My Ballast Project

[brtwlbrn5]

Great ballast setup! I have pretty much the same setup going into my 2008 LSV. Should be finished next week and I'll post pictures when it's all complete.

Brett

[E4NASH]

One of my many projects to get done over the next 2 months is my ballast upgrade. We bought our boat last year with the stock Gravity III ballast. Before I even had the boat in my possession I ordered two 750 lb bags for the rear.

We surfed with the 750's in the rear and would place the 400s that we had left over on the side seat and sometimes in the bow. We grew tired of having bags on the seats so at the Sinclair jam last year we cut the cooler out from under the seat and that allowed us to have the bags hidden under the seats.

Improvement but not quite perfect. I didn't like the way the bags filled in there so I sold the 400s and bought two 370lb Tube sacs and placed them under the seats. PERFECT fit! These are the same bags that are used in the floor in the center. We used it this way the remainder of the summer filling the underseat bags with a Tsunami over the side.

Most of my crew surfs regular except for my wife so we surf both sides of the boat. So with it's current configuration it's a little inconvenient to have to pull out the hand pump throw it over the side, lift the seat cushion, connect it all, and then fill. Then when you drain you have to do the same thing and there always seems to be overfilling or water pouring everywhere or something. Then if we want to switch sides we have to do the same thing all over again. My goal for this year was to eliminate the manual filling of the underseat bags and make it so both the underseat bag and the rear bags fill at the same time, independently without adding a second pump. I also wanted a bigger wave so I wanted to upgrade to the 1100s and that would also require me to add an IBS. I also wanted to fill and drain the IBS independently without an additonal pump.

So what I am doing is adding 3 of the Fly High distribution manifolds. This will allow me to fill 2 bags with each pump which will satisfy my need to not have to add any additional pumps, will allow me to control the filling and draining of all of the bags independently, and will allow me to use two pumps to fill and drain one side. I will just need to adjust the timers for the pumps to accomodate the setup and when filling the midship bags I'll need to watch it a little to know when it's time to stop.

The Left rear pump will now fill the left rear bag and the right midship (underseat) bag. The right rear pump will fill and drain the right rear bag and the left midship (underseat) bag. The center pump will fill and drain the center bag and the IBS.

When we surf regular this will allow me to fill the two bags on the left side at the same time and when we need to switch to the goofy side when the midship bag is finished draining the on the left side I just turn the valve and can begin filling the 1100 bag on the right while the other one is still draining. when the 1100 on the left is finished draining I'll flip the valve and it will fill the right side mid shipbag and it should finish filling at the same time the right rear 1100.

We usually fill the center bag after the boat has been dropped in the water when we are idling out from the ramp. So when it comes time to surf all i will need to do is flip the center distro valve to the bow and start filling the IBS.

The manifolds will be installed in the left side rear locker where the pumps are. No, I am not planning on relocating the pumps as I feel the amount of space it would free up is not significant enough to justify the work of relocating the pumps.

The manifolds are quite spendy but for aesthtics and because the knob doesn't stick out as far as the cheaper bosworth Y valve I felt it was worth the cost. Since these will be in the left rear locker with an 1100I wanted any handles or switches to stick out as little as possible so it wouldn't interfere with the 1100 since it will like fill the entire space.

The three new bags will all have a check valve on the vent line which is going to use the existing vent holes. I am going to use a Y fitting to tie them in on each vent hole. I have attached a Visio diagram that I made to illustrate what I am doing. Go easy it was my first time making a Visio diagram of a boat and ballast system. Also, I haven't exactly decided on which leg of the IBS I will fill and drain from. Probably going to be whichever side easiest to access. I did think about Y'ing that off and filling and draining from both legs but we'll see how this goes first.

I ordered everything yesterday so I expect it will come next week along with all the stuff for my other projects....Christmas in March!!

I will update this thread with pictures when we're done installing it.

16993

[brain_rinse]

Sounds like a great upgrade! Looking forward to the pics.

[mmandley]

Gaw wish i had known earlier, i got a factory 3 way manifold in the garage from the LSV.

[moombahighrider]

Gaw wish i had known earlier, i got a factory 3 way manifold in the garage from the LSV.

Mike,

I might take it off your hands if your looking to sell it. Let me know...

[E4NASH]

Another delivery from the brown wagon today...

17018

Just waiting on another box with the hose/clamps/fittings/manifolds. Should be here Monday. This weekend would be PERFECT to do it since its going to be 72-75 degrees. Hopefully next weekend will be as nice.


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[jmvotto]

Mike,

I might take it off your hands if your looking to sell it. Let me know...

i have one if your ininterested second pic.

https://forum.moomba.com/showthread.php?17975-Ballast-parts-etc&highlight=Parts

[NCSUmoomba]

Nash,

Looking at your diagram, does the IBS sac need two drain pumps?

[wolfeman131]

With a check valve & using reversible pumps, I haven't needed a drain on both sides, just one.

[E4NASH]

I have a check valve and reversible pumps. Only one pump for the center and IBS bags. I haven't decided if I am going to Y off the fill/drain line. I'm going to try it from one side and see how that works.


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[E4NASH]

Ok got all my hoses run and installed yesterday. Unfortunately I will not be able to use the Fly High Distribution manifolds like I wanted. There is just not enough space behind the panel where the pumps are to fit them AND the pumps and I don't want to relocate the pumps. So I'm going to have to return them and exchange them for 3 Bosworth directional Y valves. Won't be as fancy as I wanted but it will do the job. I'll be so glad when Im done with this project! The last 4 weeks has been one project after another and I'm ready to just enjoy it all.


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[E4NASH]

Last weekend I finished up the install when I received the Bosworth valves. And of course where I ended up putting them I could've used the manifolds so I may order them again later. I didn't snap any pics because the lens on my phone is scratched so the pics are bad. I'll take some with my wife's when she gets back in town and I'll put up some pics.

So anyway, got out on the water and my left rear pump wasn't pumping water. With the help of the board I determined it was the impeller. Spoke to Wakemakers on Monday and had my new impellers on Thursday. Installed them this morning and hit the lake this afternoon. Got in the water flipped tje switches and all is good!

That 1100 and IBS really made a difference too! At least it looks like it did anyway. I haven't ridden it yet but it looks Huge and the pocket is much longer than before. Had the wakeplate halfway up, 650 IBS, 400 in the floor, 400 under left seat, 1100 left rear, and filled the right rear about 500 or 40%. That made a huge difference when I filled the opposite side. Hope to ride it next weekend. Couldn't this weekend bc it was just me and my 3 year old daughter.

I'll post up some pics after the next time we go out.


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[tgoody14]

Nash,

How easy/hard is it to cut out the cooler to be able to put sacs in that spot? And what did you use to do it? Also, are the coolers not really worth using!? I tend to like having plenty of "refreshments" On hand... Nothing worse than being halfway through your day and running outta drannnk 😢

[kaneboats]

My cooler was more like a "warmer" or an "ice melter". I cut that baby out and never looked back. Rotozip borrowed from Moombadaze did the trick. A little messy but you file the edges down and they are up underneath and out of sight anyway so nobody will ever see them anyway. Very happy with the result. Used to only use it for garbage anyway. Now I run an extra 400 sack in there mostly full.

[tgoody14]

Awesome!!! Good to know! Thanks for the info! Looks like that'll be project number 3 on the list haha