2002 X30 Fat Sac Setup

[brand1m]

I have a question about the fat sac setup for this boat. We just got this boat and the previous owner removed the factory hard tanks and replaced them with the 2 750 fat sacs. He purchased the 1,000 lb sac for the bow but hadn't connected it yet.

We want to connect that up so we can run all of this off switches rather than having a separate pump. He claimed that it was VERY slow to fill the two rear sacs now though. He said it took nearly two hours to fill with the factory pumps.

Here are my questions:
Aren't the factory pumps the Jabscos, and if so, is there any way that it could take that long to fill? If so, what do we need to do to improve the speed (As far as I know the tubing and pumps are stock).
For the bow ballast, he was planning to disconnect the center ballast and run the pipe up to the bow. We'll probably have to get help doing that part but does that sound about right?

[cwarndahl]

I'm not sure on the 02 but my 01 has these 100 gph pumps that are so slow I'm swapping them out with some 800 gph from wake makers.com. I heard they switch to the puppy pumps in some 02 but fully in 03

[brand1m]

That would certainly get it closer to the 2 hours he was claiming it took to fill! We'll have to take a look and see what it has on it.

Anyone else feel free to chime in.

[prostar205]

Brand1M -

You're not going to like the answer to your question but the answer is very easy. REMOVE THE BALLAST MANIFOLD in your boat. I removed mine and drilled 2 additional holes to feed each of the Ballast Puppy pumps directly. I fill and drain thru the bottom - no valves, no manifold. I can fill 2 - 750s in the rear and a 500 lb sac in the front at the same time in 7-10 minutes TOPS. Draining is even faster. The other thing to look into is polishing the insides of your ballast pumps.

Take a look at the thread I put together outlining the changes I made to my '02 X-30's ballast system.

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=39345

[Jeff d]

I have the same hull but since mine's a MariStar I had no factory ballast system. I have the 750s in the rear but went with cheap 800 GPH aerator pumps and individual 3/4" intakes. Even that fills in 11-12 mins and drains in about 10-11 mins though.

I don't regret going with the aerator pumps but I do wish I had spent a little more to get the 1,100 GPH aerators which would have put me in the 8-9 minute range. I will wait for them to fail before swapping them out for the faster pumps.

[Jeff d]

I'm not quite understanding you on the center tank thing. Are you planning on eliminating it? Or just running the bow sac from the overflow?

[brand1m]

Jeff_d

I was thinking of eliminating it but have since been advised against that. Trying to confirm with wakemakers on that.

If thats the case, then I may end up with a tsunami for the bow sac. Does running something like that off the overflow work pretty well?

[brand1m]

prostar205

Just read that entire thread. I'm not sure I have the stones to go drilling into my boat. If I can summarize this is what you did:

1. Dropped the manifold
2. Ran sources for each bag (1.25 in. thru-hulls)
3. Changed out the pumps (used green impellers)
4. Brass elbows on the connections
5. Capped the side holes since you are using the bottom now. (I'm guessing that's what the picture shows)

A couple of questions:
1. Did you consider filling the bow sac off the overflow off of the center sac? Why or why not?
2. When you empty, you are pumping out the bottom of the boat - am I understanding that correctly?
3. After having and using it now, anything you'd do differently?
4. I saw in that thread, you added an attitude plate. How do you like it and what is your control setup like for it?

[Jeff d]

Jeff_d

I was thinking of eliminating it but have since been advised against that. Trying to confirm with wakemakers on that.

If that's the case, then I may end up with a tsunami for the bow sac. Does running something like that off the overflow work pretty well?

There are about a hundred ways you could set it up obviously.

I wouldn't do the Tsunami 1200s due to their proprietary 1 1/8" intake. I'd get the Rule 1100s with the standard 3/4" NPT intake. Performance is approximately the same but the rule will require fewer adapters to make work.

Individual 3/4" intakes should be plenty for this. I think MasterCraft uses 1.25" just so that they could have the same thru hulls for engine and ballast system raw water intakes. Once you drill one hole in your hull and join the club the rest are no big deal. 3 or 4 1.25" intakes would be serious overkill.

Instead of drilling new holes you could also possibly do a better job at making a manifold than MasterCraft did. The pics I've seen of it make it look like a joke. You could probably do better with PVC or that black pipe that wakemakers sells.

I would keep the center tank especially if you want to be able to surf too.

FWIW here are some older revision pics of my ballast install:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114167855439766620424/Ballast?authkey=Gv1sRgCISU_smm9bKfpwE

My drain pumps required some revision so they're not as shown in the pics anymore. Also I don't have the quick disconnects on the intake pumps anymore. That was all I had at the moment but I replaced them with barbed fittings.