Recommendation on custom ballast bags?

[Northwestjoe]

When you guys upgraded to new bags, did you upgrade any of the factory plumbing or just use the factory to fill and drain new bags?

[BCRider]

Factory plumbing will only be 3/4" lines and 800 gps pumps. When going with larger bags you'd help your fill/empty times by going with larger hose and faster pumps. When it comes to pumps you'll have to decide between aerator or reversibles. Each have their own pros and cons. For my large 1200lbs bag in my VE I plumbed in dual fill/drain (1" lines and 1200 gph Tsunami -aerator pumps). You'd have to order custom bags from Chpthril (Mike) with the extra fill/empty ports included.

There are ways of sharing thru hulls with manifolds but, your limitation is potentially filling one side at a time rather than everything at once. I kept my OEM plumbing for my 250lbs hard tanks and ran all new lines and thru hulls for my rear locker bags to keep it independent.

[Northwestjoe]

Hey Thanks so much for the input. Sounds like the best way to do it is order some new bags and just run a whole new setup to them including new through holes and plumbing. Out of curiosity why did you go with aerator pumps over reversible?

I have a 2007 RZ2 and have the hard tanks in the back, I think similar to you, did you move your batteries and taps behind the engine to accommodate for the bags in the lockers?

I’ve reached out to Chpthril a couple of times with no response so I might check out some set ups from wakemakers.

[Grebva3]

I have the bags from Mikes Liquid Audio and I am very happy with them. Summer time is crazy busy, I highly recommend, I have the 2012 RZ4 with lower hard tanks. I do plan to add an additional fill pump this of season to improve fill times

[BCRider]

I'd be patient with Mike. He's crazy busy this time of year and would highly recommend his custom bags for our boats. If I remember correctly you have batteries in the rear locker space? Mine are behind the back walls in my 09VE so there wasn't anything to move.

I went with aerators only because I had 4 from a previous ballast install in my old boat and at the time reversibles didn't have the same flow rate that aerators could do. It's my understanding by the time you work out the additional materials reversibles aren't that much more expensive. Mike would be able to speak to this better than I.

I don't have an equal set up for ballast. My port side is a 1200lbs bag with dual fill/empty. My starboard side fill is a single line shared off one of the dual thru hulls and a 610lbs bag. Most of my crew is regular and with the exchange at the time I didn't want to spend another $ 800CDN for a starboard bag at the time. I've never had the need to upgrade so I haven't. My wife and her friend are the only ones that are goofy and don't require as much weight as us men and I find you can still make a great wave with less weight on that side. I also have about 600lbs in lead I can move around as needed to make up for the water ballast.

To me the biggest decision would be to do a dual fill/empty set up on both sides each with their own thru hulls to save on fill/empty times. With this set up you'd keep the hard tanks independent as I have. The second option would be to remove the hard tanks and do one custom bag that fills the hard tank cavity including the rest of the locker and still have the piece that goes under the seats. This would require a total custom bag and I'm certain someone else has done that on here and got the bags from Mike? With this scenario others have also relocated the Taps pump and batteries behind the engine to completely open up both sides.

With my set up as I have today I don't ever feel like I need more weight or am missing. If anything, it's only us +200lbs riders that need all of it. For my kids I don't run near that much weight and I primarily foil nowadays so I rarely load up as you don't need all the ballast either for foiling.

[BCRider]

Mike's Liquid Audio

3826-12 S. New Hope Rd
Gastonia, NC 28056
704.616.4749
info@mikesliquidaudio.com

[D&P Powell]

I’ve reached out to Chpthril a couple of times with no response so I might check out some set ups from wakemakers.

He is on vacation - he WILL get back to you.

[Northwestjoe]

Awesome, certainly appreciate all of the input! Great knowledge and experience on here. I'll standby and wait for Mike to message me back as it sounds like you all have had a good experience with his stuff.

[N.Penley]

Mike may be on vacation and he is also a 1-man shop that stays busy for a reason. He is worth the wait.
Buy once & cry once.
Don’t settle with something else and have to replace it in a couple years.


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