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2005 XTI Ballast


sam.hanna

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I have an 05 XTI. It is direct drive and I want to add about 1000 lbs of ballast to the rear of the boat for wakeboarding. From what I have read if you add weight under the rear-side seats the floor will give way and you will crush the gas tank. I REALLY do not want this to happen. Surely someone has come up with a way to fix this. Thanks

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I have an 07 xti and the ballast tanks are under the seat with the gas tank between them and the transom. I think it is actually behind the ballast tanks and not under them.

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Sam.

I was going to go ahead and do that with pop bags - thinking 600 lbs. of with pop bags, 600 lbs. of fat sac. Glad I saw this post about the Gas Tank. Further investigation to follow...

Edited by uride2
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Are you adding 1K to rear, what do you have in the front?

Most of the bu hulls really like weight distribution about 40/60 front/rear.

That includes adding weight to the front to counter the weight equivalent of the wedge.

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^ Exactly, that's why I'm curious if the OP has a Wedge on his boat. If not, a floating Wedge and a tube sac in the ski locker would completely transform the wake behind his boat.

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No ballast expert here, but it seems like with the engine in the middle, there is plenty of weight up front...

On my boat with an extra 1200 lbs. in Fat Sacs in the rear of the boat, + Rear Ballast + Wedge, makes the wakeboard wake VERY nice.

The wakeSURF wake however, needs something else; maybe distribution, maybe more weight, don't know.

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No ballast expert here, but it seems like with the engine in the middle, there is plenty of weight up front...

Something about that statement doesn't quite add up. ;)

Seriously though, the engine is in the middle, which is not the front. Weight in the middle of the boat can essentially be ignored when factoring in how to make the best wake.

On my boat with an extra 1200 lbs. in Fat Sacs in the rear of the boat, + Rear Ballast + Wedge, makes the wakeboard wake VERY nice.

That sounds like a VERY steep wake. Weight in the back of the boat makes the transition shorter and more vertical, weight in the front of the boat will make the transition longer, and more of a ramp shape. That may be a very nice wake for you, but most people will find the pop from that wake far too abrupt for almost every trick. Also, with that much weight in the back of your boat, unless you've retrofitted a floating Wedge, chances are your Wedge is doing almost nothing.

The wakeSURF wake however, needs something else; maybe distribution, maybe more weight, don't know.

You will definitely need to move some of that weight over to the side that you're surfing on in order to get a decent wake, but I'm assuming you're doing that.

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I've got a '06 XTI with a power wedge. Looking for some assistance in weighting for surfing.

In addition to the rear and front ballasts (factory)

I'm thinking about:

750 on the rear seat

750 surfside next to the engine

370 in the walk through

300 up front.

Currently I only have to Fat Bricks but thinking about getting

Tube Sack for the walk through and 2 fat sac's for the side and rear.

Any thoughts?

Is that too much for the rear seat? is that too much overall?

Edited by sabre
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Is that too much for the rear seat? is that too much overall?

I probably wouldn't put a Fat Sac directly on top of the rear seat, but that much weight on the floor of the boat is fine.

As for how much weight is too much, that's really just personal preference. Some people aren't comfortable putting as much weight in their boats as others. With the amount of weight you're talking about you will definitely notice an impact on the slow speed handling of the boat, but if you really want to get a good surfing wake out of it, that is one of the trade-offs.

Why not order the bags from a dealer with a demo program so you can see what it's like and return them if you're not happy?

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I have an 05 XTI. It is direct drive and I want to add about 1000 lbs of ballast to the rear of the boat for wakeboarding. From what I have read if you add weight under the rear-side seats the floor will give way and you will crush the gas tank. I REALLY do not want this to happen. Surely someone has come up with a way to fix this. Thanks

Hope this info helps:

#1 Your fuel tank is vertical behind your rear seat lean back, so nothing is on top of the fuel tank

#2 Weighting a direct drive for wake-boarding you want the weight on each side of the engine so throw a bag in the walk thru and in the storage behind the driver seat, if you want weight in the back a 750 bag fits perfect on the floor area where your table goes.

#3 I've seen a lot more than 1,000 lbs. in a boat, you won't be crushing the floor any where near that.

-Paul

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#1 Your fuel tank is vertical behind your rear seat lean back, so nothing is on top of the fuel tank

Hey Paul- Awesome info, thanks for replying. Is this accurate for both the 21 and 23? I thought the 23 has a storage locker over the top of the fuel tank (a la the RLXi and SLXi)?

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I've got a '06 XTI with a power wedge. Looking for some assistance in weighting for surfing.

In addition to the rear and front ballasts (factory)

I'm thinking about:

750 on the rear seat

750 surfside next to the engine

370 in the walk through

300 up front.

Currently I only have to Fat Bricks but thinking about getting

Tube Sack for the walk through and 2 fat sac's for the side and rear.

Any thoughts?

Is that too much for the rear seat? is that too much overall?

Are you weighting a 23 or 21 XTI?

We've run 550's on top of the seats with no problems, 750 is getting up there. If you have factory rear ballast on your XTI then the seats are at least supported by those hard tanks and will help disperse the weight better on top the seats.

That does sound like a lot of weight, my favorite boat & set up was

06 Wake 23 LSV

Power wedge (running about half to 3/4 down) sometimes we used, sometimes we didn't depending on crew (if we had a lot of people we didn't use the wedge)

Factory Port ballast full 250 lbs.

Rear storage bag on top 550 lbs.

5 Bricks lead under middle flip up seat (40 lbs each) 200 lbs.

Tube Sack running underneath all the seats 250 lbs.

Fuel tank full

Center ballast, sometimes we used, sometimes we didn't depending on crew

additional 450 on top of the passenger seat, sometimes we used, sometimes we didn't depending on crew

We found the more weight got forward on the side, the wake and the sweet spot got much longer. Solid stiff wake with a lot of push, it wasn't the tallest wake I've seen but it rode nice.

Hope this helps out!

-Paul

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We have the 23' XTI. and it doesn't matter how many people we have just never seems to be enough to get the push for ropeless. We've tried multiple seating arrangements but the only time I'm even close, the nose of the board is on top of the platform.

We don't have a shop in the area that allows demo's so we've got to buy it. Their return policy isn't good either so that's not an option.

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we have had the same result as sabre with surfing. we had about 1600 lbs in ballas plus the wedge. the one time i almost went ropeless i nearly wrecked into the back of the boat. surfing is just a no go on these boats.

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If the pocket is that close to the boat, you need more weight, and more weight in the bow. Adding weight to the front of the boat will make the pocket longer, but will remove some of the height.

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I'm not a good surfer, but I can surf ropeless with stock MLS and the power wedge. I use an HL Broadcast 5'6". I'm not neener neenering, but I know you can surf behind that boat because we do it all summer long. This picture has been photoshopped I clearly wouldn't surf at night!

Picture063.jpg

Edited by Molarbu
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That's a pretty nice wake for stock ballast.

The right side of our boats will be better than the left side though, so for regular foot surfers, adding 700lbs. or so will make a big difference.

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we have had the same result as sabre with surfing. we had about 1600 lbs in ballas plus the wedge. the one time i almost went ropeless i nearly wrecked into the back of the boat. surfing is just a no go on these boats.

I wouldn't use the wedge either, the wedge will add too much weight to the back of the boat making the wake really tall but short sweet spot, the more weight you get forward will help give you a better "rope-less" wake

-Paul

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