diy ballast/fat sack ideas

[m_court15]

I am looking to add some ballast or fat sacks to my boat. Any body have any ideas on what I could make. I would like to make something that uses water that I could pump in and out. I was thinking of putting something in the ski locker and on both sides of the engine.
Any ideas?

 

[craze1cars]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

I have no idea how you could make something like this...but I suppose anything is possible and I'm a fan of DIY'ing whatever I can.

But this? It's gonna take a lot of parts, pumps, valves, custom sized containers, etc to try to fabricate something like this. And I have no idea where you'd get most of it or how much it would cost.

So I think I'd have to ask why reinvent the wheel? Is there a reason you don't want to just buy some appropriately sized fat sacs for the areas you're considering, along with the matching pump system?

There's lots of brands, shapes, and sizes out there. Not sure if Iboats has them or not as I couldn't find them in my quick search. But I know Overtons sells a variety of brands and sizes, as do these guys:
http://www.wakecord.com/ProX-sacks.htm

 

[Liquid_force]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

Bring friends??

 

[overload]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

I've tried and tried again to fabricate ballast systems without resorting to putting down our hard earned money on expensive fat sacs that are nothing more that a waterbed mattress with a bilge pump. I have used portable camping water jugs, they are usually only 5 gallons each so you need alot of 'em. Another thing I used were these 15 gallon hydrochloric acid containers I got from work. They were nice thick blue plastic with good valves and caps (for obvious reasons). I've also used five gallon buckets, filled a tow tube with water, used pieces of limestone, coolers filled with water, retrievers, any thing that I could find. My conclusion is that after all this, my life was whole lot simpler and easier the day I bought two fat sacs and a pump. It's almost as if they were made for it. Good luck.

 

[drknute3]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

Check out wakeboarder.com and look in the DIY projects, lots of good info on DIY ballast installs.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

How about a $15 air mattress from WalMart? Not the pool/toy type, but the heavy camping type.

 

[bcnumber1]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

If I were you I wouldn't even bother trying to make a fat sac system. Go to home depot or lowe's and buy some sand bags. There cheap and there just as good as good as a fat sac system. Weight is weight no matter how it gets into your boat. They can be a pain to carry around and take in and out but I count it as part of my warm up and cool down from riding.

 

[overload]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

I don't want to sound like a "no no" but you shouldn't use sand, rocks, anchors, lead weights, weight lifting weights, or anything solid, it's dangerous. Only use water. It's heavy, it's free, it's disposable. If you swamp your boat or take a wave, solid items like sand or wieghts will weigh down your boat and sink it further. If you swamp your boat with water ballast on board, the water has no net weight, since it's water floating in water. You can then simply pump it out or in an emergency take a knife to it and let it flow back into the lake.

Do a google search for Straight Line Launch Pad. They make 85 and 150 lbs fat sacs that are $25 and $40 each and come with nylon case, carrying handles and fill/drain ports. If you don't want to buy a pump, you can fill them up with a bucket and a funnel (buy a waterbed connector, a 2' piece of 1" PCV hose, two 1" hose camps, a wide mouth funnel, and find a 5 gallon bucket; connect the water bed connector, hose and funnel with the hose clamps and volia, instant fat sac filler. Take off the waterbed connector and you'll have a beer bong, bonus!). They are light enough that one burly dude or two girly girls can lift it over the side of the boat and dump it out in a few seconds. When not in use, roll 'em up and put 'em away, easy.

 

[m_court15]

Re: diy ballast/fat sack ideas

cool, thank you for all of the responses. I had been using sand in plastic containers. The launch pads look like the best/ cheapest thing for me.

Now what is the best placement for the weight. I'll start a new topic.

Thanks,
Matt