Do you need front ballast

[Lieutenant Dan]

I think bow weight is essential if you heavily weight the rear of the boat. The best wake will result from evenly weighting the boat, thereby keeping the natural balance of the boat.

Does this include use of a wedge, e.g. manual wedge I've heard is equivalent of 1100 lbs.??

I just added a tube sac to the ski locker and like the increased size of the wake on my DD SSLXI classic. I don't however like the bow-high driving attitude. Anyone out there use mid and front ballast with a wedge for balancing a direct drive boat like mine?

It will really help, especially if you don't have any right now. We used the center MLS, wedge & a tube sack under the rear seat of our direct drive & it was really good like that.

OK. I think with the wedge I have enough "weight" in the back. Was wondering if anyone used the center PLUS front ballast with the wedge. Did you ever try that?

[WakeGirl]

Not with a sack, but we'd occasionally have people up there & I would see a difference in the shape & quality. The wake would harden & the top would have a bit less lip. The best description would be that it was thicker at the peak. I see the same thing, only exaggerated, with our VLX. You can experiment by putting people up there, that will tell you what you want to know.

[Brodie]

OK. I think with the wedge I have enough "weight" in the back. Was wondering if anyone used the center PLUS front ballast with the wedge. Did you ever try that?

I am running ~300# in the ski locker and ~300# under the bow filler cushion (along with 600 lbs in the rear trunk & wedge) It helps some, but I have found that with our boats (SSLXI), no matter how much weight I put in there, I can never get a good wake. It's ok, but that hull just doesn't like to sink.

[WakeGirl]

That's a good point, ours wasn't on the diamond hull & was easier to sink.

[Cory]

Can you use an overflow off of the center ballast to fill up a sack in the front?

That is what I'm setting up!!!

I set up a front system that uses the overflow from the center tank. It works great. It takes about 7-10 minutes to fill both the center and bow tanks. I have manual valve in place that prevents the bow from filling if I only want to ride with center only. Drain is accomplished by the center tank drain pump. I will have to look at exactly how I plumbed it, I can't remember off the top of my head.

Bottom line: 700 lbs bow shaped sack that fits under the seats (only fills to ~400-500 lbs because the vRide bow storage is a little small). No new pumps added. works flawlessly.

Bow Sack

I think bow weight is essential if you heavily weight the rear of the boat. The best wake will result from evenly weighting the boat, thereby keeping the natural balance of the boat.

JAGMAN, could you post pictures of your bow ballast configuration and a description of where and how you linked it into the midship tank? I have an '08 vRide and when we deploy the wedge she runs so high in the bow. Heck, if we are out for a cruise with six people in the boat w/o the wedge deployed the nose is stuck way up. I'd love to work out some sort of bow ballast system in our boat.

Thanks so much.

-Cory

Edited July 1, 2008 by Cory

[Lieutenant Dan]

OK. I think with the wedge I have enough "weight" in the back. Was wondering if anyone used the center PLUS front ballast with the wedge. Did you ever try that?

I am running ~300# in the ski locker and ~300# under the bow filler cushion (along with 600 lbs in the rear trunk & wedge) It helps some, but I have found that with our boats (SSLXI), no matter how much weight I put in there, I can never get a good wake. It's ok, but that hull just doesn't like to sink.

What sacs are you using in the bow and rear trunk?

[JAGMAN]

Can you use an overflow off of the center ballast to fill up a sack in the front?

That is what I'm setting up!!!

I set up a front system that uses the overflow from the center tank. It works great. It takes about 7-10 minutes to fill both the center and bow tanks. I have manual valve in place that prevents the bow from filling if I only want to ride with center only. Drain is accomplished by the center tank drain pump. I will have to look at exactly how I plumbed it, I can't remember off the top of my head.

Bottom line: 700 lbs bow shaped sack that fits under the seats (only fills to ~400-500 lbs because the vRide bow storage is a little small). No new pumps added. works flawlessly.

Bow Sack

I think bow weight is essential if you heavily weight the rear of the boat. The best wake will result from evenly weighting the boat, thereby keeping the natural balance of the boat.

JAGMAN, could you post pictures of your bow ballast configuration and a description of where and how you linked it into the midship tank? I have an '08 vRide and when we deploy the wedge she runs so high in the bow. Heck, if we are out for a cruise with six people in the boat w/o the wedge deployed the nose is stuck way up. I'd love to work out some sort of bow ballast system in our boat.

Thanks so much.

-Cory

Couple things...

1) I am happy to post pics. That said, I will not be near the boat until after the 4th weekend.

2) I've found that riding with the Center and wedge is a good balance. Add the rear tanks and we get too much bow rise. Fill both bow, center, and rear, and use the wedge, and your are talking about a 1st class wake, vRide or anything else!!!

3) Plumbing for the bow sack is as follows: Remove the overflow line from the through hull in the left under dash storage compartment. Attach it to a PVC valve (purchased at Home depot for $3-5). Then attach the other end of the valve to the bottom left rear most fill hole in the bow sack. Plug the left rear top, and right rear top/bottom fill holes in the bow sack. Then from the front center top run a overflow line to overflow thru hull (the same one you removed to fill the bag).

Essentially fill comes from the center overflow. Drain comes from the center tanks drain (as it gravity flows from the bow back into the center tank); it just works seems like magic. Bow overflow comes from the hole closest to the bow nav light. The system works great this way. To enhance efficiency we sometimes take a cork (from wine bottle) and shove it into the thru hull that burps water during this process.

I didn't want to drill any thru hulls to complete this install. As I've said, system works great if you can tolerate the slower fill/drain times from filling/draining tanks from one set of pumps (again <10 minutes).

For the rear bags (400 lb each), we used a single ballast puppy reversible pump mounted to the drain plug hole under the vdrive unit. It drains and fills both rear sacks. Once again I used manual pvc valves to isolate a single rear sack for surfing. Total fill is 3-4 minutes per rear sack. ~7 mins or so to fill both. Total weight is 800 rear, 500 center, 4-500 front, Wedge ~1000! Adds up to 1800 of legit weight, 2800 including wedge.

In the end, try this bow sack arrangement. Other than purchasing the sack it is very cheap <$20. If it doesn't work for you the buy more pumps, drill thru hulls, wire pumps to your hearts content.

Edited July 2, 2008 by JAGMAN

[Cory]

JAGMAN,

You mentioned, "I have manual valve in place that prevents the bow from filling if I only want to ride with center only." I guess I don't understand the manual valve. If you close that valve so that the bow bag doesn't fill, then you have cutoff the overflow for the midship tank. Isn't an overflow required for proper operation?

Thanks for the detailed description!

-Cory

Edited July 2, 2008 by Cory

[UWSkier]

OK. I think with the wedge I have enough "weight" in the back. Was wondering if anyone used the center PLUS front ballast with the wedge. Did you ever try that?

I am running ~300# in the ski locker and ~300# under the bow filler cushion (along with 600 lbs in the rear trunk & wedge) It helps some, but I have found that with our boats (SSLXI), no matter how much weight I put in there, I can never get a good wake. It's ok, but that hull just doesn't like to sink.

What sacs are you using in the bow and rear trunk?

Careful how much weight you put in that trunk fellas. Unless you reinforce it, you can cause some damage if you over load that area. I've heard the SLXi classic just can't be made to make a good surf wave, but I have a hard time believing that. I think it probably just takes a LOT of weight to do it. I've surfed behind other direct drives (albeit smaller ones) in the past and they do take a lot of weight to really get a decent wake.

I'm betting if you stacked a couple 5-700 lb sacks next to the engine box, stuck a 600 in the trunk, a 600 in the bow surf-side, and maybe a locker sack, you could get a nice surf wave.

Here's another thought, has anyone ever tried taking the platform off a LXi for surfing? With that cantilevered rear end on that boat, the platform protrudes farther out behind the running surface than on other models. Is the platform squashing your wake as it rises off the stern? That would make for a real washed-out wake I'd think...

[JAGMAN]

JAGMAN,

You mentioned, "I have manual valve in place that prevents the bow from filling if I only want to ride with center only." I guess I don't understand the manual valve. If you close that valve so that the bow bag doesn't fill, then you have cutoff the overflow for the midship tank. Isn't an overflow required for proper operation?

Thanks for the detailed description!

-Cory

You are correct the overflow to the midship tank is cutoff when the manual valve is closed. That said, midship still works. The overflow just forces its way past the drain pump and kind of burps its way to full. Like I said, I went with simple; its cheap, it doesn't have a ton of parts to break, and it just works. I am happy to take some pics when I get a chance to go to the boat. Unfortunately I am going on holiday for the weekend.

[Brodie]

What sacs are you using in the bow and rear trunk?

I have launch pad twins (440#) that I use, and I can get them about 3/4 full. A locker/tube sac would work better for both spots, but I already had the twins. I use a Pro-X rear seat sac for the rear locker. I have yet to get a decent surf wake with it. My MC 190 puts out a better surf wake with the same weight.

BTW, I did reinforce the floor in the rear trunk.

Edited July 3, 2008 by Brodie