Anyone added ballast bags on top of hard tanks?

[Sinkoumn]

I'm thinking about doing this where I add the 250-lb sacs on top of my rear hard tanks using the vent line from the tank to fill/empty the bag.

I've seen posts about it all over when I wasn't interested in doing it; but of course now that I'm interested in doing it I cannot find squat about the project online (I know I've seen it here/wakeboarder/ww, just can't for the life of me find the threads that talk about it - tried using the search on all the sites for the past two days, and I have nada) :x

Anyone have a link or know specifically where it is documented on how to add ballast bags on to the top of hard tanks, and whether or not it actually works that well?

Thanks much! :grin:

[gride300]

RE: Anyone added ballast bags on top of hard tanks?

in my 05 i plumbed in wedge sacs on top of factory tanks. i removed the carpeting, ran a line from the oem overflow to the bottom of the bag, then made a U shaped hose(like kitchen sink) that runs behind the tank at the aft of the boat and that is now the overflow. depending on your pump you have to buy plugs at home depot for the empty hole(not overflow) i've been using mine for a year now and i like it. you have to blow the water out of the overflow before emptying though.

[core-rider]

http://planetnautique.com/index.php?...wtopic&t=11214

Should be all you need to know.

[Sinkoumn]

Here is what I was thinking - or thought what everyone else had done (basically identical to your setup gride, sans the U-shaped hose). I have three lines running to my hard tanks - fill, empty, and vent. The emtpy and vent have their own thru hull exiting the side of the boat, so I was thinking of just taking the old vent line and connecting that to the bag, then just adding the new vent line off of the top of the bag and going out the thru-hull on the side of the boat. Then the fill/empty would just be run off the hard tank like always.

[Sinkoumn]

Core, thanks much!

[HS]

here is another example showing photos from the installation. Same approach but adds a venting feature to protect the hard tanks on the empty cycle.

http://www.planetnautique.com/index....hlight=ballast

[Sinkoumn]

Awesome, thanks so much for the help guys!!! I owe ya' one PDT_001

[MyWakeIsBigger]

Core

What exact sacs did you put on top of the factory tanks?

[Sinkoumn]

I'm going to add these. I think I'm going to add some support legs to brace the added weight of the bags on the top of the hard tanks as well.

[core-rider]

Core

What exact sacs did you put on top of the factory tanks?

I started out with the v-drive sacs, then changed to the "Wedge" sacs because the v-drive sacs just didn't fit that well. With the "Wedge" sacs I can still put vests, ropes, etc on top of the sacs and not worry too much about stressing the hardware for the compartment covers.

I'm going to add these. I think I'm going to add some support legs to brace the added weight of the bags on the top of the hard tanks as well.

Unless your looking for less weight (not much), I don't think you want to use the side sacs. They may not fit as well looking at the dimensions, but I could be wrong, they may work great.

The link HS posted shows a similar idea I had for the vent hose. I really would like something more "automatic" to run with the flip of the ballast switch. I have seen others use sprinkler system shut-off valves for similar applications, but so far the manual way hasn't bothered me enough yet to change anything. Maybe next Winter.

[Sinkoumn]

Unless your looking for less weight (not much), I don't think you want to use the side sacs. They may not fit as well looking at the dimensions, but I could be wrong, they may work great.

? I'm confused on what you're saying there - basically I'm going to add the side sacs on top of the hard tanks (sitting on top of the carpeted partitions on each side of the engine in the pic below). I know it won't be a brick ton of weight, but I'm looking to basically have more weight in the rear since the current weight setup in my SSN is ~700lb in the rear hard tanks, ~700lb in the locker, and ~200lb in the bow under the playpen - so I am thinking that by adding the bags on top of the rear tanks that will bring me a little closer to the 40/60 ratio (so ~950lb in the front, and ~1250lb in the rear with the side sacs added to the back).

And I don't have the OEM tanks in my boat, they were added in after the fact, so they are rectangular in shape.

I also don't have access to the boat since it's up at the cabin right now, but I would think that the space between the rear tanks and the hatch is about 12", no?

Here's the rear hatch:

[SuperSquirt]

I don't think that the others (or me) knew what you were working with as far as space. Most of the 01-06 SANs use the wedge sacs on top of their factory tanks and the newer boats use the normal v-drive sacs.

It looks like you don't have a lot of room to work with though...

I plumbed in 3 sacs (2 v-drives and 1 tube sac) this week to my 210, and I went with similar diagrams as above. I'll post some reviews about it this weekend when I try it out.

[HS]

I think the V Drives are 16 x 16 x 42 (400# each) and the side sacks are 12 x 12 x 48 (260# each). So, I think core rider is saying the side sacks will give you less added weight.

[Sinkoumn]

^That's kind of what I was thinking too - I just don't think I can squeeze the 16" high sacs in there (if they made a 18" wide x 10" high that would be money). I know it's not much added weight, but I'm 'guessing' that I am working with ~10" of space in between the tank partition top and the bottom of the rear hatch, so it'll be at least 400lb in the rear.

I am going to be up north on the 30th, so I should be able to get a much better estimate, and if all else fails, I might just ditch the hard tanks and put in some sacs in the rear.

[WakeSlayer]

You can always just remove them and put in a pair 750#'s. Not going to cost much more, if any, and then you have all the free room when it isn't filled up.