Vride rear ballast - weight setup & what sacks to use

[snowrider]

We just took delivery of our new Vride. It is awesome and we are super excited to try surfing behind it. Tried searching and looking for information on what weighting to use for starboard surfing.

With the rear hard tanks in the vdrive lockers what fat sacks for additional ballast best fit between the hard tanks and the engine wall.

Thanks for the help.

[Helinut]

Congrats on the new boat! I just took the shrink wrap off mine this afternoon! I'd be interested to know what people are doing as well since one of the reasons I bought this thing was for wakesurfing!

Shawn

[jetskipro550]

Do yourself a favor and pull the tanks! Replace them with Fly High 750's and you are set for both boarding and surfing! The wake is HUGE (seriously scary) for wakeboarding with 1500 in the rear, 400 mid ship, and a few people in the bow...I like this wake MUCH better then stock ballast w/wedge, and the boat handles a lot better without the wedge even with the extra weight. For surfing, just fill the mid ship sack, one rear sack, and put everyone on the same side. The surf wake is great without the need for extra sacks in the main cabin area...but it will only get better if you add them

[srud]

JSP is right, your best bet is to pull the hard tanks and replace them with 750s. However, knowing that the boat is brand new, I'm guessing you will struggle with the thought of pulling it apart already. So, that being said, your best bet is to still buy the 750s and just don't fill them up all the way. You'll probably get an additional 450 to 500 lbs in the locker if you do that.

[snowrider]

Yeah, pulling the tanks in a new boat for sure is a tough thing to consider. There is so little width between the tank and the engine wall that I am not sure if a 400lb or 750lb bag would fit. I am somewhat considering 2 or 3 150lb bags which could be stacked on top of each other in that locker space, but then also moved around easily with one bag in each vdrive locker for extra ballast wakeboarding or two in the bow etc. What do you think?

[Helinut]

Man I was sure I posted to this thread a bit ago. Well here's the question again. Do you think it wouldn't hurt the bags or even the locker to put a 750 in there and not fill it up all the way? Sure looks like it could be a bunch of pressure on the partition to the engine where the hard tank is at.

Shawn

[jetskipro550]

Yeah, pulling the tanks in a new boat for sure is a tough thing to consider. There is so little width between the tank and the engine wall that I am not sure if a 400lb or 750lb bag would fit. I am somewhat considering 2 or 3 150lb bags which could be stacked on top of each other in that locker space, but then also moved around easily with one bag in each vdrive locker for extra ballast wakeboarding or two in the bow etc. What do you think?

Just pull em, and put in 750's you will be glad you did!

[WakeGirl]

Man I was sure I posted to this thread a bit ago. Well here's the question again. Do you think it wouldn't hurt the bags or even the locker to put a 750 in there and not fill it up all the way? Sure looks like it could be a bunch of pressure on the partition to the engine where the hard tank is at.

Shawn

I think that's the way that chathamsolutions ran his LSV for a long time before he finally pulled the tanks. IMO, just pull 'em out & replace 'em with bags. But you know what they say about opinions....

[jetskipro550]

Man I was sure I posted to this thread a bit ago. Well here's the question again. Do you think it wouldn't hurt the bags or even the locker to put a 750 in there and not fill it up all the way? Sure looks like it could be a bunch of pressure on the partition to the engine where the hard tank is at.

Shawn

I think that's the way that chathamsolutions ran his LSV for a long time before he finally pulled the tanks. IMO, just pull 'em out & replace 'em with bags. But you know what they say about opinions....

yeah, that mines the only one that counts!

[Helinut]

Alright, alright, you all say just pull em. What amount of work is it to pull them tanks? I think I still would have gone with the tanks from the factory just so I had all the plumbing there already. From looking at them for less than 30 seconds so far, it doesn't look like it would be a huge issue to pull them out.

What's involved?

Shawn

[burbanized]

Hey JSP:

Do you think your set up will work on a VLX? I like challenges and I am not afraid of taking apart my boat, I did it when I first installed the stereo system. Picked it up on a Saturday and it was all in pieces by Sunday afternoon

Helinut:

Theres alot of hidden screws in the boat, get a small magnet and you should find the screws hidden in the carpet, grab a bunch of ZIPLOCk bags so you can label where the screws came out and take pictures before you start taking everything apart. Thats one way I avoid having that 1 extra screw that I cant find were it goes.

Good Luck

Congrats to Snow & Helinut on the delivery of your new boats

[jetskipro550]

Lots of people with VLX's have put 750's in their lockers. There are two ways to go about it (well probably more). Either plumb the new sacks into the existing tanks (easy, but slow to fill/drain) or plump in new fill/drain pumps for the new sacks. Some people worry about the extra weight over the tanks, but as long as they are full before the sacks are, I believe you are fine.

I don't own one, but lots of people on here do and I am sure they will chime in...

[Charlie]

I just threw a 750lb launch pad into mine and was concerned about the pressure on the motor compartment panel too... No problem! The Launch Pad has a pretty strong duffel bag type setup around it and a couple of straps around it that keep it from pushing on the sides of the motor compartment. I just use it for surfing and it seems to do the job. My boat is old so I didn't have to struggle with the dilema of tearing it apart since there was no factory ballast in the lockers.

-Charlie

Man I was sure I posted to this thread a bit ago. Well here's the question again. Do you think it wouldn't hurt the bags or even the locker to put a 750 in there and not fill it up all the way? Sure looks like it could be a bunch of pressure on the partition to the engine where the hard tank is at.

Shawn