Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

I have a 17 1/2 foot bayliner and found a guy to build me a tower. I was gonna get a couple of ballasts (water filled) for a bigger wake but my boat has a four cylinder (120 hp) and someone said it would be too much of a strain on my motor. Does anybody know?

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

If you dont mind me asking what type of motor and drive is it?

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

Its a ford 4 cylinder (like the old pintos) with a cobra transom

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

I learned behind a 17 ft. glastron (135 hp) before i graduated to a tige and the absolute best thing to do is put a 540 or 600# fatsac right smack dab in the middle of the boat. depending on the way that boat is designed the most weight you'll be able to easily plane is right around 900#

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

What is the rated capacity of the boat? Youy might be able to get a good feel if you have as many BIG buddies as the boat is rated for go with you to weight it down a bit, and see how it does 120 horse with a whole bunch of extra weight and expected to pull a wakeboarder might be asking a lot. I would try it out before I spent a bunch of money on custom sacks but thats just me. I am assuming its a bit older boat, which means that 4 banger has been working hard for a while now keep an eye on your temps and oil pressure/usage try with free removable weight then base decision from there. Just be careful not to totally overload or exceed the hulls capability they can and will give you a ticket. Also once you are up try messing with the trim a little bit to see if that will help your wake.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

try moving any weight you can to one side, then one side of the wake will be bigger, allowing you to get more air on jumps.
Are you just skiing with this, or you trying to wake surf with a surfboard?

As long as you can get on plane fairly easy, and the motor is not lugging, it should not hurt the engine.

The biggest wake is right below planning speed.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

Thanks for all the input. Yeah we are gonna wakeboard. I weigh 200 but it will usually be two women with me that weigh about 250 between them. So I know not much weight in the boat when I wakeboard. Someone had told me the ballast might make it too hard on my engine etc. but it seems like a 300 or 400 pounder would be ok.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

There are a few important thigns here. How much weight, location of weight, and planning speed.

Your boats planning speed will change some based on the weight you have in the boat. You need to make sure you have no issues stayign on plane at the speed you want to ride. If you do, the drive will not be able to give it enough throttle qquick enough to keep it at a constant speed when it start to fall off plane and bog.

So, as mentioned above, experiements with some friends in the boat. Have them sit in different location and see what it does. Put a fair amount of the weight in the bow. This will help get the bot on speed and maintain speed as it will cause the boat to use more of the hull.

The amount of weight won't be much. You are very underpowered and on a very small boat. Too much weight makes for a dangerous situation. Again, experimenting with how the boat re-act with people in it is a good place to start.

I wouldn't worry too much about all this in a 17' Bayliner. It will never toss out a good wake to move on to advance tricks. If it was me, I would get two 250lb bricks and put them in the rear corners of you interior, and a 500lb sac in the middle of the bow. THat should be close or even a bit above you USCG Weight, and will even out the weight of the boat. IF that doesnt work, then move the sacs you have in the corner to right down the senter of the boat.

Don't ever surf behind an I/O.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

If thats all the people you have in the boat then a 300-400 # ssac would be fine but as stated you will never get that ultimate wake no matter what you put in the boat. It just isn't big or powerful enough, you should be abel to get some height on the wake though with what you have in mind. Just make sure whoever drives is aware that the boat will handle different once you weight it down some.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

when on plane, i can feel a major difference in steering when someone moves from one side to the other.

so shifting weight will change a the wake.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

I would also like to mention that weighing the boat unevenly is a very bad idea in your size class. Well, any kind of significant weight difference... say offsetting 500lbs to one side and nothing on the other.

Very bad idea if you are going to be on plane. Any unexpected manuevers that may have to be made could cause a tip over. Its a lot different thena driving at Surfing speeds. Even if it makes the wake bigger on one side, you other side is going to be completely washed out and make it very hard to travel over.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

One more question. I have a 19 pitch 3 blade propeller on the boat now. Should I go to a 17 pitch? Would that help gettin my 200 + lbs outta the water?

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

lower pitch would help with acceleration, and raise rpms.

If your engine lugged from increased weight, a lower pitch would help ensure you don't hurt the engine.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

If you are deciding to wakeboard more frequently going to a lower pitch prop could help. All props are not created equal, so do your homework.

A lot of I/Os and Outboard that are being used to pull riders find that using a 4 or 5 blade Stainless helps out a lot.

Re: Ballasts on a 17 ft bayliner?

I'm with Kyle F on this - if you add a ton of weight have fun trying to get it to plane out at a decent speed - this was my issue and I've got bigger boat.

I'm now going to a lower pitch and 4 fin prop to lower my plane speed, add hole shot, and to help with additional weight.