Fill your surf sac twice as fast for little $

[cab13367]

I ran across this diverter valve at the local West Marine and it gave me an idea. When filling the 750# surf sac that most of us use, we typically are not filling the sac on the opposite side. So what if we installed one of these diverter valves on the fill line to the opposite sac and run a second fill line from it to the vent hole on the 750# sac? Then when you are filling that sac, you turn on both the rear ballast switches and turn the knob on the diverter valve so that the bag is filled from both ends.

Those with the stock system will see a moderate improvement since the stock pump is now filling the sac via two hoses but those that have gone to three separate thru hulls and three separate pumps should be able to cut the fill time in half. This requires that your 750 # sac be completely empty before you fill though (which mine always is) since there won't be anywhere for air to go.

The diverter valve is a little pricey at $67 but you can buy the same thing in brass for about $30. Search 3 way diverter valve.

Has anyone done this already?

I am going to incorporate this into my ballast system upgrade.

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/woeimages/00003350.jpg

[moombadaze]

Awsum idea for a few different uses

[Razzman]

Not a bad idea Al! So if you were to remove the fittings and roll your sac up (:p) forcing all the air out, reconnect the fittings then unroll and fill you should have very little air in the bags to worry about right?

[RobertJ]

If you have the power on your boat 480V 60hz 3phase, I can hook you up with the ultimate fill time reduction. A positive displacement pump that moves over 2000 pounds per minnute (Viking Q series pump). The only down side is the discharge pressure is about 35psi and you need a 3" inlet and out let.

[zabooda]

I like RobertJ's idea. Sounds like the engineers over sized the pump for the piping system.

[cab13367]

Not a bad idea Al! So if you were to remove the fittings and roll your sac up (:p) forcing all the air out, reconnect the fittings then unroll and fill you should have very little air in the bags to worry about right?

That's right. I remove, drain, wipe dry, and fold all my bags after a day on the lake anyway. I do this because I put fans in the rear lockers to let the carpet dry and if I don't fold the bags, I have no place to store them. So there is very little air in them when I go to fill them. And even if you wanted to burb the bag, you could always turn off the second switch, remove the quick connect, push the air out, then reconnect it.

[moombadaze]

Al, what you just discribed works just fine as that is what I've been doing the last year-using the vent port to run a second fill hose to

[cab13367]

Thx. I figured it would since I just have a plug in that hole now and I don't have any issues with air getting in the bag. So u are running two pumps off one 1" intake to that bag? Which pumps and how long does it take to fill a 750?

[moombadaze]

Al, I had 2 800gpm tsunami's off one 3/4 thru hull. My rule pump crapped out on me so Im not sure what my fill time is right now.