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I did a little looking around but didn't find anything on this. Since the rear seat in my Outback has the two hollow plastic shells on the bottom for it's support I was wondering if anyone has made a permanent ballast in the seat? Could you take those off and fill them with something like sand or concrete to make them a permanent ballast? I'm new to this game so let me know if this idea is just retarded or if there is some validity to it. Thanks
Can you post a pic? I have a 2001 Outback, but it sounds like your seat may be different then mine.
I will get some pictures soon. It is the removable seat but it has two seperate plastic supports that look like tubs if you were to remove the seat from the top. I was just wondering to the downside of putting permanent wieght in there.
Generally speaking, permanent weight has a few downsides. Trailering the boat, if you want to ski (lighter is better), and sinking the boat are a few. I apologize if you already know this, but water ballast is "neutrally bouyant" so it won't really sink you boat. You can swamp it, but once the ballast bags are submerged, they are no longer weighing the boat down. Lead and concrete and things, not so much. Of course if you only wakeboard, the ski part is not the issue.
Also, it cannot be a very big space, so it couldn't be a lot of additional weight. Keep in mind, concrete is about 150 pounds per cubic foot, steel is about 500 pcf and lead is about 700 pcf. And a cubic foot is pretty big, bigger than you would think. For example, the big bags of concrete mix you buy at home improvement stores (80# bag) makes about 2/3 of a cubic foot of concrete.
You might be better off to get some small durable duffel bags and go to the local tire store and see if you can get some of the old scrap weights to put in them. Since they have a handle, you could take them out if you need to.
On a related note, the Outbacks really perform better with more weight in the front. I believe the hull on ours is identical. I run about 600# in the bow and about 400# in the stern. At about 65-70 feet back at 23 mph, the wake is awesome for a ski hull.