Weight plates as ballast

[Northeast]

I've been keeping an eye on Craigslist with the idea of picking up used weight sets to add ballast. Have others tried this? Is it a good idea? What concerns should I be aware of? Should I just dump this idea and stick with sacks?

[sYsTeM87]

The major thing with plates is the weight. There's no real way to lighten the boat for any reason, or god-forbid the boat takes on water. There is nothing that's gonna stop the plates from weighing less. (ie. Ballast system or just the fact that sacks of water, in water, can obviously weigh a hell of a lot less than plates).


My 2c. Someone can probably simplify this.

[Antoddio]

Even though they are painted, they will rust. You could possibly do a few coats of paint or a rubberized coating. I had a few weights, but found out it was just easier to go with sacs, especially cause i trailer my boat and also go skiing once in awhile.

[flixmaster]

With the price of ballast these days is it worth it to really find weights, go get them, paint them, and then leave them in your boat all the time? Adding weight to your boat when you are driving from the launch to your riding spot? How much gas will you burn with a loaded down boat from your boat launch to your riding spot? BFI bags are the best but I have seen the old style bags for sale dirt cheap.

Use a few of the weights to fine tune if you need 50lbs here or there but go with the bags.

[Wakeboarder3780]

I would totally stick with sacks man. They are pretty cheap if you look for deals, PLUS your boat doesnt sink - priceless. Nobody thinks it will happen to them until it does. Plus the aforementioned leaving the weight at the lake thing. No one wants to constantly tow around 100's of extra weight, plus your trailer simply wasnt designed for it.

Cheers

[Northeast]

Thanks for the input-I appreciate it. I think I'll skip my weight plate idea.

[LFADAM]

Am I the only one that thinks the "lead makes your boat sink to the bottom while fat sacks (water) dont" argument is irrelevant? I mean, if you have this problem, your boat is already completely filled with water (has to be over the sacks for the neutral weight thing to be true), so you have either a totalled wakeboard boat at the bottom of the lake or a totalled wakeboard boat bobbing at the surface. Either way, your boat is F'ed, and they could probably pull your boat out of the bottom of the lake if you really wanted to. I feel like the odds of that happening combined with the fact that youre screwed either way make that argument kind of weak.

[bridges]

LFADAM, he was saying you can empty the fat sacs by draining them back into the lake with the weights ur screwed unless u throw them in the lake in that case u lose ur weights with fat sacs just drain the water out if you start sinking then u still have the fat sacs instead of weights ur throwing in the water...

[LFADAM]

bridges, nah I wasnt referring to that. I was referring more to this. (Not singling out the poster, as ive heard this countless times)

[dav1268]

Another thing to consider if you're not looking to add a ton of weight is sand bags. I'm going to be using them this year cause I'm only adding a 200-400 pounds to the 16ft searay i/o and the space taken up by the bags last year was way too annoying in that tiny boat. These will fit in the compartments. Another thing with sand bags compared to weights is theyre mad cheap (~$3 per 50lb/.5sqft bag) so throwing them over in an emergency doesnt really cost you anything.

Also with the amount of weight I'm adding i can't imagine that trailering is really going to be effected that negatively. I also plan on putting them in duct tapped heavy duty garbage bags to avoid the potential mess. Any other negatives to consider with sand?? Or comparably priced alternatives for stowed weight? Sorry if this is a thread jack...

[STANG KILLA SS]

lol dont get the board started on the sand flame wars again
(i started it last time )

[dav1268]

STANG KILLA SS, Just read the thread you were referring to and i see why you didnt want to go there again, haha. Either way the 1986 16' sea ray i/o is going to be rocking sand this summer.

[hype9107]

i made some 3inch deep molds angled to fit under my seats in the bow, and made some square molds. then i went to some tire stores and got old tire weights they were gonna toss, then went to the city and got some old lead pipes they didnt need. i melted that stuff down and poured it in the molds. i have one about the size of a video cassette and it weighs 25lbs. i have them as big as 60lbs. the big ones are permenate, and i move the small ones around to balance the boat instead of moving ppl. i got 450lbs total of free lead. all it cost was the time to do it.

[Wakeboarder3780]

[scott a]

If you wind up taking on massive amounts of water then yeah, the sacks will be neutrally buoyant and wont cause you to sink down any further than the waterline. But then there's still the issue of you having a boatload of water (ha, oh the puns!) in your boat so you're no longer able to use the motor or any of the electronics because they're now shot. And all your belongings are trashed.

A friend of mine was super anal about this whole thing- used sacs instead of lead in her boat because she didnt wanna sink if they took on a ton of water. She used to go out a lot in the Delta where lots of big yachts tend to just plow along and throw huge wakes which can be difficult to navigate at times. Unfortunately, she got caught up in a bad spot and hit a wake wrong and took on tons of water and her boat sank to a foot or so below water level (sacs are now floating, obviously). Then another big boat drove by and the wakes somehow pushed the tower over and then the speaker box on the tower filled up with water and sank due to the weight. So now the boat's upside down and they couldn't flip it over. But hey, at least the boat didn't sink to the bottom, right? So they towed it in and an insurance guy came out and said it was totaled.

I don't mean to advocate using massive amounts of lead over sacs, but if you wind up taking on enough water that the sacs are floating then you're in for some pretty heavy bills no matter what.

I will say that having small amounts of lead weight handy is great. I keep my coated lead bars (4 x 60lbs each) in my friend's Nautique and we just move those from side to side to even out the wake. Much nicer than asking people to play musical chairs every time someone begins their set. Can't exactly do this with sacs.

[LFADAM]

[Wakeboarder3780]

You're still going to have a lot higher bills when that boat sinks to the bottom. You'll also be guaranteed less trouble with your insurance company (even though they probably wouldn't accuse you of throwing lead weights in it unless they found them).

I'm not saying lead isn't handy. Obviously being more dense, there are added benefits to it. I was just questioning LFADAM because he made it sound there was no reason to use water ballast instead of lead and I disagree with that opinion. It's still going to cost you less if your boat doesn't sink to the bottom. The amount less it would cost you is high enough to make me stick to ballast, but oh am I tempted to move to the dark side

[Blindside_137]

Wakeboarder3780, I don't think he was saying there is no reason to use water instead of lead. Just that if you're boat "sinks" whether that is to the bottom of the lake, or 6 inches below the surface... you're Effed.

but yes I imagine it would be a much bigger PITA to get a boat at the bottom of a lake.

I'm sure everyone would agree that having 100 or so pounds of lead can be convenient to move around quickly to even out the wake. But when it comes down to it, its much safer and easier to load up with 2k+ of water ballast.

[hype9107]

or just put both in, i have 450 lbs in lead in the boat two 600 lb sacks and a 450 lb sack. even when the water is empty the wake still has a great shape