Ballast Pump Mounting

[Inled]

Wake makers. They advertise a 1" screw fitting for their 1-1/2" bag fitting, so I measured my original bag threads to roughly 1" and thought I was good. When I actually went to hook them up, it turned out the fitting is larger than the advertised 1". I had to wait for a new Wakemaker bag to arrive...about 3 days free shipping. The big fitting does neck slightly where the threads are...about 1-1/4" maybe, but still pretty large.

To me the scariest part is drilling the 1-7/8" holes through the boat bottom to install the thru-hulls. If anything breaks off prior to the pumps, the boat is going down fast! At least if anything breaks after the pumps you can always turn them off to stop the flow.

You don’t have valves on the through hulls?

[CJD]

I do. But try to imagine how fast the water will be entering through a 1-1/2" hole. If I don't catch it right away, it may not be possible to get to the the valve at the bottom of the bilge, buried under the line locker, beneath hoses and wires, and blocked by 1280# bags. I would be better off stuffing my swim suite into the intake from the outside of the boat...and that is assuming I can figure out which of the 3 thru-hulls broke.

I don't plan to lose sleep over it, but honestly, if one of the thru-hulls breaks before the pump, chances are the boat is going down. We're always swimming distance from the house, and THAT is why it was so annoying with the OEM pumps. When we were finished surfing, with the house only a few hundred yards away, we would have to drive around for 30 more minutes waiting for the bags to drain before we could lift the boat. It's worth the infinitesimal risk of a break in a thru-hull to speed the fill/empty times by a factor of 5.

[MJHKnox]

I don't plan to lose sleep over it.

Good call.

Put a few SS clamps on it. Check the fittings at the beginning of the year and maybe during the year if you are fixing something else in there. Call it good.

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[Mischief IV]

I’d worry more when the frat boys in daddy’s new boat decide to pass by your boat rather close while you’re sitting idle, not paying attention and fully loaded.

These older boats sit lower than the new barges and they don’t really seem to care. Anyway, take it from experience, it ain’t fun.

[CJD]

I’d worry more when the frat boys in daddy’s new boat decide to pass by your boat rather close while you’re sitting idle, not paying attention and fully loaded.

These older boats sit lower than the new barges and they don’t really seem to care. Anyway, take it from experience, it ain’t fun.

I hear ya'! I'll be out working on the dock and those little rats will run back and forth, surfing 100 feet from the floating dock. 3000 acres of lake and they'll run right down the line of docks within 100 feet. When we're out surfing, it becomes tit for tat. If they come to close, I make it my mission to destroy their surfing until they get the point. The lake is big enough for everyone if they have a little courtesy.

[CJD]

Get this! I have not been able to time the pumps down to prevent over-filling the bags. When I hit the low stop on the timer and still could not stop the pumps, I decided to time the fill/empty times. Recall these are new 1280lb sacs. 2 min 50sec fill time. 3 min 30sec empty.

These pumps with 1-1/2" piping are screamers!!

[Mischief IV]

Holy frijoles! Under 3 minutes? Good for you!
I can’t even get my life jacket on in 3 minutes.
Big difference in what I recall you saying prior times were.

[CJD]

That's what amazes me...It's not very often in life things work better than advertised. Maybe I should look into being a volunteer fireman on the lake, LOL?!?

[MJHKnox]

Wow. 3 mins on a 1100# bag


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