Removing Rear Ballast Tank in 2005 SKi Nautique 206

[tripevans]

Anyone know how to remove the rear ballast tank in a 2005 Ski Nautique 206?

[Lvnspeed]

If you do I have a friend that would probally buy it from you.

[dski]

Super old thread but figured since I figured it out, I would share in case there is someone else trying to do it

I have a 2004 Ski Nautique 206 with the trick tank. Wanted more trunk space and the #200 ballast tank wasn't really adding much and any time we wanted to surf or wakeboard we ended up filling up the #700 sac. (on floor in between rear seat and engine box.)

1. Remove Back seat
2. Remove back seat support (covers gas tank)
3. Remove center floor piece
4. Disconnect tank drain hose from rear pump. (Easier than trying to get to the hose underneath)
5. Disconnect all the hoses off the tank in the trunk that you can get to and the gauge on the top.
6. Lift the port side of the tank now and then you can disconnect the red hose (Believe this is for winterizing since the hose just goes up to engine box and has a cap on it.

[SilentSeven]

Restarting a really old thread....I see dski is still on the board now and then.

I'm interested in pulling the tank from my 204 206 but with a slightly different approach - I'd like to put the sack in the trunk itself. Broadly, my thinking is that we rarely use the hardtank so I'd like the room back. BUT - on the occasions we do want some more pop in the wake, I'd like to not have the sack in the boat. Plan would be to keep the sack plumbed in the trunk maybe put a soft cover over it and then fill when needed.

How reasonable is this?

[dski]

That is exactly what I ended up doing...plus a few other bags on the sides of the engine when we surf. If I get some time I'll document it. It was a pretty involved project but for ~1k I was able to turn the boat into a surfable wake. We ski 60%, surf 30% and wakeboard 10% and I didn't want to drop 50+k on a used v-drive and lose our great ski wake so this is the path I went down.

1. Installed two reversible pumps in the walkway. Removed the aerator pumps. Adding one more pickup on the bottom of the boat. Put the fill drain switches by the driver.
2. Ran the hoses down the sides in the mesh area with quick connects so we can fill and drain and then roll up the bags and put them in the truck. Installed a hose switch so that I could have a bag in the truck and two bags on the sides of the engine.
3. Trunk
   1. I made a piece to fill in the spot under the old ballast tank.
   2. In the trunk, I usually leave the bag in and just fill and drain. When it is drained, the bag is flat and doesn't take up any space. In one of the trunk pictures,
   3. You can see a grey switch in the top corner than allows me to fill two bags on one pump and 1 on the other one.
4. Add a wake device to the back of the boat.

Here are a few shots around the boat. Feel free to PM me and happy to get on the phone and walk you through if you are interested!

[SilentSeven]

wow. nice. You've been so helpful...first with with the tunes and now with this! So I'm not looking to surf but would like to drop the hard tank and go with a bag in the trunk. Purpose being a) more room and b) more wake when full.

What size bag do you run? Also, I know zip about pumps. Is the hard tank system a two pump system (one to fill, one to drain - with the drain pump in the tank)? Is that why you had to swap pumps?

PS - great action shots! Kids look like they are really having fun....

[dski]

I had problems with the aerator style pumps keeping prime and not filling the bags, that is why I initially removed them and replaced with the reversible pump. I then added another pump later for the other bags.

This is the bag I use in the trunk. Pretty much doubles the weight of the hard tank. https://www.wakemakers.com/fly-high-tube-sac.html