2001 Air Nautique 216, upgraded ballast questions?

[m3the01]

As we all know this boat is basically a sport nautique with tower and rear ballast tanks.

Now ive only wakeboarded behind my old boat and this boat, get pretty good air but never really experienced the great wake potential of this boat till this last saturday.

All i can say is wow, so much hanktime i could finally do the long grabs and it was just all around great. The problem is the only reason i had such a great wake was the 8 people in the boat. Mainly i ski with about 5. I figured out the exact weight difference between this last saturday with 8 people and my normal 5 riders. It was about 650lbs, give or take 25lbs.

This weight was mainly positioned at the back off the boat, the wake was just killer. I dreamed about it last night and everything. I didnt have to cut crazy hard, it was just great. Conditions were not even that great.


So the thing is, i need 650lbs of ballast to throw into the boat. It must function like the current ballast system. We all ski and wakeboard and usually do a complete run through of five riders skiing then fill the tanks and do 5 rides boarding.

What are the options? I planning on doing this over the winter. I dont mind pulling up the floor to lay new hardtanks anywhere on the boat.

Clue me in, my eyes are listening

thanks for the help,

Great site,


PS i would prefer not to loose any of the storage area besides the front lower ski locker.


Steven

[m3the01]

Here is somemore info on the system im thinking,


I figure the 40/60 rule i want to stick with. So i will be installing a custom built hardtank in the rear trunk area. Based on my calculations i only want 400lbs(185Litres) in the new rear trunk tank and 270lbs(120Litres) in the front ski locker. The front ski locker tank will also be a custom hardtank hardtank.

Im going to buy 2 Skylon Fatpump 2000gph ballast pumps. I will use the new pumps to fill and empty both the stock 450lbs tanks and the new 400lbs tank. I will use the stock 750gph aerator pumps to fill and empty the new front ski locker tank.

Based on my calcs i have 100 gallons of water in the rear which should take about 3-4 minutes to fill or empty on the new pumps. I will have about 30 gallons of water in the front which will take about 2-3 minutes to fill or empty on the old pumps. The stock pumps suck so i may just bite the bullet and upgrade those too.

Questions,

1)I guess i need some air valves for the new front and rear tanks, where to get these ?

2)New inlet for the front tank, is this difficult to install? Or can i use the stock inlet and have all the pumps drawing from the same source?

3)Where to buy the misc parts needed

thanks for the help