1998 Super Sport bow ballast?

[jeffkuk]

I am doing custom ballast in my 1998 Super Sport/ Air and trying to find out what people are doing for ballast in the bow with the playpen style seating. There isn't much room under there but was considering an aero shaped custom bag that ran into the ski locker. Right now i'm just using the 650 lb fly high rear seat sack in the ski locker, but I need to get some weight in the nose to make the wave/ wake I desire. I've seen the lead/ steel option, but would like to make it a sac if able. Has anyone done something like this? and is it worth the money for the custom sac?

Thank you much in advance.

Jeff

[ohiowake2]

Bought my 2001 SAN last year and they guy who previously had it has a bow sac that actually goes under all the seating areas in the bow. Pump didn't work last year so replacing that this year and will see how much more that helps. Just letting you know there are sacs made just for the bow

[98SAN]

I have a 98 SS with the playpen bow. I run 750s in rear lockers, 650 rear seat sac in ski locker, and the 1000 open bow sac underneath the playpen. The bow sac fits great and I would estimate it fills up about half way. All sacs are plumbed in, 4 sacs/3 pumps. Bow sac is: Pro X Series Open Bow Sac - W706

DIMENSIONS: 54 x 54 x 54 x 12 WEIGHT: 1000 lbs. / 454 kg.

[HS]

http://www.wakemakers.com/nautique-a...ocker-sac.html
I have this one. Take a look forward of your ski locker and see what room you have. I did this one because I store pfd's and anchor / line under the bow seats.
No need for a custom sac, it will conform to the available space if vented correctly.

[s_kelley2000]

As 98 SAN said, I think the W706 (http://www.wakemakers.com/fly-high-open-bow-sac.html) is what you want for under the playpen. My 99 has the walkthrough bow so I have the W711 (http://www.wakemakers.com/fly-high-i...d-bow-sac.html) under my seats. I probably only get about 400 lbs in the W711 but that forward weight makes a big difference with adding some transition with the 750s in the back and 600 lb locker sac filled up. I think you will get more weight in there with your current locker sac and then the W706 under the bow than you would with the arrow sac.

[jeffkuk]

Thank you everyone for the ideas. Some of these I considered some some I didn't. Im surprised the W706 works under the playpen based on the pictures i've see. Next question is for 98 SAN... you say you're running 3 pumps and 4 sacs, did you daisy chain the ski locker and the bow sac? My boat just got finished and I'm running a similar setup but no bow solution yet, otherwise nearly the same.
Thank you again everyone! keep the good ideas coming.

Jeff

[98SAN]

I initially went with the following setup based on Wake Makers recommendations. Single fill/drain hose from pump, splits with Y fitting, and goes directly to both W705 in belly and W706 in bow. Overflow hoses from both would come back together with another Y fitting and vent through single side overflow hole. This single overflow line had an inline check valve fitting to prevent air being sucked back in when draining.

This initial setup filled fine, but when it drained, the bow bag would fully drain, but the belly bag would gurgle as it drained the bottom 1/2 of the bag. This was due to the fact that the check value wasn't really doing what it was suppose to do. It was letting some air pass. And so the pump was pulling air through the empty bow bag and trying to suck water from the belly at the same time. It was annoying.

So to remedy, I removed the vent/overflow hose from the bow bag and simply capped it. Now the Y fitting still goes to each bag but when the bow and belly are full, the water just overflows through the belly bag and out that overflow hose.

The only downside to this setup is if air got into the bow bag, it wouldn't vent. But I just make sure there is no air in the bag the first time I fill the bag for the season by opening the top cap when full and letting any air out.

This setup works for me.

The only other thing I did wrong on install had to do with the 750s in the rear. I initially set them up with the drain/fill hoses towards the bow instead of the stern and so they wouldn't fully drain either. I cut some longer hoses and turned the bags around so the fill/drain is toward the stern. I guess I wasn't thinking when I first installed those.

I guess you could daisy chain those two bags together. In theory they should fill in the same amount of time. My gut says they would take longer to fill, but I don't know. Maybe some other guys might comment on that.

Nat

[jeffkuk]

Ok, my concerns are along the same lines with a hose going from the belly bag and then into the bow bag, but it may work, I'll experiment when I get to the boat this summer, I'm military and now in NM and the boat is at family location at Lake Norman, NC. Thank you for all the feedback and taking the time to explain your trials.

-Jeff