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Bow ballast install


chrislackman

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hey team,

I have a 04 wakestter VLX, im thinking of adding bow ballast to level out the boat a little when im running heavier ballast in the rear. Currently i find the boat takes along time to get on plane. Hopefully a little more weight up front will do the trick. My plan is to install a hidden system under neath the bow seats. going with a 500lbs under bow sac. I know this wont fill fully however every little bit will hopefully help.

My question is, has anyone added bow ballast under the seat and instead of using a new pump and through hull, re routed the vent/overflow from their center tank to fill the bow tank? i thought this might be an option as if im going to be filling the center tank i will also want the front with weight too. Would this setup work? can anyone see any hidden issue i might have with it?

 

all inputs would be greatly appreciated, also does any one have pictures of bow ballast installs? would luv to fin out what others have done.

thanks heaps.

Chris

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On 2/27/2019 at 5:02 PM, chrislackman said:

hey team,

I have a 04 wakestter VLX, im thinking of adding bow ballast to level out the boat a little when im running heavier ballast in the rear. Currently i find the boat takes along time to get on plane. Hopefully a little more weight up front will do the trick. My plan is to install a hidden system under neath the bow seats. going with a 500lbs under bow sac. I know this wont fill fully however every little bit will hopefully help.

My question is, has anyone added bow ballast under the seat and instead of using a new pump and through hull, re routed the vent/overflow from their center tank to fill the bow tank? i thought this might be an option as if im going to be filling the center tank i will also want the front with weight too. Would this setup work? can anyone see any hidden issue i might have with it?

 

all inputs would be greatly appreciated, also does any one have pictures of bow ballast installs? would luv to fin out what others have done.

thanks heaps.

Chris

Your center tank is likely a bag not a tank. I tried it before with my center bag (I had the parts laying around) and it didn't work at all, as the center bag just wanted to overly expand and not really fill the front bag.  

I have my feed to the bag on a tee so each leg of the front bag gets it's own feed from the pump. Helped a bit with evenly filling the bag...the holes I used were already there from a previous stereo install, so it made a lot of sense to do it that way.

I run impeller pumps and use a diverter valve for my center/front bags.  Those two together take about as long as one of my locker bags, so the timing works well.

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On 2/27/2019 at 4:02 PM, chrislackman said:

hey team,

I have a 04 wakestter VLX, im thinking of adding bow ballast to level out the boat a little when im running heavier ballast in the rear. Currently i find the boat takes along time to get on plane. Hopefully a little more weight up front will do the trick. My plan is to install a hidden system under neath the bow seats. going with a 500lbs under bow sac. I know this wont fill fully however every little bit will hopefully help.

My question is, has anyone added bow ballast under the seat and instead of using a new pump and through hull, re routed the vent/overflow from their center tank to fill the bow tank? i thought this might be an option as if im going to be filling the center tank i will also want the front with weight too. Would this setup work? can anyone see any hidden issue i might have with it?

 

all inputs would be greatly appreciated, also does any one have pictures of bow ballast installs? would luv to fin out what others have done.

thanks heaps.

Chris

That's pretty much what I have done.  Feed through a Y that goes to center or bow and one vent with check valves to keep the bow from filling the mid.  Bag does cause the front seats to pop up - which is usually when I stop but you can go with more if no one is sitting up there.  I'm planning to put a bigger bag in using this method:

 

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my center tank is from factory, hard plastic under the floor in front of the fuel tank. i wasnt going to put in a Y connector, all i was thinking of doing was removing the center tank vent from the over flow through hull, connecting that pipe to fill my under seat bow soft tank and from there run a vent to the through hull. this way when i fill the center tank from the switch on the dash once full it will fill through the vent /overflow hose up into the bow. It was my thought on cutting down on switches and pump as i would only need pumps to empty the bow. posssibly could even run the empty pumps off the center tank drain switch.

 

does any one see an issue with this setup, or could offer better advice?

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If the front sac has a bottom vent you may still have to burp the bag as air will be on top and water could be venting out instead of air , happens with rears that are bottom vent/overflow 

Edited by granddaddy55
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On 3/5/2019 at 8:01 PM, chrislackman said:

my center tank is from factory, hard plastic under the floor in front of the fuel tank. i wasnt going to put in a Y connector, all i was thinking of doing was removing the center tank vent from the over flow through hull, connecting that pipe to fill my under seat bow soft tank and from there run a vent to the through hull. this way when i fill the center tank from the switch on the dash once full it will fill through the vent /overflow hose up into the bow. It was my thought on cutting down on switches and pump as i would only need pumps to empty the bow. posssibly could even run the empty pumps off the center tank drain switch.

 

does any one see an issue with this setup, or could offer better advice?

If draining the bow would depend on suction from the original mid hard tank "vent" line that might be very slow and/or collapse the mid tank.

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for the bow tank i was still going to run separate drain pumps. as i don't think i would be able to drain the bow back into the center tank.

As for the vent for the bow tank, the soft bag i have has 2 inputs at the top corner, so one i would connect the center tank vent to which will fill the bow bag and the second i would run a vent from to out the side of the boat. then on both of the ends there are drain points where i was thinking of hooking up x2 drain pumps (one on each leg) so the bow will drain completely.

 

the setup i was going for was more on the side of an easier to install setup, as i dont have to tap into the center tank through hull fill point.  or make another through hull fore the bow filler pump. however if no one has done this setup before i might just have to take my time and add the extra fill pump and possibly put in a manifold  to the through hull fro the center tank and install a second pump that will supply the bow tank, the only other issue with this is i would need to the add another switch for bow fill/empty.

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ha, this. 
I struggled with this on a cheap budget. 
My setup. 1100gpy aerator pump to a y valve so I can fill one or the other at a time. I rain a drain hose from both to a T and then put the original aerator pump after that. I had to put a valve on the drain hose from the front bag to control draining. It works.. its just not super user friendly.. but who cares, Im always the captain of the boat and it works. Also, for draining... the fill line siphons so I just use that at the end of the day for every last drop of water. Idealy I would have a dedicated aerator pump for that front one. but thats $$$ and its a 2004 vlx... Im saving up right?!

 

I timed it. With a perfect world and flow rate about 270-300# fits up there under seats. The nice thing about quick disconnects is that on a cold day where no one is in the front (or most days where we only shred and dont use the front) you can pull the bag out and put it on top of the seats and fill it all the way up.  750s in the back center full, 600 fat sac on the cabin floor, and that 600 front bag full plus 300 in lead in the bow walk way with wedge down our boat does pretty well! stock 350 monsoon handles 4k# no problem

Honestly the wake with the front under seats filled and the back 750s filled with the wedge down and lead placed as far back on the sun pad as possible with all the friends in the back is pretty awesome too.

 

She surfs a lot better with all that weight up in the front thats for sure. 1200 in fat sacs in the back, 600 front bag on top of seats plus all the rest listed above and a suck gate.... yasssssss. 

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