99 Air, Extra Batteries Placement, Custom Ballast...

[Chexi]

I have a 1999 Air Nautique direct drive. It has the small rear compartment behind the bench seat. The previous owner did quite a bit of custom work on the boat's audio system, but he used mostly car equipment. As a result, I am pulling most of the equipment out and replacing it with marine equipment. At any rate, 1 of the things he did was to add 2 extra batteries to the sound system. There is a perko switch, but no isolator. I will be adding an isolator, but I digress. He built a custom housing out of carpeted MDF (not glassed, so it's not in great shape now) in the rear storage compartment for the 2 extra batteries, which is great for the added weight/wake, but effectively eliminated the usefulness of this storage area. I have pulled the batteries and the custom housing/floor out of the rear hatch.

Question 1: If I want to move the 2 batteries, any better ideas on placement? I don't want to lose space under the observer seat. Has anyone put 1 or 2 batteries further up under the bow seats? My main battery is under the nose cushion in the bow. I was thinking about putting the 2 extras under the other bow seats (1 each), but I cannot recall if that is a flat bottomed area. Also, unless I change the configuration, I may need a set of long battery cables to thread from one side of the bow to the other. Any ideas where to obtain?

Question 2: When I took out the custom housing in the rear hatch, what was left was direct access to the hard ballast tanks. Does anyone know if there is supposed to be some separator flooring or board or something between the tanks and the storage space? If not, has anyone built anything to accomplish that? Alternatively, has anyone beefed this up to accomodate a fat sack? I would like to use the area for storage, but have the option to throw a fat sack in there and add another 400 - 800 lbs of ballast, but I don't want to damage the hard factory ballast tanks. Anyone have any ideas for what materials to use to build a strong separator floor that accomodate a lot of weight and not crush the tanks below?

Question 3: Has anyone removed the hard factory ballast on a 99 Air or Sport and added a custom automatic (pump driven) ballast system. Is it difficult to do for someone with only moderate mechanical skills? The ballcock system works on mine, but it's basically a full ballast or empty ballast option. There is nowhere near the amount of control needed to do small tweaks on this old system.

Thanks in advance. I'm going to take some pictures this weekend of the boat (which is currently torn apart as I am going to be having the interior re-vinyled) and log my progress on this restoration/customization process.

[Miljack]

Chexi,
My boat is a 99 Pro Air and I'm interested in your extra battery project, on my list for the winter. My single battery is centered under the front bow cushion.
For the ballast, check out my project from a couple of winters ago;

http://planetnautique.com/index.php?...st&start=0

If you have any questions, let me know.

[WakeSlayer]

I am curious why you are pulling the "automotive" stereo gear. Put in a decent area it makes no difference whatsoever.

[Chexi]

Thanks MIljack. By HPDE, do you mean High Density Polyethelene? Isn't that pretty thin? I guess in your application you didn't need something thick (and I won't either if I replace the entire ballast system). But if I keep the system and put in a separator floor and add a fatsac above, I will need something thick and will need something to disburse the weight. HDPE might be a good candidate to fix some of the plastic backer on the vinyl that is broken (see below).

Wakeslayer, I will probably keep the 2 amps, they are decent Alpines mounted in the observer's seat storage area. I will probably need to remount them with a spacer to avoid the possibility for wicking. The rest, however, has been more problematic. The main culprit was the head unit, which corroded and would pop in and out. It also would not eject a CD. It was less than a year old. The warranty was transferable, but when I took it to the repair center, it took 2 seconds for the repair guy to look at it and say, "this has been in a boat... that voids the warranty." This has already been replaced with a Clarion 475.

The interior speakers were not 6 1/2" round, but were larger and oval, and as such were not mounted properly. They were mounted with only 1 or 2 screws at the bottom, which put a lot of weight on a small piece of plastic. 1 of them broke the plastic backing underneath the vinyl, and the other 2 looked like they were about to. I plan to replace these with Kicker KM620's, although I've had a heck of a time finding any reviews of them.

The tower speakers were put into a metal box (which has not corroded), but when I took it down to measure something I heard some water inside. They also do not project well to the rider. I plan to replace these with a pair of Kicker KMT6's. While these aren't Wetsounds or NVS's, from what I've read, they project pretty well to the rider and sound pretty good. I don't need great on a boat, I can live with pretty good (but I do need it to work and be reliable). Great is for my home theater.

The dual 12" subs still worked (although only 1 was hooked up as the amp for it is mono), but they took up way too much room in front of the driver's kick plate. The grills were also completely rusted. I plan on replacing these with a single Kicker SKM 10", which should be good enough for my application. I'm hoping to be able to mount it behind the factory driver's kickplate (which I need to re-install as the last owner just had it resting on top of the custom sub box).

The stuff was not cheap and still works, but the person who installed it had no idea what he was doing (as far as marine applications go). The audio gear was actually put in by the guy who owned the boat prior to the guy who sold it to me (other than the broken head unit, which the last owner put in to replace the previously broken car head unit). The first owner had the amps back in the rear hatch area in between 2 batteries. That area apparently gets fairly wet inside. I'm surprised they survived long enough for the last owner to move them to the observer's storage area, which seems to stay much dryer.

[Miljack]

Chexi,
the "floor" that covered the stock hard tanks is a very thin piece of plastic with carpet glued to hold it in place, no support. The HPDE is available in different thicknesses, I used 1/2" thick and it's VERY strong with the supports I used. For my application, the replacement floor had to cover the bilge area where the rudder box and rear bilge pump live, and has to support the weight of the two bags I'm using when full. (guestimate of ~1000 #, maybe a little more?).
I read somewhere that the early stock tanks are prone to cracking if you leave weight on them alot. It's a pain to pull the stock tanks, but I like my system with them out, I can store more stuff on top of the empty bags, and still shuffle stuff around the boat to fill them. By using two bags, I can balance out the wake, and we can surf (free ride) behind my boat with just my wife and son and one rear ballast and the belly ballast full.

[WakeSlayer]

Chexi

Installation is what killed most of it then.
Like Miljack, by removing the hard tanks you will gain a decent amount of storage. And once you have the ballast puppy pumps, you will fill and drain faster than you can suit up. I cut my tanks out the day I got the boat.

[Chexi]

Did you guys have to drill through the hull for any of your intake our outflow pumps, or were you able to piggyback of the stock system?

[Quinner]

Regarding your first question, if memory serves me the under seat storage in the bow does not have enough depth or flat floor surface to accommodate batteries, your other option could be the floor ski locker or possibly behind the drivers kick panel depending on if you have a heater or not and if that would be vented enough as well. Have you considered using only (2) batteries total? I run a single Blue top on my system, it works but you need to be careful or carry a jumper box if you know you are going to be pushing it. Regarding the cables, are the existing cables back to the stern in decent shape? If so they could work.
Chexi, is your 99' the Blue/Black one? IIRC it was a twin to my old 99', great looking boat!

[WakeSlayer]

I drilled through my transom and put separate intakes for each pump. I am not that big of a fan of the scoop on the bottom, but to each his own. The newer systems can be easily piggybacked, with the old one, I think it may be simpler to remove. just my opinion.

[bchesley]

Search ballast installs and you will find a plethora of info. I installed factory style hardware where some have designed their own. Just as long as you take safety into consideration all will be well.

[Chexi]

Yes, mine is the Blue/Black one. I absolutely love the color scheme. I also much prefer these graphics to the smaller "AIR" symbol that followed it in later years. It contains the perfect mix of understatment and flash. Even with the interior vinyl in really bad shape, I get a ton of complements on the look of my boat. Last season I had a guy with a new MC X1 (the old X-star hull) gush over my boat. It was great having someone with a brand new very nice boat keep staring at my boat and finally come over and ask me about it. It didn't have the heart to tell him that I paid only $14k for it.

Here is a pic. It's the best I can do at the moment. I have replaced that rack with 2 sets of flight clips. I have also added a 3rd traditional rack from bulletlines on the round cross bar below, so I can hold up to 6 wakeboard/skates now. I might add a 4th rack for a wakesurfer as well.

[Socbum]

I have been doing some research on installing an isolator and second battery in my boat (02 SAN). Several PN members have installed batteries all over their boats and it seems that you are limited only by imagination. Two members that have a lot of knowledge about custom implementations that should be researched are Mikeski & Grant_West. Both of them have provided several "how to" threads here and on other boards. Search through their posts for some great advice

Here is a link to one thread that NautiqueJeff started several years ago about battery placement. Look at one of the pictures that Grant_West posted that has three batteries in the nose of the boat.

http://www.planetnautique.com/index....ttery+isolator

Good luck!

[Chexi]

Thanks Socbum!

[Chexi]

Thanks everyone actually. I love these forums and the internet. The Information Age is sweet.

[jaybird]

Batterys

Chexi,

Good Luck, a good audio system can be one of the most enjoyed upgrades to any boat when done correctly.

You can see my recent primary and secondary battery install on the thread "speaker cover". Take a look and read about my isolator/combiner. If your going with 3 battery’s you need to consider a 100 AMP or larger alternator. More battery’s actually increase the load on the alternator, they don’t reduce the load, as you would think.

http://www.planetnautique.com/index....ic&t=13075

A great site if you need reference info is: http://www.bcae1.com/

And FYI, Wakeslayer was correct about the car audio components, the two main differences are Price and coatings to protect from salt exposure. Most quality car components are equal and in many instances better due to the higher production volume. The "Marine" label comes at a price. Dollar for Dollar you can get more amps and better sound for the same money. Plus you have a much larger selection to design from. With marine system you are very limited. I would only use marine if they must be mounted in an area exposed to gas fumes. In most cases Marine also indicates "ignition protected".

When it comes to speakers, YES they must be marine rated since they are exposed to water but the best speakers are POLK which were not originally designed for marine application they just happen to use materials that are water proof thus they pursued the marine market and probably have the best speakers that serve both car and marine audio buffs.

Good Luck! Let us see some photos when you finish.