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SSLXi Ballast Plan


jetskipro550

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I don't want to hi-jack the other thread going on about sunsetter LXi ballast so I am going to start my own. Right now we have center MLS but I want to re-do it since the set up is kind of funky. Also I want to add 3 more sacks (one on each side of the engine) and one either in the supported trunk area, or under the rear seat (which ever is easier Biggrin.gif )

What I want:

1. To be able to control each sack individually

2. To drill as few holes in the bottom of the boat as possible

3. To have all of the "outlets" on the starboard side of the boat.

4. To be able to control everything from the dash

5. Keep fill and empty times under 5-6 minutes

6. Keep my costs to a minimum

7. Be able to do it with basic tools and little mechanical skills

I already have 3 540lb. SL sacks and I will have a custom one made for the rear trunk or under the seat. What pumps do I need, how many, what kind of switches, etc... I have to admit that I know that this has been covered to death, but I never paid any attention to those threads and searching didn't turn up a whole lot for me.

Thanks in advance, Patrick :)

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Have you drilled any holes in the boat yet? Have you looked at options for mounting switches? Did you want to go Aerator style pumps or Reversible Impeller (Jabsco/Simer)?

I have been working on mine for a few months now (2 Sacs) and I have been learning as I go but I haven't drilled any holes yet because I wanted to make sure it was going to work first... I have a 4 pump (Aerator) system 2 fill 2 drain.. And I really like the fill times and the ease of the aerator style pumps, just make sure that they are mounted low enough to prime and for the life of me I can't find fittings that match up to the Tsunami pumps...

Anyways I will test it out this spring and I will let you know how it works.

RYAN

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I will respond in detail later, but for now can you describe what's going on with the center MLS & why it's funky?

I am not really sure, its just weird. Basically when its filling, there is also a steady stream of water emptying out also. Which would make you think that it would fill slowly, but it takes 5 minutes or less. Also, the sack always manages to be 1/3 - 1/2 full so somehow its filling on its own I think?

Have you drilled any holes in the boat yet? Have you looked at options for mounting switches? Did you want to go Aerator style pumps or Reversible Impeller (Jabsco/Simer)?

I have been working on mine for a few months now (2 Sacs) and I have been learning as I go but I haven't drilled any holes yet because I wanted to make sure it was going to work first... I have a 4 pump (Aerator) system 2 fill 2 drain.. And I really like the fill times and the ease of the aerator style pumps, just make sure that they are mounted low enough to prime and for the life of me I can't find fittings that match up to the Tsunami pumps...

Anyways I will test it out this spring and I will let you know how it works.

RYAN

The boat has one hole drilled in the bottom for the pump it has now, and one in the side for the outflow. I don't know the difference between aerator and reversible impeller pumps. I would like to be able to just hook up each pump to the existing hole somehow, so I don't have to drill anymore below the waterline. I would like the other 3 sacks to empty out on the back drivers side as well.

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What do you all think of these pumps here 1200 gph pumps If I were to use 6 of these, 3 for filling, 3 for emptying would these work?

I want to use the center drain plug (near the engine) as my water intake and then somehow connect the first 3 pumps up to it. Will this work?

For emptying the sacks where do the other 3 pumps connect to? Could I wire them up in such a way that turning one switch to the right fills, but turning it to the left empties?

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What do you all think of these pumps here 1200 gph pumps If I were to use 6 of these, 3 for filling, 3 for emptying would these work?

I want to use the center drain plug (near the engine) as my water intake and then somehow connect the first 3 pumps up to it. Will this work?

For emptying the sacks where do the other 3 pumps connect to? Could I wire them up in such a way that turning one switch to the right fills, but turning it to the left empties?

Those are the pumps I use for filling and they are great just can't find fittings to work with them.... Actually a better price than what I paid as well.. I use these for emptying my sacs as well only because Bass Pro ran out of the Tsunami.

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Where are your emptying pumps attached?

On the back I have a bracket (traingle plexiglass) the holds the back seat away from the gas tank, I drilled a hole in one of those brackets and attached the pump to it. And because the front one is under the bow where there is plenty of room I just attached the pump directly to the sac. I purchased some square sacs for next year so there won't be any rolling around and also have a bottom drain so it should work even better.

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Red - fat sacks

Blue - fill lines

Green - drain lines

Yellow - fill pumps

Black - inlet piping and T

untitled.jpg

Imagine that there are drain pumps on the other end of each sack...and obviously the lines won't run like they do in the picture...

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I will respond in detail later, but for now can you describe what's going on with the center MLS & why it's funky?

I am not really sure, its just weird. Basically when its filling, there is also a steady stream of water emptying out also. Which would make you think that it would fill slowly, but it takes 5 minutes or less. Also, the sack always manages to be 1/3 - 1/2 full so somehow its filling on its own I think?

Is it stock or was it added later? What you describe is pretty typical, but if it's stock then I think that I know how it's plumbed & can tell you why it's doing what it's doing.

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I will respond in detail later, but for now can you describe what's going on with the center MLS & why it's funky?

I am not really sure, its just weird. Basically when its filling, there is also a steady stream of water emptying out also. Which would make you think that it would fill slowly, but it takes 5 minutes or less. Also, the sack always manages to be 1/3 - 1/2 full so somehow its filling on its own I think?

Is it stock or was it added later? What you describe is pretty typical, but if it's stock then I think that I know how it's plumbed & can tell you why it's doing what it's doing.

All I know is that it didn't come from the factory. I don't know if it was done at madras marine (most likely), or if it was done by the person who owned it (which I doubt). They didn't do their own stereo, tower, etc, so I doubt they did the ballast, but I could be wrong.

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Are you planing on using the drain hull as your intake and then splitting it off for each pump, or making 2 holes in your hull?

No one hole is enough. But I am making a small manifold to catch the water and then plumb the 2 pumps to the manifold...

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I really want to do something like this to fill both of the sacks next to the engine. But I want to be able to use the existing drain hull.

Also, I was thinking about making it so that the front and rear sacks fill using the same pump, but empty on their own.

Where do the overflow lines usually T into the drain lines? Do they need some sort of valve so that water (as its emptying) does not flow back down through the overflow line into the sack?

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Are you planing on using the drain hull as your intake and then splitting it off for each pump, or making 2 holes in your hull?

No one hole is enough. But I am making a small manifold to catch the water and then plumb the 2 pumps to the manifold...

Pennery, Please clarify....are you using the "t-handle plug" drain hole in the engine bay as your water inlet hole, or is there another hole in there? Thanks.

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Also, I was thinking about making it so that the front and rear sacks fill using the same pump, but empty on their own.

Keep them separate if at all possible. If you're going to use separate empty pumps, then you're going to need 2 switches anyway. A manifold like what you've posted wouldn't be hard to build at all.

Vent....On a stock system, they usually use a y fitting that the vent line hooks into the fill line close to where it goes into the tank. Now, the orientation of the fitting is such that it shouldn't have water easily going out of the overflow before the tank is full, but I've seen a lot of systems that spew water well before it's full. This sounds like the way that yours is hooked up, & if Madras did it then that's probably the case. Ideally, you want the overflow on it's own line coming directly off of the bag, so if you have a third valve on the bag that isn't being utilized, then I'd start there. You shouldn't need any valves to get it working correctly.

Incidentally, did you buy the boat from Madras? If so, when?

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The bags have 4 "hookups" so I will just run a vent line directly from the bag to a thru-hull. We didn't buy the boat from MM, but it came from there originally.

As far as hooking up the rear and center together, I was just thinking of a way to save some $$$ (yeah I'm cheap) because I know that the center and rear sacks will always be filled together cause they are for boarding. The side sacks are for surfing and they need to be on separate pumps cause we have goofy and regular surfers.

How about using the same fill and drain pump for the center and rear sacks and just running a extra lines? Is that too much effort? I guess it would only be $60 more for the rear sack pumps + whatever the switches cost...

Edit: I just realized that I will be adding 6 thru-hulls to the boat, can I just T in all of the overflow lines into one so I only use 4 thru-hulls?

Edited by jetskipro550
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Is the T handle drain in front of the motor big enough to use 1200gph?

Probably not, but the 1200gph are cheaper then some 800gph pumps

I saw an article in one of the Boat/US publications that I receive discussing various reasons for boats sinking. IIRC, under the "missing drain plug" reason it stated the water flow through a 1" hole located 1 foot below the water line was something like 30 or 35 gallons per minute (1800 - 2100 gph).

If so, the drain fitting should work fine as an intake for your ballast system.

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Is the T handle drain in front of the motor big enough to use 1200gph?

Probably not, but the 1200gph are cheaper then some 800gph pumps

I saw an article in one of the Boat/US publications that I receive discussing various reasons for boats sinking. IIRC, under the "missing drain plug" reason it stated the water flow through a 1" hole located 1 foot below the water line was something like 30 or 35 gallons per minute (1800 - 2100 gph).

If so, the drain fitting should work fine as an intake for your ballast system.

Well I can tell you that with all 3 plugs out, and the boat in the water, after about 1 minute you can have 6" or more of water in it Whistling.gif

Quick question, does anyone know the size of the drain hull in the center where it uses the T plug? Is it 1" or 3/4"?

Edited by jetskipro550
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The bags have 4 "hookups" so I will just run a vent line directly from the bag to a thru-hull. We didn't buy the boat from MM, but it came from there originally.

As far as hooking up the rear and center together, I was just thinking of a way to save some $$$ (yeah I'm cheap) because I know that the center and rear sacks will always be filled together cause they are for boarding. The side sacks are for surfing and they need to be on separate pumps cause we have goofy and regular surfers.

How about using the same fill and drain pump for the center and rear sacks and just running a extra lines? Is that too much effort? I guess it would only be $60 more for the rear sack pumps + whatever the switches cost...

Edit: I just realized that I will be adding 6 thru-hulls to the boat, can I just T in all of the overflow lines into one so I only use 4 thru-hulls?

Back up a second. What kind of pumps are you using that cost $60 each?

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The bags have 4 "hookups" so I will just run a vent line directly from the bag to a thru-hull. We didn't buy the boat from MM, but it came from there originally.

As far as hooking up the rear and center together, I was just thinking of a way to save some $$$ (yeah I'm cheap) because I know that the center and rear sacks will always be filled together cause they are for boarding. The side sacks are for surfing and they need to be on separate pumps cause we have goofy and regular surfers.

How about using the same fill and drain pump for the center and rear sacks and just running a extra lines? Is that too much effort? I guess it would only be $60 more for the rear sack pumps + whatever the switches cost...

Edit: I just realized that I will be adding 6 thru-hulls to the boat, can I just T in all of the overflow lines into one so I only use 4 thru-hulls?

Back up a second. What kind of pumps are you using that cost $60 each?

only the best Crazy.gif ....j/k. 60 bucks is for 2 pumps. They are 29.99 each from wakeside here is the LINK

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