedevil]

Just now, 05hammerhead said:

Thats what I was thinking...

We should get a MN tie up going some time. Nose goes on traveling furthest...

[Slurpee]

Yup.  I've been dialing back on my '16 22 VLX lately myself.  Took the 750's out and put in 550's plug and play.  I've got a bow sac plumbed in that I fill depending on crew, but it's not really needed unless I have adults sitting in the back row or I want to play on a more vertical wave and would like some weight in the front to help with that.  RPMs about 3000 usually with a 2277 at 1000' and 10.8mph.

Actually, when I teach first timers who are having trouble getting it I don't even run with ballast.  Most of the instruction is on getting up so I keep the boat vanilla.  When they get the hang of it and I riding steady I pop on a surf gate to let them edge in and slowly start filling the ballast up on the fly.  This means I can't deploy the wedge unless I had it in lift (always forget so never do).  I was surprised that my 170lb brother in law was surfing ropeless on my Oogle with just the center tank full and the surf gate deployed at 10.8mph.  Of course it got much better as the bags filled up all the way.  And then later with the wedge of course.  Man I love the surfgates.  Single biggest improvement bar none.

[Bawshogg]

33 minutes ago, AJwakedevil said:

So how much to ship to MN?

You'd be better off to just get it from them. 

I actually have quite a few local buddies that have already called dibs. I gave 500 lbs of it to a friend with an SE the other day. 

Edited July 7, 2017 by Bawshogg

[Murphy8166]

So right now in my 15' 23LSV I have the WM's Custom 820lb bags in the rear lockers and then run a sumo 675 in the bow.

Our crew is 2 adults and 2 kids and when we are surfing it's one adult in the boat.

Would it even be worth trying to go back to my 550lbs plug as play and leave the bow sack?

[MJR63]

I actually ran into this situation this weekend while trying out my new 3 reversible pump install....My setup was MLS fully loaded (2 rear 200lbs tanks, 1 500lbs mid tank) plus my new 900's in each rear locker with a bow ballast bag of approx. 600lbs, new 1235 prop, wedge 2 clicks down and a tsunami wake gate.  The boat was having difficulty pushing this much weight so I backed off and thought I would have to go back to leaning the boat until I talked to a local ski instructor/professional wakeboader and he told me I was running way to weight.  I reduced the locker bags to about 1/2 full each and everything else the same - MLS fully loaded (2 rear 200lbs tanks, 1 500lbs mid tank) with a bow ballast bag of approx. 600lbs, new 1235 prop, wedge 2 clicks down and a tsunami wake gate.  The wave was fantastic plus the boat was pushing it way easier.  I'm a believer! 

[minnmarker]

54 minutes ago, MJR63 said:

 I reduced the locker bags to about 1/2 full each and everything else the same - MLS fully loaded (2 rear 200lbs tanks, 1 500lbs mid tank) with a bow ballast bag of approx. 600lbs, new 1235 prop, wedge 2 clicks down and a tsunami wake gate.

We run about 600 on each side plus what you do mid and front with wedge.  Same results and if we put the wedge up we can run at 30 mph without draining anything to get to different locations.  Same prop and Monsoon 340.

[carguy79ta]

on my 15 A22..I run 900 hardtanks.  750s rear 950 horshoe sac. also have a 540 I put in walkway near front.  my A22 likes lots of weight. it also likes the wedge.

[Fman]

On 7/7/2017 at 7:50 PM, Murphy8166 said:

So right now in my 15' 23LSV I have the WM's Custom 820lb bags in the rear lockers and then run a sumo 675 in the bow.

Our crew is 2 adults and 2 kids and when we are surfing it's one adult in the boat.

Would it even be worth trying to go back to my 550lbs plug as play and leave the bow sack?

We run hard tanks, WM bags 40-50% and wedge 1-2 up at 10.8-11. If your not a pro surfer imo it's good enough for 95% out there.  Nobody in my group is that good to utilize a pro level wave.  We did spin a couple 360s today with this setup.  It's easy to setup, consistent, burns less fuel and is easier on the boat.

Definitely worth a try to see if it meets your expectations.

 

[shawndoggy]

Examples of my weaksauce ballast tiny wave skills

(please note four teen boys were rendered nearly comatose in the filming of this video)

 

Edited July 10, 2017 by shawndoggy

[shawndoggy]

btw this was filmed with a faux pro akaso 4k $88 camera from amazon.  I'm pretty happy with it after killing several $200+ gopros over the years.

[ahopkins22LSV]

OK, so yesterday we ran my friends T22 with 150lbs of lead in the bow, bow center and rear full with maybe 50-60% PNP, wedge, and it was still a great wave. Did have 5 adults in the boat between 150 and 220. Normally we run this same setup with full PNP and a 400lb filled in the walkway. RPMs were about 3400 at 10.8-11mph. I guess you are probably right