Sac help on 2008 210

[xrichard]

I'm taking delivery of an 08 210 in about a week. I ordered the Fat Sac Vdrive and a tube sac for additional ballast. My plan is to daily chain them with the stock tanks.

The rear V Drive sacs look very straight forward, but I'm concerned that the tube sac put in the floor/ski locker won't work. I can't remember the configuration of the ski locker, but for the daisy chain to work, the tube sac has to sit higher than the location of the vent fitting on the built in belly tank.

Does anyone know if the tube sac will sit higher than the vent location on the belly tank. I don't have access to the boat right now and I can't remember exactly how the floor locker/belly tank is configured...and I want to cancel the tube sac order if it's not going to work.

Very helpful would be if someone would be so kind as to post a photo looking into the ski/floor locker on a 2008 210...I can probably tell if it will work just by looking at it.

Thanks,

JR

[SuperSquirt]

I might be wrong, but I don't think anyone makes a sac small enough to fit into the new 210 ski locker. The belly ballast takes up a lot of space in there. Here is how I have tried to sac mine:

Factory ballast
1 Launch Pad 350 on each side of motor
1 Launch Pad 440 on the floor in the bow

With this setup and 6 people in the boat, you still need more weight up front or it will start porpoising with people sitting in the back. After putting 3 people in the front, the wake was money$$$

[xrichard]

yeah, porpoising could be a problem...but I'm not planning on filling the vdrive sacs entirely, so I figured I wouldn't need as much weight in the bow. I'm not too concerned about the sac being too big for the space up there...it'll be vented so it can't get over filled. I'm mostly concerned about how it'll lay in that space and if it'll be entirely on top of the stock belly tank. And now I'm concerned about porpoising. :-)

At the end of the day, it all has to be concealed and connected to the stock pumps...WAF, you know...

[SuperSquirt]

Have you ever seen how small the ski locker actually is? There is only a couple of inches from the floor of the boat to the belly tank, so there is no way to put a sac on top of it. You might be able to put a sac in between the belly and to the front, but the sac will have to be shaped like a mushroom.

[Kevin_B]

what about getting a bow sack that fits underneath the bow seats because all that space is communicable, you definitely won't be able to fill it up all the way but enough o really see a difference in the wake. Just my 2 cents.

[bowvan]

xrichard,

The location of the original vent, in relationship to the bag, will have no affect on how the system fills/empties. When you plumb the bags using the existing hard tank's vent hose, your'e not relying on gravity to fill/emty, your using pressure differentials. Filling causes a positve pressure difference, forcing the water out the vent and into the bag. Emptying causes a negative pressure difference, drawing water from the bag into the tank. The location of the final vent (from bag to outside the boat) will affect how well the bag stays full. This is were you can install an inverted "P" trap to keep the bag from leaking out the side of the boat.

You do need to plumb the original vent hose from the hard tank, as close to the bottom of the bag a possible. This will insure that the bag completely empties, before it sucks air.

One word of caution, especially with the strength of the new pumps: make sure that when the bag empties, it doesn't lay perfectly flat on itself and cause an air lock. If it does, you will need to insert something into the bag to prevent this (a piece of hose or pvc works good). When air locked, your pump can create enough negative pressure to colapse your tank.

[xrichard]

Thanks, everyone...good thoughts. Bowvan...I hadn't thought of your last point, but I think it is pretty important.

[AidansDad]

just an fyi, Fly high has a 210 specific kit on their site. Might be worth looking into.
http://www.fatsac.com/PDFs/SuperAirBallastDiagram.pdf
http://www.fatsac.com/FlyHigh/FlyHighSacs.html#superair (about 3/4 down the page)

[xrichard]

Thanks, AidansDad.

Bowvan...when you say put a piece of pvc or hose in the bag, are you thinking just laying one in that is approximately the length of the bag (e.g. push it in through one of the fill fitting so it simply lays inside the bag) or are you thinking it should be connected to either the intake or the vent fittings on the bag.

On a set-up I put into an older X-Star, I slid a perferated pipe into the bag and connected it to the fitting used for filling/emptying the sack. That way when I emptied the sack I didn't have any issues with the sack collapsing around the fill/empty fitting (which would prevent the bag from emptying all the say).

[bowvan]

richard,

Either one of the methods you mentioned above would work. I couldn't find a way to connect a pipe or hose to the inside of the fittings on the x-series bags, without creating a huge amount of friction loss, so I just stuck a full length piece of pvc with notched ends in the bag. You got the idea though, anything with an uneven surface, preferably something with a lot of holes in it.

[xrichard]

Thanks...that's a great idea. Another way would be to put a vaccuum relief valve on the hose between the fat sac and the stock ballast tank. If I can find an appropriate valve, I might do that.

[cakirk2004]

Just call Fly High and get the additional ballest kit for the 210 and it comes with all the fittings and bags for a nice neat install and all you have to do is push the buttons on the dash. You can go to their website and it has the install directions and diagrams of the install.

[d_nodixon]

bags

we got the bags from fly high for my 06 210 and am happy so far, kinda of a pain hooking up the hoses and actually had to route the hoses differently than the website indicated. They had the fill drain hose a the top, works better at the bottom. I used 1" ID washer hose from lowes. Had to bevel the inside of the hose to get some of fittings on...

I am having trouble with bags though, the rear bags dont stay full and have to disconnect the fittings to let it vent properly. i have been looking for some kinda of air release valve or try the pvc pipe method. All the work puting the bags in now have touble with the pumps. Sometimes they work some times not, when not working the breaker trips evey time.

[bowvan]

d_nodixon,

Where is your vent line connected (from sac to side of the boat)? It should be as far forward (highest point on the sac) as possible, when the boat is on plane. The bags are not staying full, because they are leaking out the side of the boat from gravity.

You have two options:

1. Route the vent hose from the bag as high up the gunnels as possible, and then back down to the thru-hull. A reverse "P" or "U" trap. This should help some of the leaking, but not all. You still have to keep the sacs topped off with the pumps occasionally.

2. Install a valve (manual or automatic) in the vent hose or stuff a cork in the vent opening. This will keep the water from leaking, but causes more work for you each time you fill/empty.