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With advice fromintrlaz, Wakemakers and thedude, I just finished integrating my bow sac and replacing the centre tank.
The plan: pull the factory centre hard tank, replace with a Flyhigh "rear seat" sac (650lbs), integrate our current Flyhigh bow sac under the seats and wire/plumb to dash switches.
I ordered all the parts from Wakemakers including the centre sac, Flyhigh fittings, 1" hose, T-fittings, check valve, hose clamps and a Johnson impeller pump. Their prices are great, they have everything, shipped immediately for free and most importantly, provided excellent advice on how to set up my project. I picked up two strand 12g marine wire from West Marine with some assorted connectors (spades and rings), and two Bosch 25amp SPDT relays with diodes from Napa.
I first cut out the factory cooler under the bow seat; we never use it anyway. I took a fair amount of effort because of the enclosed space and that it's thin plastic but backed with fiberglass. I cut the bulk out and then smoothed any edges to avoid damaging a nice plump fat sac.
Pulling the centre tank was easy by following intriaz's method: remove plumbing and brackets, cut into removable chunks with a jigsaw and multitool cutter. This took about an hour, mainly because I couldn't find the new blade I'd just bought for my multitool and ended up shoving the dull one through. I took this chance to give the bilge an nice scrub out and rinse.
Wiring was the most fiddly and time consuming. I first assembled a panel with the two relays to be mounted under the helm, then located the wires from the belly fill and drain switches and hooked them to the appropriate terminals. The locker is fairly tight for space, so I ended up mounting the Johnson pump horizontally between the fuel tank and the floor of the boat, then ran the wires up to the relay panel and finally +12v power with a 25a fuse from my auxiliary battery. Nothing was particularly hard, just a lot of planning, clipping, crimping, heat shrinking, zip tying, tucking and tidying.
The plumbing was actually the easiest part! I had however, forgotten that the 1" hose requires a heat gun to get over the 1 1/8" fittings. After 20 min of cursing it occurred to me that I'd needed a heat gun last time, and things went smoothly from then on. Water flows from the intake, to the pump, then T's to a fill/drain for the belly and bow bags. I didn't T the line again to access both sides of the bow bag; Wakemakers didn't think it was necessary and now that I've tested it I agree. Both bags vent to a T, followed by a check valve then out through the factory drain on the side of the boat.
Tested it yesterday and it's fantastic. The pump is a little loud, but I think that's because it's right against the floor; I might add some foam insulation to quiet it a bit, but otherwise it's exactly what I wanted: bow and belly ballast, hidden and fill/drained with factory switches. We still fill a 400lb fat sac on the rear seat on the surf side, but that takes no time, and isn't even necessary with enough adults in the boat (my kids are skinny and useless).
The plan: pull the factory centre hard tank, replace with a Flyhigh "rear seat" sac (650lbs), integrate our current Flyhigh bow sac under the seats and wire/plumb to dash switches.
I ordered all the parts from Wakemakers including the centre sac, Flyhigh fittings, 1" hose, T-fittings, check valve, hose clamps and a Johnson impeller pump. Their prices are great, they have everything, shipped immediately for free and most importantly, provided excellent advice on how to set up my project. I picked up two strand 12g marine wire from West Marine with some assorted connectors (spades and rings), and two Bosch 25amp SPDT relays with diodes from Napa.
I first cut out the factory cooler under the bow seat; we never use it anyway. I took a fair amount of effort because of the enclosed space and that it's thin plastic but backed with fiberglass. I cut the bulk out and then smoothed any edges to avoid damaging a nice plump fat sac.
Pulling the centre tank was easy by following intriaz's method: remove plumbing and brackets, cut into removable chunks with a jigsaw and multitool cutter. This took about an hour, mainly because I couldn't find the new blade I'd just bought for my multitool and ended up shoving the dull one through. I took this chance to give the bilge an nice scrub out and rinse.
Wiring was the most fiddly and time consuming. I first assembled a panel with the two relays to be mounted under the helm, then located the wires from the belly fill and drain switches and hooked them to the appropriate terminals. The locker is fairly tight for space, so I ended up mounting the Johnson pump horizontally between the fuel tank and the floor of the boat, then ran the wires up to the relay panel and finally +12v power with a 25a fuse from my auxiliary battery. Nothing was particularly hard, just a lot of planning, clipping, crimping, heat shrinking, zip tying, tucking and tidying.
The plumbing was actually the easiest part! I had however, forgotten that the 1" hose requires a heat gun to get over the 1 1/8" fittings. After 20 min of cursing it occurred to me that I'd needed a heat gun last time, and things went smoothly from then on. Water flows from the intake, to the pump, then T's to a fill/drain for the belly and bow bags. I didn't T the line again to access both sides of the bow bag; Wakemakers didn't think it was necessary and now that I've tested it I agree. Both bags vent to a T, followed by a check valve then out through the factory drain on the side of the boat.
Tested it yesterday and it's fantastic. The pump is a little loud, but I think that's because it's right against the floor; I might add some foam insulation to quiet it a bit, but otherwise it's exactly what I wanted: bow and belly ballast, hidden and fill/drained with factory switches. We still fill a 400lb fat sac on the rear seat on the surf side, but that takes no time, and isn't even necessary with enough adults in the boat (my kids are skinny and useless).
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