My Outback Ballast Upgrade...

[ian ashton]

I've just started the upgrade process, and couldn't wait to post up what I'm doing.

We orderd the boat with the factory Gravity I setup, which is a 400lb bag under the rear seat (approx 14x14x60). I was looking at going with the 20x20x50 750lb bag from Fly High, but I wasn't super excited about loosing the extra 10" of length. So I was putzing around on eBay the other day and ran across the perfect solution; a 20x20x60 (~850lb) bag, in blue no less! I bought it from seller 'MaxWakeMaxFun', here is a link to his eBay items page:
http://stores.ebay.com/MaxWakeMaxFun

I got it 'Buy it Now' for $65 shipped, so I figured even if it wasn't right it was a cheap enough experiment.

The package arrived yesterday and I played around with it in the boat. After some measurements I realized he accidentally sent me a 12x20x60 - great seller though, the correct size is already in-transit to me!


Again, this is not the size I will be using. This is 12" high, I will be using a 20" high, which should be to about the middle of the sun pad cushions:


This particular sac has 'MasterCraft' fittings. I was a bit confused by them at first, but looking at what I'm going to do I think they are actually going to work a little bit better than the Quick Release fittings. What I'm planning to do is make an extension hose to go from the middle drain and run it to the factory drain and plug in to the factory fitting. The fill hose is pretty much in the perfect spot, so I will just need to get the adapter.


Just to give an idea of the height;


The overall