2015 SAN 230 piggyback ballast upgrade

[scottmele2]

Seems like everyone has spring fever and making moves to upgrade ballast. I have a 2015 210 and will be upgrading to the 750s and have researched this a lot.
Locker size:
Width 14 - 16" (wider towards bow and same as 230)
Length 53" (230 may be longer)
Depth 22" (230 May be deeper)

You will need to reinforce the dividers. It bows and jumps out of the small C channels. The middle reinforcement bar is at the 400lb bag level and you will need one higher for the 750lb. I am changing the bottom C channel to a taller L bracket or taller C channel to prevent bowing into the motor side. I am considering adding the panel reinforcement from Wakemakers but they will be on the bag side so I don't know how it will work (snag, rip, drag against bag). Additionally, I am getting a better pin to hold the panels down so they lock into place. They will want to lift as the bag fills (especially with reinforcements) and the pin is always falling out.

Plumping:
I am not plumbing bags to fill from overflow as shown on Wakemakers. They will fill and drain in parallel with the hard tanks. This configuration should eliminate the airlock issue. I have seen a few other solutions but I am opting to plumb the way the factory would on ballast upgrade.

My 2 cents. Happy boating.

[markj]

^^^ That's one of the reasons I went custom. My logic was that I'd be less likely to need additional support for the dividers if the sacks were built to the width of the area. We'll see if that holds true. I agree with your concern about the wakemakers kit rubbing on the sacks and potentially ripping or snagging them.

[Davew0815]

I went through all this ballast upgrade stuff last year, so will add a few comments. I have a 2014 230.

First, I agree that you can upgrade to 750s (20x20x50) in the back and still keep the trays, but it puts a lot of pressure on the dividers and on the locker lids. When you open the locker with the bag full, the tray pops up a little and moves around so it can sometimes be a pain to re-close the locker. My dividers blew out including bending the aluminum bracing that was mentioned. The trays did not crack. They seem to be pretty strong. The dividers bent back and so did the bracing so no permanent damage done other than possibly weakening the bracing.

I made three changes to keep my dividers from bending:

1) bought and added the wake makers divider reinforcement kit to give 3 metal bars of additional support on each divider
2) added additional pins to lock in the divider on both sides (top and bottom) to keep it from easily popping out of the bottom channel
3) stopped using the trays

After doing the changes above, I've had no issues. Dividers are rock solid and don't bend at all. I've seen comments saying you'd have to install the wake maker dividers on the bag side, but I still installed then on the engine side and it works just fine. Yes, I have to take off the stock aluminum brace whenever I want to remove the divider but I very rarely do that (just for service) and it only takes thirty seconds with a screwdriver to remove it. I think the extra pins are key as the biggest issue might be the dividers lifting out of the channel while the bag is filling. Without the bottom channel holding it in place, the dividers will bend easily. If you do the added pins, you might not need the extra wake maker reinforcement bars, but after having them bend, I like having the extra reinforcement. Once your dividers are solid, the trays will definitely lift up an inch or so whenever the bag is completely full and I didn't like that extra pressure on the locker lids so my trays are out. Personally, I don't miss the trays at all. I stilll throw wetsuites and vests in there on top of the bags just as I did before and I like that I can visually see how full the bags are since you can't always 100% trust the link screen once you upgrade the ballast.

Finally, here's a little info on how I use my setup:

I also have IBS ballast in the nose and some lead that I use in the main cabin to offset the driver and simulate extra people ballast mid-boat when I have a small crew (which is most of the time.) For wake boarding, I fill the front up completely and the rear ballast about 3/4 full. We ride at 24mph with hydrogate all the way up. Wake is huge and firm. For surfing I actually think the wave is best with *no* ballast in the front and rear completely full, running 11.4mph. Awesome wave on both sides. We vary the steepness based on personal preference of the rider with NSS. I like it steep and typically ride with NSS set to 4 or 5.

[scottmele2]

Davew0815- Great input. I've been putting a lot of thought into it so it's great to hear from someone using that configuration.

Questions - If you spaced the Wakemaker supports differently could you pull the dividers without removing the factory support? Do you have any pictures?

[Guntersville230]

This is a great 230 thread! Thanks for all the input from everyone!

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[markj]

Nice post, Dave. Very helpful.

[Davew0815]

If you put the dividers above the Nautique bar, then you could avoid taking the bar off. But, you wouldn't get bracing on the lower part which is the area under the most pressure. I think if I was to do it again I'l probably start with additional pins to make sure the divider is well secured in the lower track and doesn't lift out. If you do that and you don't attempt to keep the trays (which puts pressure on the bag from the top) when you may not need the wake maker dividers.

[Guntersville230]

I plan on doing the upgrade in the upcoming weeks so I'l try and post some pics....I'm thinking supports on the bag side and just making sure there are no sharp edges and everything should work out ok. Also, ordered some additional pins to help the divider from coming out of lower rail, then adding the bags and quick release wakemakers hook ups.....should be a fun project.

[scottmele2]

I will have a wake maker divider support bellow the factory support but it will be 4" below so I can still remove the divider.

[Guntersville230]

Maybe I'm missing something....are you installing the supports horizontal or vertical? If vertical seems like it is long enough that it would not completely be above/below the factory horizontal bar


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[Guntersville230]

From wakemakers site photo


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[Jeff88]

I plan on doing the upgrade in the upcoming weeks so I'l try and post some pics....I'm thinking supports on the bag side and just making sure there are no sharp edges and everything should work out ok. Also, ordered some additional pins to help the divider from coming out of lower rail, then adding the bags and quick release wakemakers hook ups.....should be a fun project.

What pins did you order or get for the lower part of the panel? I have 750s going in my '14 and thinking I may do these supports and extra pins as well. I assumed the supports were meant to do vertical as that supports the axis of the pressure from the bags.

[Guntersville230]

What pins did you order or get for the lower part of the panel? I have 750s going in my '14 and thinking I may do these supports and extra pins as well. I assumed the supports were meant to do vertical as that supports the axis of the pressure from the bags.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0160...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Seem to be the closest to stock that i could find, I'll take pics if they work. I agree with vertical position just seemed like others were thinking about horizontal that I dont think would help much as well.

[Davew0815]

My extra dividers are installed engine side horizontally and mostly lower down on the divider. I was not seeing a problem with bowing top to bottom but with back to front so I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that horizontal bracing would be more useful than vertical. Wake makers does show them used vertically. I think my biggest problem though was the divider not staying in the lower track. I thought about that and added the extra pins after I'd already ordered the dividers from wake makers so I just installed all of it at the same time and the combined changes fixed the problem. I don't actually know how much is contributed from the dividers. The additional pins are just basic pins from Home Depot that looks just like the existing pin. Finally I installed the dividers on the engine side as I really didn't care that I needed to remove bracing bar to take out dividers but I agree it's probably fine to install them on bag side as well.

[scottmele2]

Dave- I believe the bowing is occurring in the way you described. I will also be mounting my supports horizontally.