Kyle's 24V Ballast Thread

[kjohnson709]

*the supplied wire in my ballast kit is 14ga I think


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chpthril]

Yes, my crystal ball says the wire in the ballast kit is 14ga.

Can you tell what size cable feeds those BUS bars. Im confident that they will handle adding 3 pumps, but never hurts to look.

[kjohnson709]

Hahah oh got it. I misunderstood! I will look tonight but I'm not exactly sure how to tell what size (I'm a total electric newbie).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[kjohnson709]

Mike, stupid question... does each positive wire going from this bus board to inline fuse to switch need its own screw place/post on the bus board? If so I think I have a problem because there is only two open spaces? If I can put two wires on one screw though I think I am good?

As for the B+ and B- wires running into this bus board - they are very thick (see pic below). I'd say they are about the same size as my battery cables or maybe a little smaller, surely larger than 14 ga hahah :-D. I am assuming these are large enough to handle the pumps. My only concern now is the fact there are only two open positive slots on this bus board.

IMG_5831.jpg

[chpthril]

Put one under one screw and two under the other, no worries.

[kjohnson709]

Awesome! Thanks Mike ad everyone for the help!

[GzeroX5]

Kyle, as I'm right behind you on my build, and studying your thread, a picture of your completed wiring would be appreciated.

[kjohnson709]

I am going to try and finish up the wiring this afternoon. It is going to be difficult to take a photo of the complete wiring set up because everything is spread out. here is a very rough drawing of how I think I need to wire this up.

Does this look accurate?

IMG_5832.jpg

[chpthril]

You got it.

[UNSTUCK]

Is it normal for these switches to run the pumps directly and not through relays? Seems like a good way to burn them up.

[chpthril]

The switches are rated at 20A and the pumps draw 3-5A.

[kjohnson709]

I finished my install today. I got the wiring done and tested all of the pumps. I also filled up each sac a bit to test the drains. Sadly I am not going to be able to go to the lake until next weekend (in laws coming over this weekend). I will post pics and a write up after my lake test.

Big shout out to Mike, Brad and all of the guys who helped me get this done!

IMG_5834.jpg

[killerbren]

Nice work, it looks great. You're going to love the system, one of the best things I've done to my boat.

[kjohnson709]

Okay, all my first lake test went okay!!! I did not sink and I would give it a B+ grade :-).

No leaks and I had great flow from the bilge fill pumps (no air bubbles). The bags filled in about 10 min. Once drained there is maybe a gallon or two of water left in the bags but I think this is normal? I did notice I can goose the boat forward and the force pushes the water in the bags to the back/drain and then they drain more.

I did have a couple of glitches that I want to share. I am hoping people have some advice on how to fine tune my ballast system!

Fist, my bow fill and port fill check valves seemed to be giving me problems on the lake. I had great flow to the valves and then the water flow barley would trickle out on the other side of the check valve (toward bag) at times. Other times the vales would work great but seemed to lock up and flow stopped. TO narrow it down to the check valves (and not the fill pumps) I took out the rubber seal/flapper in one of the check vales and the flow was great all the way through the line.

I confirmed visually that the "out" arrow was facing the right way as well. After I got off the water I realized not only that there was a "out" orientation label but also a "top" side to each valve. I re-positioned the vales so that the "top" was facing up and confirmed all "out" arrows are facing the right way.

Do you think this fixed my check valve problem on the fill lines?
My rear starboard fill line worked great all day. Could the other valves be defective?
Is there a specific location the valves need to be? Closest to the fill pump? I know that as water travels down the line it looses some pressure. Perhaps with my check valves right near the fat sac this is causing problems? Should they be immediately after the fill pumps in the bilge?

3.jpg
4.jpg


The other issue I was having is the starboard bow drain pump had a hard time getting started to drain (perhaps not priming). After looking at it again it might be that the path of the drain line goes down from the bag and makes a hard left turn into the pump. then it travels very slightly uphill to the base of the pump and then out of the pump. I think this very slight uphill path might be causing the drain pump not to prime? Although the port side bow drain takes the same path and this and it seemed to prime and drain fine.

So, can I/should I use PVC cutters and shorten the threaded shaft on the 800pgh bow drain pumps? Would this mess up the threads? If I did this I think the pump would remain level with the 90 degree elbow and perhaps the water wouldn't have to travel uphill?

1.jpg
2.jpg

[chpthril]

Yes, shorten the T800 inlet as short as down to an inch of thread remaining if needed. When you reinstall it, try to orient the outlet up more rather than down at the 3 or 9 oclock as it is now.

Try blowing through the suspect check valves to confirm that the flow arrow is correct. Where in the fill line is each check valve located? We can sometimes experience an issue if the check valve is oriented in an uphill run. Once the pump is shut off, water sits on top of the flapper and can hold it closed. However, this usually crates an air lock at the pump next time its used, rather than preventing flow. With that said, I installed a couple in a Malibu last fall and experienced a similar flow issue on the outlet side. Thought it might have just been a bad batch and swapped them out. We may just swap these out as well. I just emailed myself a note to get some new ones.

Yes, normal to have a little water left in the sac. At a point, the water level in the sac will fall below the level of the sac port. The sac port is located an inch or so off the bottom seam .