Opinons on a unique ski locker bag plumbing idea

[Nitrousbird]

I have a ballast idea I haven’t seen posted before; I’d like some opinions on whether it will work.

I have a 3-pump system, using Johnson impeller pumps. Each locker bag has one pump and the 3^rd pump feeds the under seat bow ballast bag. The bow bag will only hold about 250-300lbs of water vs. 750 for the locker bags, so obviously it fills much sooner. I also use a manual valve off the starboard locker bag pump to fill an under seat bag on the port side when surfing.

I want to add a ski locker bag. Instead of doing a 4^th pump, a manual valve, or an electric gate valve, I had a different idea. I want to take the fill line going into my bow ballast bag and put it on the ski locker bag. Instead of venting the ski locker bag, I want to use the vent output to feed the bow ballast bag. Basically it would be a piggyback setup.

In this setup, the ski locker would fill first then it would overflow into the bow bag. I figure this should work well as the highest part of the locker bag is lower than the lowest part of the bow bag.

Advantages:

- Cost. I would only have to purchase a ski locker bag, a couple more feet of hose and a couple fittings.

- Simplicity. Very few extra parts needed. Less parts = less things to go wrong. No need to drill additional vent holes for this bag either.

- Speed. Filling the ski locker and bow ballast would take about as long as the rear locker bags.

- Unique. I haven’t seen anyone else post a setup like this before.

Disadvantages:

- No independent control of the front weighting as the ski locker always has to fill before the front bag. The question is whether this would actually be a problem?

- Not as fast as separate pumps. I don’t see that as disadvantage as I would still be waiting on the rear bags anyway

Your thoughts?

[btbaeder]

I did the kindof the same thing with my Vride. Since I was using standard aerator pumps I had to put a manual valve in to prevent the bow sack from draining but it worked great. SInce you are using the Johnson pumps it should work fine.

[CrystalSurf]

Where would the hose from the ski locker exit the locker to reach the bow bag? Would you connect to each leg of the bow bag?

[Nitrousbird]

Where would the hose from the ski locker exit the locker to reach the bow bag? Would you connect to each leg of the bow bag?

They would exit at the front of the ski locker bag. There are already holes there where wiring is currently running that I will be removing as I am doing a bunch of stereo rewiring. I could go either one leg or both - currently I only feed one leg and it works pretty well with only a small amount of leftover water.

[JonnyRad91]

I see no problems with it. DO IT!

[Rmack]

What type of Sac in the ski locker? The only issue I see is the ski lock sack filling up all the way then you will not be able to close the ski locker hatch. I put a tube sac in my old 2000 lsv and when I filled it up all the way, the hatch would stay open.

Other then that, sounds good

[vette-ski]

Ditto some of the above. I have a ski locker sack but no bow sack. I would have preferred a bow sack for the extra weight it gives, but was worried about some of the same issues (how to deal with both legs of the integrated bow sack). I opted for a locker sack only. Yes, you can get a hose out. If I remember correctly there was already a hole that I just had to make bigger for 1" hose. The hose ends up coming into the open cavity under the dash behind the drivers kick panel (same area where the vent air goes to). This is where I pulled the vent hose up and put a thru-hull outlet for the vent/drain. I'm using aerator pumps. I suppose I could have done the same as you and put an extra drain pump only and thru-hull on the spotters side. Hmmm....don't get me thinking. Anyway, yes I do have a problem with my bow sack wanting to auto-fill and lift the ski locker door when it is completely full. So I fill the sack just short of full and manually shut off the inlet valve. Would have to shut two valves to keep the pressure of the bow sack off of the locker sack. It sounds possible though. In the end what I decided to do was get a couple of those fly high "bricks" with integrated handles. If I want extra bow weight, I just fill those and sit them in the walkway. Also use them on the surf side in the rear occasionally. I did a pretty detailed write-up with lots of pictures on here about 5 years ago if you want to dig it up (same boat as yours).

edit....found it:

Edited December 5, 2012 by vette-ski