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Ballast System Upgrade


Stanley Wheelhouse

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Bought a four Jabsco reversable pump "makeawake" ballast system from makeawake before they disappeared off the map. the system was doomed to fail from the start because all four of the pumps mount to a board large enough to fit them. the board is plastic cutting board like material. the manifold which has one drain line and one fill line for the entire system is made of pvc. over the seasons of choppy water and just plain wear and tear the system itself has become unsealed and useless and the whole system needs to be rebuilt. the four jabsco reversable ballast puppys are in good order. i already have a switch box and wires run to the pumps as i have had some good use out of the four pump system when it was newer and in better shape

http://media.wakemakers.com/2009/08/how-to-reversible-pump-automated-ballast-system-design/

I am using the above design for the system rebuild. I intend on mounting the the pumps in the engine compartment.

We are drilling two thru hulls that will be factory part equipped.

I will post some pics and progress soon.

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update the system is in and every things is mounted. i want to than jason delaney for doing the system install for me. he is well versed on the malibu boat and did a great job wit this system install. my 1600 pound surf sac fills in five minutes. boo yah. i will post some pics this weekend.

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Wow that was fast!! :rockon: Where are the PICs? :horse:

I will post them this weekend. I want to pull it out of the hangar and get sunlight in the photos.

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We have a total of three thru hulls. Two new holes were drilled. We are using the transmission area drain plug as the third. This is the T setup done to allow two pumps to fill from one thru hull. I have these two pumps filling my 440 tube under the observer seat and the rear right 750 for the goofy people. The other two pumps fill the big sac.

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two pumps were mounted on each side of the engine compartment. initially i was concerned about heat getting to the pumps and hoses. no problems. worked like a champ.

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In all this is the best setup i have seen. There are no valves to turn to keep the sacs from draining when full or to turn when you want to empty the sacs. Everything drains and fills with the flip of a switch. The diagram I posted earlier within this topic is the plumbing design we used. We drilled four more drain lines in the side of the boat in order for each pump to have its on drain hole. I must say i am thoroughly impressed. Drain and fill time is a little less than expected. However, when i had my sac made quite a few fittings did not make it on the sac. The sac makers are standing behind their product and are remaking the sac for me. I am going to trim it some. Probably two inches all the way around except for the length. I will add two inches there. The reason is the sac expands so much and you dont have to make the sac fit the compartments until it is full. Right now the arm on my sac is 7 inches. I filled it out of the boat and when it was full the actual arm height is 14 inches. almost double the height of the sac design. I will probably go to a four inch arm. I may also break the sac in two parts. One for the rear compartment and one for under the seat in the rear compartment. This would be done because there is a lot of water weight pushing down from the part of the sac in the rear compartment on the arm. Clap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gif

I did have help with the install. If you are in the Texas area and you want my contact let me know.

Edited by Rhino
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In all this is the best setup i have seen. There are no valves to turn to keep the sacs from draining when full or to turn when you want to empty the sacs. Everything drains and fills with the flip of a switch. The diagram I posted earlier within this topic is the plumbing design we used. We drilled four more drain lines in the side of the boat in order for each pump to have its on drain hole. I must say i am thoroughly impressed. Drain and fill time is a little less than expected. However, when i had my sac made quite a few fittings did not make it on the sac. The sac makers are standing behind their product and are remaking the sac for me. I am going to trim it some. Probably two inches all the way around except for the length. I will add two inches there. The reason is the sac expands so much and you dont have to make the sac fit the compartments until it is full. Right now the arm on my sac is 7 inches. I filled it out of the boat and when it was full the actual arm height is 14 inches. almost double the height of the sac design. I will probably go to a four inch arm. I may also break the sac in two parts. One for the rear compartment and one for under the seat in the rear compartment. This would be done because there is a lot of water weight pushing down from the part of the sac in the rear compartment on the arm. Clap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gifClap.gif

I did have help with the install. If you are in the Texas area and you want my contact let me know.

Works like my system then. Nice. Is that T carbon steel? If so it will be rusting in no time.

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Works like my system then. Nice. Is that T carbon steel? If so it will be rusting in no time.

T is rust/corrosion resistant.

Did you put in Jabsco's or did you use factory pumps.

My drain and fill times are 15 minutes max.

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post-2057-126807970548_thumb.jpgpost-2057-126807969405_thumb.jpg

this is the switch box.

we are going to mount it near the throttle so it is in better sight.

06VLX What are you doing to keep your seats from coming up when your big sac is full?

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T is rust/corrosion resistant.

Did you put in Jabsco's or did you use factory pumps.

My drain and fill times are 15 minutes max.

I didn't use factory I added Johnson 950 gph pumps. My fill time is 10 min with 3 pumps, drain time is about 15 min with 2 pumps. I have control of all pumps through mux switches.

For the seats lifting, yes that does happen but with people on board it won't be an issue and I only have one sac under the seats, no more ballast sacs all over the boat.

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I didn't use factory I added Johnson 950 gph pumps. My fill time is 10 min with 3 pumps, drain time is about 15 min with 2 pumps. I have control of all pumps through mux switches.

For the seats lifting, yes that does happen but with people on board it won't be an issue and I only have one sac under the seats, no more ballast sacs all over the boat.

if your sac arm is the same height as mine (7inches) the seats coming up will be an issue. even with people sitting on them there is not enough weight to push the water into the larger end of the sac. This why i am considering splitting the sac into two parts or creating some kind of top to the compartment that would be made of plastic cutting board like material and carpeted of course to keep the sac arm from protruding into the bottom of the seat.

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Rhino, form the pics i could not see any 1/4 turn valves between the pumps and the boat, are there any?

thru hulls are factory parts directly from malibu with shut off valves. believe me sir they are there. (if this it what you are referring to)

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if your sac arm is the same height as mine (7inches) the seats coming up will be an issue. even with people sitting on them there is not enough weight to push the water into the larger end of the sac. This why i am considering splitting the sac into two parts or creating some kind of top to the compartment that would be made of plastic cutting board like material and carpeted of course to keep the sac arm from protruding into the bottom of the seat.

Yeah mine's 7" high as well, I wasn't able to fill it all the way because it blew the wall out in between the rear locker and engine compartment. That's fixed now and won't be an issue anymore.

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Hey its Jason, Thanks for the posting and great pictures. if anyone wants some help with installs down the road let me know.

Since you're the one who plumbed it for him did you add stainless/brass shut off valves at the thru-hull fitting?

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Yeah mine's 7" high as well, I wasn't able to fill it all the way because it blew the wall out in between the rear locker and engine compartment. That's fixed now and won't be an issue anymore.

Yeah I saw your pics. Mine did the same and I reenforced it. Works fine now. Your seats will come up when you get the sac all the way full. I am working on a fix for this.

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Yeah I saw your pics. Mine did the same and I reenforced it. Works fine now. Your seats will come up when you get the sac all the way full. I am working on a fix for this.

Cool let's see what you come up with. I'm not willing to cover the entire under seat area though. I use it for storage when the sac isn't full.

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Cool let's see what you come up with. I'm not willing to cover the entire under seat area though. I use it for storage when the sac isn't full.

My thought exactly. I was thinking of a door type device that would lock to the bottom of the seat when not in use and locks down somehow when in use :dontknow:

BIG JAY I think we found the next project. Thoughts???

Edited by Rhino
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My thought exactly. I was thinking of a door type device that would lock to the bottom of the seat when not in use and locks down somehow when in use :dontknow:

BIG JAY I think we found the next project. Thoughts???

Liljohn had an idea when we were talking a while ago of just cutting some of the starboard or some other ridgid material to lay down over the sac that spans under the seat supports. This would lay flat on the bag when the bag isn't in use but would prevent the bag from bulging (unless it flexed a little) when the bag is full. I may have to go this route if it's a real issue for me.

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