Noob questions about re-ballasting a 210

[Kmayotte]

Hi,

I upgraded from a 93 SN to a 04 Super Air 210 TE last spring. I'm looking into taking out the hard tanks and replacing with sacs and also adding some more weight to the front/middle. Truthfully the wake for wakeboarding is pretty good, more looking to sac it out for surfing without having to use an external pump.

I already have a Pro X fat sac that we used in my old boat. If I buy another one of these for the other locker, will that work for the back?

For the front, use the center locker sac, right? Is this in addition to the center tank or does it replace it? What if I just did this and nothing in the back? Good for wakesurfing, bad for wakeboarding is what I'm thinking...I'm always sending people to the front for a better surf wake.

Will I need to reprop for the added weight? Right now I have an ACME 644. Gets up pretty good with all ballast & 8 people.

Lastly, does changing from the hard tanks to all sacs makes the gauges useless? I.E. the gauges don't tell you when the sacs are full, just wait for waiting to come out the overflows.

Answers, comments, input, opinions are appreciated.

[crobi2]

Hi,

I upgraded from a 93 SN to a 04 Super Air 210 TE last spring. I'm looking into taking out the hard tanks and replacing with sacs and also adding some more weight to the front/middle. Truthfully the wake for wakeboarding is pretty good, more looking to sac it out for surfing without having to use an external pump.

I already have a Pro X fat sac that we used in my old boat. If I buy another one of these for the other locker, will that work for the back?

For the front, use the center locker sac, right? Is this in addition to the center tank or does it replace it? What if I just did this and nothing in the back? Good for wakesurfing, bad for wakeboarding is what I'm thinking...I'm always sending people to the front for a better surf wake.

Will I need to reprop for the added weight? Right now I have an ACME 644. Gets up pretty good with all ballast & 8 people.

Lastly, does changing from the hard tanks to all sacs makes the gauges useless? I.E. the gauges don't tell you when the sacs are full, just wait for waiting to come out the overflows.

Answers, comments, input, opinions are appreciated.

Hi, I just got a 2000 SAN just before Christmas. After searching and reading through all of the ballast ideas on the forum, I ripped out the old tanks (two 200 lb rear) and put in two fly high 750s (one on each side of the engine), a locker bag, and one of those fly high under the front seat bags. The wake will actually clean up by 21.5 mph and is absolutely incredible at 23. I used a bunch of baitwell pumps (but that is rather frowned on here) - most people seem to use impeller type pumps as both the fill and drain - one each per bag, (again, lots of great info and pics on the forum).

Good Luck!

[ers906]

I have done much the same as crob. I have played between the 1100 and the 750 sacs int he V-drive locker (I do a lot of wakesurfing as well so I thought the larger sacs would help, actually ended up not doing as much as I though so I have returned to the 750s). I used the center locker sac (300# approx.) and the 650# sac that is shaped like a horseshoe and fits under the bow seats. With the sacs your gauges won't work (they no longer have the sensor to read). You can replace the gauges with a clock, another voltmeter for an accessory battery bank, etc. I actually went with the jabsco pumps but the aerator pump systems I have worked on in friend's boats seemed to work fine, just make sure that you place the pumps in an accessible area, since they do need to be changed out more frequently. Anyway let me know if you have any questions.

[super01]

I posted a center locker sack (370lb) in the gear section if you are interested.

[ers906]

If you do a search on some of my posts and responses etc, I have given a couple of detailed descriptions on my wake surf set up with some pics of the wave that each creates

[Kmayotte]

So the front sac I linked to is not for my generation nautique? I can't lose the storage under the front seats. Deal breaker with the girlfriend.

Can I run the two 750's and a front locker sac off the stock pumps? There are 3. Don't know what they are (boats in storage).

[Chexi]

Consider the 2 750s in the rear, a center locker sac, and some pop bags (steel shot) under the bow seats. You can move the bags from one side of the bow and double them up on the surf-side when you want to surf (and empty the non-surf side 750). This should save you a reasonable amount of space under the bow seats. That's my plan. I have not tried it yet.

[Kmayotte]

I think what I'm going to do is wedge sacs in the back on a open/close valve so I can fill them when I want and a sac under the floor up front on a open/close valve.

This way I can still have stock ballast with gauges when we have a ton of people in the boat (fairly often) and when we don't turn the valves on and fill up the extra ballast.

Losing the gauges is a deal breaker with the gf as she is still fairly new to boating and likes to know exactly what's in the tanks (she rides with no ballast).

[Chexi]

Better not tell her just how inaccurate the gauges are then.

[ers906]

The easiest accurate way is to open up the V-drive area and look. The gauges are off pretty frequently. Regardless, weigh the boat to clean up the wake, I wouldn't worry about how much weight is actually in the boat

[Kmayotte]

It's not how much, it's whether they're full or empty. The gauges get that right.

She signed off. We're good to go.

[Kmayotte]

Install & Testing Done; Officially killing it with upgraded wake.

Figured I'd update this post on what I installed, how it went and the wake and speed we now ride at.

I now have two 750's in the rear compartments instead of the hard tanks. The belly tank stayed as is. There is an integrated bow sac under the seats up front (I cut the molded in cooler out from under the starboard bow seat).

The integrated bow sac run off a Jabsco Puppy bump (fills/empties so fast!!). This was installed in the belly compartment where we tee'd off the through hull intake for the belly pump. As I thought would happen the impeller pump steals most of the water when your filling the belly & bow at the same time, but it fills so fast I can fill the bow & belly before the rears are done.

I quickly figured out for wakeboarding you CANNOT even come close to filling the rear 750's (we fill them maybe 1/3rd). Anymore and there's too much weight in the back and the boat constantly porpoises, dangerously at one point when I was riding and my girlfriend was driving.

With the rear filled about 1/3 and the belly and bow filled we ride at 75 ft and 24.7 mph. It's soooo nice. You could ride at 80 ft if you wanted but I don't like the wake that steep.

Surfing is where the setup truly shines. Fill the bow & belly all the way and one rear bag as much as possible till it spills over (bag will fill about 3/4 without having to plug the overflow to pressurize to fill it the rest of the way, this is plenty though). 10 mph and the surf wake is perfect and HUUGE with only 2-3 people in the boat. More people, sitting in the right spots and it's only better.

After years of attempts I executed my first wakesurf 360. I credit the combination of the monster wake and the new Phase 5 Danielo Pro. It was a relief to finally do one and continue to surf, like a boss.

Here's a wakeboard & surf pic.

[WakeSlayer]

I like what you did for your system. Good job.

Haha, the 360 takes forever. Then you do one, and cannot chase them down again for a while. Glad to see another goofy rider.

[Chexi]

Run your vent lines on your rear sacs to the opposite side thru-hull (i.e., criss-cross the vent lines). They will fill much more that way. Doing this should act as a built-in anti-siphon as well.