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Rear ballast intall on an I ride


prion

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I finally decided to intall ballast in the rear ski locker of my Iride. I wanted to document what I do as I go along as im sure there are others out there looking to do the same thing. I would first like to put to bed the rumor that you have to support the floor in the ski locker because if you dont you will crush the gas tank. You do not. In fact the gas tank sits on the same floor the ballast bag will sit on and it is behind the plastic wall not under it. The sending unit and all wires are on top of the tank and are completley out of the way from being crushed by the bag. The plasting that will be protecting the tank will be plenty strong enough and there will be no issues.

The first thing I did was remove the plastic panels in the rear of the storage locker to expose the gas tank. see pictures below

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post-13359-010571600 1303089988_thumb.jp

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This is a picture of the removable center piece in the rear locker, it seams to be made of wood with a heat sheilding on the bottom. You have to remove the rear seat cooler to pull out this piecte. I did this so it would be easier to run my ballast hose. I have the ballast hose running up behind the gas tank (2nd picture). The ballast hose will run all the way up to the front ski locker where i will use the drain plug hole as my water intake. My goal is to only drill one hole for the drain pump

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post-13359-091985800 1303090457_thumb.jp

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Here are a few pictures of the engine cover, rear seats and rear cooler remove as well as a picture showing the thickness of the rear floor.

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Sorry, Here is the floor thickness and another shot underneith the gas tank you can see the wedge plate in the rear. This is all the farther i go tonight. I should have more tomorrow. Let me know what you all think or if you see any flaws in my plan.

post-13359-072846900 1303090790_thumb.jp

post-13359-073319100 1303090882_thumb.jp

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Finally getting around to it? Nice! Did you wind up ordering that custom bag to fit the locker? If not, what bag are you going to use? Hopefully your picutres will finally calm the concerns of the non-iRide owners who insist the floor must be supported.

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Finally getting around to it? Nice! Did you wind up ordering that custom bag to fit the locker? If not, what bag are you going to use? Hopefully your picutres will finally calm the concerns of the non-iRide owners who insist the floor must be supported.

Lol, I hope so. I ended up going with the Fly HighTube sac. It should fit perfectly. The custom bag was just to much $$$. The tube sac is almost 400 lbs. If its not enough ill use it in the walk way to the bow and get a rear seat sac like you did. FYI I sent you an email with a couple questions.

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Finally getting around to it? Nice! Did you wind up ordering that custom bag to fit the locker? If not, what bag are you going to use? Hopefully your picutres will finally calm the concerns of the non-iRide owners who insist the floor must be supported.

That is not true for all boats. Anyone with an SSLxi needs to reinforce the trunk floor because the floor sits directly on top of the gas tank. See My link to how I reinforced my trunk and you'll see what I am talking about.

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That is not true for all boats. Anyone with an SSLxi needs to reinforce the trunk floor because the floor sits directly on top of the gas tank. See My link to how I reinforced my trunk and you'll see what I am talking about.

Thus the point of my post. When Prion first posted last year about adding a rear ballast to his iRide we were trying to tell those of you that don't own an iRide (which is actually me now) that the gas tank does not extend down below the floor and that it is wholly contained behind the rear wall. In the other thread a couple of owners of the earlier SS were perpetuating the incorrect rumor that the floor needed to be reinforced which is true for those boats, but not the 07 iRide. I just don't want iRide owners to pass on this highly beneficial and relatively simple upgrade because of posts that don't apply to their boat.

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Wakechaser is correct. This post only applies to Irides. I cannot comment on any other boats, but I can assure you that the 07 Iride gas tank is NOT under the rear floor.

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I'm watching with interest, as I have an '06 iRide.

Even though I have an iRide it's hard to get perspective on some of those close up pictures and where things are. I think I have it though.

Did you really need to remove the rear seat setup? How difficult was that to get out and how is it held in place?

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I'm watching with interest, as I have an '06 iRide.

Even though I have an iRide it's hard to get perspective on some of those close up pictures and where things are. I think I have it though.

Did you really need to remove the rear seat setup? How difficult was that to get out and how is it held in place?

I removed the rear seat set up becuase i wanted to run the ballast hose all the way back and up behind the gas tank. This way there was no drilliing required. When im all done, the only hole i will have drilled is for the drain through hull fitting. It was very easy to remove the seats. all you do is take out the cushions and unscrew all the mounting bracket screws on the floor . Then just remove the support posts. The rear cooler is all one piece and it just slides foward. Once the cooler is out you can remove the piece of floor in the ski compartment. There are no screws holding it down. I also did this because i wanted to take a look around and see how the boat was put together. That way if anything goes wrong ill have a better idea of what to look for. I will hopefully have the project completed by this weekend with more pictures.

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I removed the rear seat set up becuase i wanted to run the ballast hose all the way back and up behind the gas tank. This way there was no drilliing required. When im all done, the only hole i will have drilled is for the drain through hull fitting. It was very easy to remove the seats. all you do is take out the cushions and unscrew all the mounting bracket screws on the floor . Then just remove the support posts. The rear cooler is all one piece and it just slides foward. Once the cooler is out you can remove the piece of floor in the ski compartment. There are no screws holding it down. I also did this because i wanted to take a look around and see how the boat was put together. That way if anything goes wrong ill have a better idea of what to look for. I will hopefully have the project completed by this weekend with more pictures.

Thanks for the reply. Having taken it apart and seen everything, do you think you could have feed that hose through without taking out the seat?

Also, are you going to use the same thru hull that fills up the center ballast. or are you going to tap into the one underneath the engine?

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Thanks for the reply. Having taken it apart and seen everything, do you think you could have feed that hose through without taking out the seat?

Also, are you going to use the same thru hull that fills up the center ballast. or are you going to tap into the one underneath the engine?

I dont think there would have been anyway to route the hose a i did without removing everything. I ran the hose under the exhaust which was a really tight fit.

I have an extra drain hole next to the fill pump for the front ballast in the ski locker. Im just using that hole for the rear pump. I bought a 3/4 inch brass nipple and shut off valve from Lows that fit perfectly. The thru hull under the engine will be left as is for now. I was originally going to use that one but the fresh water intake hose runs very close to it and i didnt want it to put any pressure on the pump. If i ever plumb in bow ballast I will drill a new through hull next to the one in the engine compartment.

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Thanks for the reply. Having taken it apart and seen everything, do you think you could have feed that hose through without taking out the seat?

Also, are you going to use the same thru hull that fills up the center ballast. or are you going to tap into the one underneath the engine?

PM me your e-mail address and I will send you some pics of how I did it. That way you can take parts of my intsall and parts of Prion's to give you some more ideas.

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Thus the point of my post. When Prion first posted last year about adding a rear ballast to his iRide we were trying to tell those of you that don't own an iRide (which is actually me now) that the gas tank does not extend down below the floor and that it is wholly contained behind the rear wall. In the other thread a couple of owners of the earlier SS were perpetuating the incorrect rumor that the floor needed to be reinforced which is true for those boats, but not the 07 iRide. I just don't want iRide owners to pass on this highly beneficial and relatively simple upgrade because of posts that don't apply to their boat.

Gotcha. I miss read your post and understood it as you saying that non-iRide owners didn't need to worry about reinforcing their trunks becuase this thread showed that the gas tank is not under the trunk, and all trunks are similar. Instead you meant that non-iride owners shouldn't worry about those who do own irides and want to put ballast in their trunk. My bad!

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  • 8 years later...

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