99 Air Ballast Install

[Chexi]

Hello!

Did you take some more picture or video shredding your wake?

I gonna start my build soon

I should be able to dig some up. I have added some steel as well along the sides of the seat where the hard tanks used to wrap around (200lbs each side). That improved the wake quite a bit more. Despite my trepidations, it also improved trailering the boat (i.e., took some excess tongue weight off and the trailer bounces less). There is a bridge I go over every time I ride, and there are evenly spaced bumps on the bridge that acts like a harmonic, so my trailer starts to bounce, a little bit more with each bump. The added 400 lbs of steel that I left in by accident one day made this much less of a problem. This could be unique to my boat, trailer, and tow vehicle combo.

[Chexi]

Scott,
Those sacs look to be a perfect fit there, do they fill 100%?

They fill about 99% plus. They are just a hair too wide side to side for me to say they fill 100%.

Also, I end up with about 2-3" of clearance between the hatch and the sacs. I replaced the factory swing-check valves with wakemakers in-line valves. The factory swing-check valves had corroded into a closed position that was locked. I was able to break them free (after replacing them with the in-line valve from wakemakers), but I just kept the new in-lines in. They work at any angle. I have not had siphon problems. However, if I were to add a lot of heavy things on top of the bags, I imagine the pressure would push the water out through the vent lines.

[lampan]

Ok sounds very good! What kind of steel did you use? 400lbs is pretty much, do you got any pictures on that?

[Chexi]

I used pop bags. 40 lbs each. I used 4 on each side, so I was wrong, it is an additional 160 lbs on each side. Then I have 2 more bags that I move around for fine tuning.

[wcherashore]

sorry to revive a dead thread, but did you have any problems with passive draining via the rear bag vents? I know you have inline valves, but doesn't that simply prevent water from flowing in through the vent? due to their placement (at the very back corners), it seems to me the top of the bag could be above the vent allowing water to flow out while the boat is underway and stern heavy.

[Chexi]

I never had a problem with this. I agree that in theory I could have, but never did.