WakeMakers Piggyback bags.

[ronixrider14]

Hey, so I know this topic has been beaten to death, but all the forums seem to be a year or two old, and I was hoping for recent opinions. What is everybody's opinion on the Wakemakers Piggyback bags? I've got an '09 VLX with MaliView and Bow, Centre and Rear Ballast. I was considering buying the 750 lbs Piggyback bags for the rear lockers and a 1000 lb bag for the bow of the boat. I will mostly be wake boarding and wake surfing maybe once or twice a weekend. Is this a good set-up to get or would it just be smarter to get a 1000 lb and 2 regular 750 lbs with 3 Tsunami pumps? I've heard that the Piggyback bags don't fill or empty very well so I was wondering if it would be faster and easier with regular bags. Thanks for any responses, greatly appreciated.

[Love2Ride]

Look at the recent post by Brett B. I'm going to be doing something very similar to this (if not exactly) to my '07 VLX

http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/39656-2012-vlx-integrated-ballast-install/

Edited August 13, 2012 by Love2Ride

[Brett B]

The wakemakers rear kit fills the bag first which is then supposed to drain to the hard tank as it fills. If you ever want to run just the hard tanks with the Maliview presets this would not work very well. The other way is to fill the tank first and then add the bag on the overflow line. This fills decently however it takes a long time for the bag to gravity drain back into the tank. So the rear kit works, it's just a bit slow and doesn't work great with the presets.

According to wakemakers you cannot add a bow bag piggybacked on top of the stock bow tank. The bag sits too high relative to the pump and will not fill all the way. The bag would also sit higher than the anti-siphon loop for the bow hard tank would create problems with draining while underway even if you could fill it. I have not tried it myself but this is what they told me and I believe they are correct after looking closely at the factory system.

I would suggest calling wakemakers to let them describe how their system works. I did and they were very helpful. I didn't buy their piggyback kit but still sourced many of my ballast parts from them and they were great to work with.

[achtung]

I recently bought the 750lb Wakemakers Piggy Back system for my 08' 23 LSV. It took me about 30 minutes a side to install and I can confirm that both the wakeboard wake and surf wake were massively improved. I also replaced my 537 acme with a 1273 acme prop to help my monsoon deal with the extra weight.

I have zero problems filling or draining. The bags drain down to about 1" or less. Fill time is about 10 minutes and drain time in about the same. It helps to keep your bow down during the draining process since the empty hoses are in the front. I believe I was shipped their 3.0 version.

[Phoenix]

Hi Ronixrider,

Here's am article on how I modified the Wake Makers installation (With tips and help from Happy2Ride): http://www.themalibucrew.com/forums/index.php?/topic/38325-modified-wake-makers-piggy-back-installation/

My last few trips out have been great, the hard tanks fill when they're supposed to, and the soft tanks drain much better than using the standard installation suggest by WM.

One note, my installation is on a 2012, so you will need to account for 3/4" hoses and fittings instead of 1-1/8".

Cheers,

Don