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I have the 400lb sack (I think) in my ski locker on my 20v, but I'm sure every time I fill that thing up it's half full of air, so I doubt I'm getting the full potential out of the bag. I usually just fill up another bag in the walk way on the floor, but I'd like to get every bit of water in my ski locker bag as possible. Anyone figured out a way to vent that bag so I can release the air out of it?
Does the sac have a threaded fitting, likely capped if there, on the top side? If not, one can be added. From there, all you need is about 6-8 ft of .75 hose, a .75 thru-hull, sac fittings, clamps and a couple of hours time. Vent it over the side just in front of the helm so you will see and hear it venting/overflowing.
First things first, I need to figure out if I have another hole in my bag. I'm pretty sure it only has one for fill and drain. If that's the case, oh well I guess. Not super important to me.
Would it not have to have a vent/overflow line? You might have a pinched hose.
My ballast has a pump to pump water in, and separate pump to pump it out. Both holes are on the aft end of the ballast bag when it's installed in the ski locker. I dont recall if there's another hole to put a vent on the bag, but when its sitting in the boat, the "empty" hole doesn't vent because all the air goes to the top of the bag, and that hole is underneath all the water on the bottom side. To vent I'd need something above the waterline that lets air out. Not sure that the factory bags came with a vent port though, and need to go to my storage unit to check.Quote:
Originally Posted by leetudor
What happens when the bag gets full? Where does the air/water go then?
Water comes out the thru-hull drain opening, but the air above the water line stays in there.Quote:
Originally Posted by leetudor
With a lot of the factory aerator systems, they had a fill pump and a drain pump. when the fill pump "filled" the bag with as much water as it would take, it would push the excess water out through the drain pump and out that thru hull. Yes, my boat had a center bag that had two ports towards the stern. It also had a single port that was at the bow, but a lot of times that port is on the bottom of the bag. What I did was simply flip the bag over so that the lower stern was drain, the upper stern was fill, and the now upper bow was vent.
I ran a fitting to a 3/4" hose and had a vent thru hull near where the drain thru hull was. (actually I ran new 1" line for fill and drain and repurposed the old 3/4" drain line to be the vent, but in your case, just run a new vent).
So shopping list would be:
- 3/4" fly high bag fitting
- 3/4" flow rite elbow connection
- 2 hose clamps
- length of 3/4" hose
- 3/4" thru hull connection
If you can give me a length that you'll need for the 3/4" hose, I should have all the pieces needed to put your vent line together left over from my ballast overhaul project. Let me know if you'd be interested and I could package up everything you need and price it less than what you'd pay for new stuff at wakemakers.