how much balast is to much?

[king_kong]

lately ive been researching differnt combinations of sacs and things for my boat and im just curious to know what you guys think is to much balast?

[lake texoma]

When the boat SINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vlx wakesetter]

When the boat SINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pistol Pete]

I don't think the question is how much is too much but, how much in the proper placement?

[king_kong]

I don't think the question is how much is too much but, how much in the proper placement?

thats more of what i was shootin for

[lake texoma]

Sorry I couldn't resist!! I have a LSV and have 500 in each rear and the quad launch. If I have alot of people in the boat I put a 750 in the walk way. Hope this helps.

[tgaugh]

Ask Krakdaddie - he has found the point where few return.

[mrothwell]

lately ive been researching differnt combinations of sacs and things for my boat and im just curious to know what you guys think is to much balast?

1 lb.

Best to have the gas tank on just about 'E', and a light weight driver and even lighter spotter. Run at about 34 mph for the best wake.

[WakeGirl]

lately ive been researching differnt combinations of sacs and things for my boat and im just curious to know what you guys think is to much balast?

Surfing or wakeboarding?

[D-GOOSE]

When the boat SINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

one more.

I have hard of people putting upwords of 4000lbs for wakeboarding.

[doughickey]

lately ive been researching differnt combinations of sacs and things for my boat and im just curious to know what you guys think is to much balast?

1 lb.

Best to have the gas tank on just about 'E', and a light weight driver and even lighter spotter. Run at about 34 mph for the best wake.

Perfect answer. Not many of us ski purists left around here. Yes.... I like my wake at 2",not 2'!

[bigD]

I'm sure you know this but the engine and prop will be a major factor when you ballest heavy.

I had all 3 stock MLS tanks plus two 250Lb sacks in the trunks 300+ lead in the bow ,wedge and some big'ol boys in the Bu 5 guy's I know 3 of them are over 200Lbs plus me at 240(it was a bachelor party weekend)The swim deck was in the water and she was struggling hard with the 340hp and 537prop pulling a rider up,almost as embarrassing as haveing just guy's in the boat. It was Too much for me to ride.

But the wake was sick.

Edited May 4, 2007 by bigD

[tparider]

We run stock (1250lbs), 440lbs in each rear compartment, 600lb on the floor, and 2 300's in the bow - 3330lbs total. I'm sure we're not totally full on the sacs all the time, so I'd say 3000lbs to be safe. My prop is stock, but I've had it repitched and recupped and it gets on plane within a few seconds after the holeshot. The wake is huge and has a great shape.

[DizzyG]

the stock 537 on the VLXs is a sad sad prop!

I run full stock 1250 plus 500-600 in fat sacs in each trunk with another 400-500 in lead up in the nose. No wedge.

We ride about '80 back at 23.6 - 24.4MPH.

First thing we had to do was get a new prop, went with the acme 1235 and couldn't be happier.

The wake is a nice big ramp, it gets out of the hole like the 537 with no ballast at all and doesn't turn extra RPMS with the new prop compared to the old. Hope that helps, if you surf ask wakegirl, she seems to have the VLX hull dialed

[wienrdog]

I'd guess the answer to this would change depending on if you're talking to a boarder about to ride/surf or one of your local DNR/Conservation Officers.

[WakeGirl]

the stock 537 on the VLXs is a sad sad prop!

I run full stock 1250 plus 500-600 in fat sacs in each trunk with another 400-500 in lead up in the nose. No wedge.

We ride about '80 back at 23.6 - 24.4MPH.

First thing we had to do was get a new prop, went with the acme 1235 and couldn't be happier.

The wake is a nice big ramp, it gets out of the hole like the 537 with no ballast at all and doesn't turn extra RPMS with the new prop compared to the old. Hope that helps, if you surf ask wakegirl, she seems to have the VLX hull dialed

The 537 is pretty good with the 383 Hammerhead, although truth be told we don't run any extra ballast when wakeboarding (surfing is a whooooole different story ). For surfing, even with all of the extra weight that we run it does fine both getting out of the hole as well as holding speed. Last summer I had 11 people in the boat with the Acme 381 on & we tried a couple of wakeboarding runs....I won't make that mistake again. D-GOOSE has a prop that he wants me to test this summer, so I'll give that a try.

Bottom line....for wakeboarding, yes I think that there is a point where you can go too far - both from a standpoint of safety as well as performance. That's different for every boat, so you need to find what works for you. This is JMO, so don't flame me for it, but I really, truly believe that too many people out there are stacking the crap out of their boats to compensate for bad technique. It's fun to try every once in a while just to see what you can do with your boat & I actually think that it's a good thing to know where those limits are & how it affects the boat. But for every day use, I don't go there. When it comes to wakeboarding, stock is fine for us. Besides, I have enough trouble staying healthy on stock wakes.

[Malibudude]

lately ive been researching differnt combinations of sacs and things for my boat and im just curious to know what you guys think is to much balast?

1 lb.

Best to have the gas tank on just about 'E', and a light weight driver and even lighter spotter. Run at about 34 mph for the best wake.

Less is more....

[mrothwell]

lately ive been researching differnt combinations of sacs and things for my boat and im just curious to know what you guys think is to much balast?

1 lb.

Best to have the gas tank on just about 'E', and a light weight driver and even lighter spotter. Run at about 34 mph for the best wake.

Less is more....

I should have taken into account that this is a Malibu gas gauge, so I will amend my original statement: Best to have the gas tank on 'E' for at least the past 2 hours of running time...

[BenBu]

to much for what?

the stock ballast is already to much for a w2w jump.

we use aprox a 1000kg 2200lbs iirc on top of the stock ballast including people, we don,t use the wedge as we feel it doesn,t add anything to the wake other then sucking up more gas(lpg) and worse handeling of the boat...adding the wedge at these weights is defenitly to much!

with the acme 1235 the boat drives awesome...rpm +/- 3400 in the 22 24 mile range.(35-38.9 km)it sucks up about 35/40 liter of lpg an hour.

we do lose a little power because of the lpg but we do not have an alternative with our european gas prices.

i would say anything above 2000lbs on top of stock ballast is to much,..the wake is freaking huge and more then enough to easely learn and try mobe kind of tricks without to much effort or feeling you have to throw the trick..(wich i personally do not do)

It took us some time to figure it out where to put al that ballast i just got the 1235 but we spend 2 full days testing and trying....at the 2500 barrier we started to drain the rear tanks 30% because we thought the wake got to steep...anyway we have video taped our last ride incase some are intrested

video 1 38.6km at 80ft line

rider lenght 1.84mtr water depht 5 mtr

video 2 35km at 65ft line

1.77 5 (exept for the 1wake ts 5 attemps that was 33km)

hope this helps.

Edited May 8, 2007 by BenBu