Fat Sac under port side seat area?

[jtrovato]

I'm just starting to get into surfing and I have an old sac that we had in the previous boat's ski locker. It's about 4.5-5 feet long and about 18" around when full. I think it weighs about 600-700 lbs when filled, depending on how full you make it. I was thinking of putting it under the long seating area on the port side of my vRide. My question is, are the walls under the seats enough to support the weight of the sac pushing against it? I don't think I'll be able to fill it completely or it will start pushing the seats up, but I'm sure I could get at least 450-550 lbs of water in it.

I'd like to leave it under the seat to keep it out of the way and have room for passengers in the seating area. Right now I only have the stock 200 lb hard tank in the locker and have no plans to change it since I use that space for life jacket and rope storage. I plan on having a couple passengers ride on the back deck while surfing and having the remainder in the cabin on the port side, with a couple up front in the bow on the port side. Does this sound like a good setup? Mainly, do you think the sac will work ok under the seats?

Edited August 14, 2007 by jtrovato

[Helinut]

Dude, you so need to get rid of those hard tanks and put sacks in there! You don't really lose much room when they are full and you gain crap loads when they are empty. Once you do it, you'll never look back. Trust me on this one. I was very hesitant to do it too. But once I did it, wow! Your surf wake will rock but you'll need that sack you have to go in the front of the boat.

I switched mine and a buddy who has a Sunscape is going to switch his this week. He loved the wake behind my boat without the wedge down. If you want some pointers on how to do it just let me know. I could do them both in less than two hours by myself now. My job took about 3.5 hours plus two trips to Lowes

[UWSkier]

I have a 600 lb sac that I use under the side seats. I can't fill it all the way or like you said, the seats will push up. It gets the job done though. I'd estimate I can get around 400 lbs of water in there and still use the seats no problem.

[boarding6]

I'm new to my v-ride and have a question on the removal of the hard tanks. Why? I was planning on adding a fat sack in the rear locker in addition to the existing hard tanks under the floor. Which would be a net gain.

Also anyone running fat sacks in the front under the seats in a wakesetter? What bags are you using?

TIA

[Brad B]

I'm new to my v-ride and have a question on the removal of the hard tanks. Why? I was planning on adding a fat sack in the rear locker in addition to the existing hard tanks under the floor. Which would be a net gain.

Also anyone running fat sacks in the front under the seats in a wakesetter? What bags are you using?

TIA

Leave the hard tanks under the floor - they mean the hard tanks in the locker .

All you need to do is add Fly High ProX 750s in your trunks.

I use StraightLine V-Drive 350's under the side seat - fit real nice - but I've had them for years and when I go to replace I'll get the Fly High ProX 400s.

Edited August 14, 2007 by Brad B

[jtrovato]

Dude, you so need to get rid of those hard tanks and put sacks in there! You don't really lose much room when they are full and you gain crap loads when they are empty. Once you do it, you'll never look back. Trust me on this one. I was very hesitant to do it too. But once I did it, wow! Your surf wake will rock but you'll need that sack you have to go in the front of the boat.

I switched mine and a buddy who has a Sunscape is going to switch his this week. He loved the wake behind my boat without the wedge down. If you want some pointers on how to do it just let me know. I could do them both in less than two hours by myself now. My job took about 3.5 hours plus two trips to Lowes

I may do this down the line, but for now I am going to leave the hard tanks. I have all the life jackets in there along with the ropes and throwable. Right now it's filled up to the top when we close it. I've seen what the locker looks like with a full 750 in there and it doesn't look like it leaves much room to be able to fit 10 life jackets and two ropes and handles. You think I would still be able to fit all that with a full 750 sack in there?

[Helinut]

You wouldn't be able to fit it in just one locker with the bag full of course. What are you putting in the bow? I store 3 vests and all my lines and fenders up front. I have 4 orange vests, in a big bag in the flip up area under the glove compartment. All my normally used vests, which is about 8 of them, along with line and such is split between the lockers. No storage problems at all. Although I do remove tubes and such if it's a wakeboarding day. Typically it's either/or not both in one outing for me.

Think of it this way. I can almost bet you that if you only fill them maybe half way, so about 400 pounds, you will still have just as much if not more room than you do with those hard tanks, plus an extra 400 ish pounds in the rear. I wasn't a believer either until I said screw it! You won't believe the size of surf wake you'll get with the sacks. Just make sure to have a few people sit up front. It gives you that nice long wake to ride.

I'll take some pics this weekend with them full and my stuff in there. No space issues at all for me anyways.

Edited August 15, 2007 by Helinut

[jtrovato]

In the bow I have an anchor in the front middle area, another anchor in the right side bow, each with 100 ft. of line, and in the left side bow I have two fenders. I leave the area under the passenger backrest open for backpacks and towels when people come out. The starboard side locker has my bow filler cusion and my cover in it when I go out, otherwise I'd have to leave it on the dock, and the port side locker has 10 life jackets (6 orange ones and 4 neoprene) and two lines with handles. You're right about only filling up the sacks halfway and still having as much room as I have now I would assume. That may be a project for next spring.

If you can get some pictures of your setup with the bags full, that would be great. Thanks.

[jtrovato]

GOOD NEWS:

I tried my setup with the fat sack under the long seat on the observer's side and it worked great! I was surfing ropeless on my 2nd try up on the new Broadcast 5.6. I had my stock rear surfside tank full, the stock middle tank full, and I'd say probably around 450-500 lbs under the seats, plus 5 people on the boat, including me (so really only 4 people counting for ballast while we were surfing). I ended up having about 6-8 ft of sweet spot where I could surf ropeless with this setup. I had one person sit up in the bow and the other 2 in the back corner and the driver standing up putting his weight over on the surf side to try and throw a little more weight over there. It worked out great and while a little more weight wouldn't hurt, I'm loving surfing so far. I had no intentions of ever surfing with this boat until I started reading about all the people doing it on here, so I figure why not give it a shot. Thanks for giving me another excuse to spend money!