Hard tank ballast system for Supra/Moomba?

[Fman]

Would it be possible to have a company fab up some plastic hard tanks to install in the ski locker compartment??? anyone know if a company like this exists???

Enjoying my '08 22V, but I have to be honest, the bag system I am not digging on. This week I could not get one to drain because it kinked the line, I had to step on it for 5 minutes to finally apply pressure to get it to drain. Moving the 750 lb sac was impossible with all the weight. I am going to install kink free 3/4" bilge line to help alleviate this, but was thinking maybe someone could fab up a plastic insert to fit in the ski locker. Attach some fittings and you would be good to go.

Dont always need the full 750's, but without gauges having to eyeball 400-450 lbs of ballast pretty much sucks. I started timing it with a stop watch which seems to work okay, but geeze, they build this nice boat and put a low grade ballast system in it!!!! I dont get it! Its a wakeboard boat!!!! People use there ballast system all the time, and when you have a slow filling, non-reliable system it puts a sour taste in your mouth!

I wish Supra/Moomba would just goto the hard tank system, there are a few pro's to bags, but to many con's that go along with it. Anyone have any ideas for this??? or possibly finding a 60-90 gallon plastic water tank that would fit in the locker?

Thanks.....Travis

[NCSUmoomba]

My 2001 Outback came with hard tanks in the rear ski locker. Of course I took them out to add more weight since they were only 350 pounds. I have thought about the bigger hard tank route, but the only thing is that you give up all the storage space permanently. I was even thinking about some sort of hybrid system with a solid top and bottom with bellows sides so I don't have to babysit the sacs while they fill to make sure they are positioned properly.

[tazz3069]

Last year I had asked that same question about the hard tanks. The answer was "Everybody who has the bags, rave about them" That is why they are not going with hard tanks. I really love my boat. I had two problems. One was the fill time and two was the bags. Well I fixed the fill time. I just have to deal with the bags now. Actually, I really have a problem with the center bag. I think that it is way too big for the ski locker. When full, the door pops up and everybody stubs their toes on the thing. I always have to watch the door to make sure it does not fill to capacity so the door does not pop up. There is a member in the Supra site that had custom hard tanks made for his 22SSV. I was going to go that way. The only problem that I saw was that I was going to permanently loose all the room in the rear lockers. I can not remember his name.
Tazz

[jester]

Guys,
I am trying to find someone right now to build me some custom hard tanks. It is just finding someone to build the tank. The goal is to lose as little space as possable. I still want to be able to get a wakeboard into the rear lockers. I have not had good luck finding someone right now but i will not give up hope.

I also hate the bags.

[Fman]

A tank could be designed to fit around the dead space in the ski locker and still give ample room for vests, ropes, boards etc... I dont know how Supra/Moomba could say people are raving about the bag system. Other than being able to add more weight easily, what are the advantages??? and I second the ski locker popping open, mine does the same exact thing. I think I am getting more air in the bag than water.

If you look at all the top wakeboard boats, they all use hard tank systems, if they were that good, Mastercraft, Malibu, Nautique, etc.. would all be going to the soft bag ballast.

Soft ballasts work, but marginally, and for as nice of a boat as my Supra is, I think its a damn shame they did not put a better ballast system in it that actually performes as well as the rest of the boat does!

[sandm]

problem is all the "other" boats that are using tanks have them below the floor or out of the way where they do not take up as much room, but the first upgrade seems to be adding bags to put in more weight. centurion enzo and all the mastercraft boats have companies that are adding bags and seems to be the first upgrade. I have looked at nautique(210) and you lose a ton of room in the rears just to have tanks that you may not use all the time.
I am guessing if you put in a tank in the rear locker, most would either bitch that it wasn't big enough and too hard/expensive to swap out, or to get the 750 in the rears, you now lose all storage..

now the center ski locker is another story.. I agree with the stupid pullhandle stubbing toes and do not even begin to understand why skiers did not build in a tank there, as that space is completely useless imo. if you store a ski in there, you would have to pull it out to fill the bag, and if you are filling the bag, you are not slalom skiing, so it's really pretty useless, however trying to get a tank in there after the fact would require separating the hull. not for the diy'er..

[dtlaine]

When I bought my 2007 OBV, I thought I wanted hard tanks. The dealer carried Malibu, so he was going to order the tanks from Malibu to install (that's the easy source that you may be looking for). There were two problems with that set-up. They only hold 300 lbs each, and they take up room all the time. They were going to be vertical against the outside of each compartment, so there was still quite a bit of storage, but not as much as with a deflated bag. Then one of my neighbors told me to go w/ the bags because they are much more flexible. I'm glad I went with the bags, but there are undoubtedly advantages with the tanks.

[bergermaister]

Funny I came across this post as I'm researching a winter project - I've got two rear hard tanks at 250lbs each and am considering yanking them out and going with two bags instead.

1) for more storage space when they're not being used.
2) for more weight (bigger bags) when they are being used!

I believe I can just plumb a bag into my existing setup where the tanks were if I do it this winter.

I also am considering adding a ski locker bag but if I do that I'll have to be careful not to overload the locker with popup shades, beach toys, chairs, tents and other crap when we go camping on the beach and accidentally slice the bag. Are they made of pretty tough material?

If I do go with the ski locker ballast I'm considering plumbing it in with a separate control switch as opposed to using a hand-held pump. Anyone else done that? I'm not too afraid to drill holes in the hull anymore after my stereo installation project. I'm thinking I'd prefer to have the separate controls in case we don't want to use all the ballast all the time.

[yearround]

Are they made of pretty tough material?

they are made of very strong stuff. i have has a slalom ski fin ride on top of the rear bag (with lots of other stuff on top) for at least 1100 miles on the trailer, not even a mark on the bag.

[RobertJ]

Berger, if you are going to change out your hard tank system I would be intersted in working out a deal on your old tanks. I am down in Salem.