Estimated length of ballast hose to buy for replacing hard tanks

[russthehuman]

Hi, just bought my first Nautique, a SANTE 220, and absolutely loving it so far.

I'm going to be pulling the hard tanks and dropping in 1100lb bags from wakemakers like a lot of you have done. I already bought the bags and fittings, but my boat is in storage and I'm not sure how much (if any) additional hose I need to buy.

I've found threads of people pulling the tanks, seems easy enough, but no one goes into detail about length of new hose required. Do people completely replace the existing hose? Do you just extend it with some couplers? How much should I buy?

Any info at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Ryan747400]

I was able to use the existing hoses in my 210, but i guess it would depend on the type of bags and where the fittings are. If you have a fill fitting near the bottom of the bag you might be ok.

[russthehuman]

They're the Ronix plug n play bags, so they have 2 ports on the bottom (front and rear) and 2 more on the top for venting, so it sounds like I might get lucky.

Follow up question: I know the hard tanks have a sending unit in them that tells the gauges the water level. I know that won't work with bags and I lose the use of the gauges. But my question is how does removing the sending unit effect the pumps when it comes time to drain? Will they drain if it's not plugged in? Do I have to do something like in this video to trick it? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDaHGbA97ug

[MN Ryan]

In my '07 211, disconnecting the sensors had no impact on filling or draining--the pumps are on timers. I would suspect yours are the same, but it is easy enough to just unplug the sensors to verify (that's what I did).

As far as hose length, I think I just estimated about what I thought I would need and doubled it. It's relatively inexpensive, and it's better to have more than enough that to have to wait for more hose to arrive.

[russthehuman]

oh cool, sounds like I'm worrying about nothing.

Seems like most buy somewhere around 20-30' and you're right, in the grand scheme of things, this hose is pretty cheap haha. If I end up needing more, I'll just buy more

Thanks for the info guys

[MN Ryan]

I want to say I ordered 20' for my project and used about 10'. It's hard to know what you'll need till you get things ripped out.

[Ryan747400]

06 and newer(I believe) have the run dry protection system and are not able to drain when the sensors are unplugged. There is a modification that can be done to the system to allow it to work without the sensors. There are a few threads on here that explain it, also another one I came across that explains a DIY system using PVC pipe to put the sensors in making the gauges still usable without the hard tanks. I cant remember who posted them, you'll just have to search it. MN Ryan, Interesting that yours was not affected by this, mine definitely wont drain with the sensors unplugged. The system reads the tanks as empty and the pumps wont run. Maybe your run dry system has already been disabled?

[MN Ryan]

Ryan747400 I believe you are thinking of run-dry module that TechBeer has written about in detail. His boat is an '06 and has the run-dry module. Mine is an '07 and does not (it definitely never had it as it was bone-stock when I bought it). Mine has timers for the pump-- it takes just over two timer cycles to empty my 910 lb bags. This, of course, applies to the SV-211, but I would assume it applies across other models.

They take 15 seconds to unplug, so it's easy enough to test.

[russthehuman]

Sounds easy enough to test once I get my boat out of storage. If I do end up needing to the bypass/disable the dry run system, does anyone know how? I saw on this thread that someone said they did it, then someone else asked how, then nothing: https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...ballast-set-up

[russthehuman]

The more I research the more I'm thinking I probably don't have to worry about the dry run system since I have on 08 and it seems like it was exclusive to 06?

Either way, I'll know as soon as I get it out of storage and if I do need to bypass it, I found this thread with a pdf explaining what to do: https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...-in-2006-sv211

[MN Ryan]

Yep, that's the thread you want. I'm fairly confident it won't be an issue for you, though.

[TechBeer]

Hi Russ,

Yeah, I've been told that 2006 model year is the only year that suffered from the "run dry module"... I actually wrote the bypass article that appears here https://www.planetnautique.com/vb5/f...-in-2006-sv211 There are several options, the easiest is probably just shorting the 2 wires that connect to the sender rods since that is usually the element that goes bad. But I don't think the 2008 model year is applicable.

[Ryan747400]

That makes sense, I didn't know that it was exclusive to 06, thanks for explaining.

[russthehuman]

Really appreciate all the info guys, thanks a bunch. My dock gets finished this week and I'll be getting the boat out of storage Friday. First thing I'm gonna do is take out the tanks and drop these bags in. With any luck we'll be tearing up the lake on Saturday

[russthehuman]

Just an update on how things went:

It took an extra weekend but I was able to get everything installed ok for the most part. I didn't buy any new hose since the existing hose ended up being plenty long enough. I probably should have bought some new hose though since getting the flow rite fittings on the old hose was near impossible, even with a heat gun. That was by far the hardest part of the install. I ended up bolting some 2'x4' 1/2" plywood to the engine panel dividers for a little reinforcement and all seems ok. Surf wave was amazing. Now I just need to add a little more weight to nose to balance things out. Thanks again for all the replies!