Winterizing ballast system

[justflyinglow]

A couple of dumb questions that I don't know the answer. My ballast pumps don't run unless the engine is running. I assume that they are high draw items on battery so its wired that way. Is there a way to run the pumps in order to run antifreeze thru the system while it's on the trailer? Do most people remove the sacs? I read someone removes the sacs and puts a little bleach in them. Sounds like a good idea. But if you remove the sacs how do you keep antifreeze in the pumps and hoses? And lastly, how do you remove all water from center hard tank. I am guessing there is a drain plug in tank if I remove the flooring to access the tank? Do you add antifreeze to center tank thru vent hoses on side of boat?

Thanks,
Rookie Surf boat owner

[Broke Pilot]

I don’t know if I’d run too much other than water through the ballast. Antifreeze can cause some weird things to happen on different metals when exposed to air like the pumps.
Other than that, the ballast has tons of room for water expansion. The center tank should be fine as long as it’s mostly empty.
I’m sure some cold weather guys will have some tricks, being in Texas is nice... lol

[larry_arizona]

Digging into my pumps and sub floor tanks for first year of winterization, I learned the pumps are mounted fairly high and in a self draining orientation.

I found you can drain the tanks with engine off, but you can’t reverse the pumps to fill.

I tipped the trailer as high as it would go and was able to pump out drain the hard tanks almost 100%.

I could still see water in the hose coming out of the tanks but the pumps were dry.

I put some AF in the tank then put the trailer back to level or slightly lower and no fluid is in the hoses or at the tank fittings.

Pulled bags drained them and hung to dry for the winter.


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[jcredible]

If your mondo is like my 2017; in order to run the ballast pumps out of the water do the following:

1) Turn on your battery
2) Turn your key to the right(but don't start it)
3) Your ballast pumps will now run.

Essentially you just need to flip it into almost run mode to get them to engage. Once this is done they will run again while in the standard accessory mode.

Give that a try!