2 side sacks or 1 in the back?

STPHNSN23 · Guest

hey guys.

i'm looking to pick up some weight for my '92 ski nautique. as of now, we carry no ballast besides body weight. i cannot decide whether one 600 lb. sack in the back would be best, or 2 350 lb. sacks, one on either side of the engine would be better.

is there an advantage to having the weight further towards the front of the boat with the twin sack setup or would i not notice a difference?

i also would like some suggestions regarding the brand of sacks to purchase.

ohsix · Posted: May 06, 2004 1:58 pm Post subject:

I run a 550 in the front and a 700 in the back. I don't think we ever fill them to their max capacity though. Depending on your boat you're probably going to need some counter weight in the front to keep the bow down.

If those are your only two options I would say go with the two sidesacks. It's more weight and more evenly distributed.

If you have an open bow I would put a bigger sack in the back and a little smaller one in the front. Most people say 60% of weight in the back and 40% in the front is a good place to start.

I have a 550 lb. air boom and a 700 lb. get high sports sack. The Get High Sports sack was pretty cheap on ebay and I've definitely been pleased with it. The Air Boom was given to me and it's a little more of a hassle to fill because it has a cover.

Bruky · Guest

we run 2 phat buddies on each side of the engine, and one full sized phat sack in the front that weighs in at around 500 lbs. its a common setup and works well. they are fairly easy to fill, and are of great quality. when you are using bag ballast though, as i have said many-a-time, keep some lead headz in handy to make sure that the wake is even on both sides! you dont want a lop sided wake because people and bags can only be so precise.

BIZ · Outlaw Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Posts: 184 City: Dallas

If you are only going to get two bags consider the tube sacs by fly high, they are not as tall as the 20 x 50 fat sacs so you can walk around a little easier in your boat. they are 62 x 12 x 9 inches. I have a Sport Nautique and it works out well. A big plus is you can move them for surfing fairly easily. I think they hold 350-375 pounds. I also put weight in my ski locker. I used the 20 x 50 sacs for the last couple of years but i get as good a wake with the tube sacs and they are a lot more user friendly! You can also get some custom made by boardersparadise.com they are about as expensive as a regular sacs and are custom made to your measurements.

jryoung · Ladies Man Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 7664 City: Man Jose

Go with both (all three sacks), then you can really tell what is best, and you can tweak them a bit.

absolutofft · Outlaw Joined: 12 Oct 2003 Posts: 162 City: Langley

I would recommend getting the full size sacs. Once you see the difference weight makes to your wake you will want to add more Smile

I would say get the full sized sacs and put them on either side of your engine, then when you want more weight get another sac and put it behind the engine, or take out the back seat and put a fat seat in instead.

Jet · Posted: May 10, 2004 7:08 pm Post subject:

STPHNSN23 Dont buy a bag that weighs less that 500 lbs. Your waisting your money. I have 2-550's beside the eng (which is great size for beg/inter riders) and one up front. If you want to go big you need 3-bags 500 or more, 2- on the side and 1- up front. I have 2-550's for sale under the classifides if you need some. Good luck..Jet

Wake_Turner · Outlaw Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 244 City: kelowna

dude, whatever you do make sure that the wieght is evenly distributed, the longer your boat is the more u can load the back. general rule of thumb is 21' and under you should distribute the weight 60% back - 40% front. If the boat is longer than 21' you can get as high as a 70/30 ratio. I would not recommend that you only put weight in the back, because it defeats the purpose of the hull shape. these boat companies pay their engineers thousands of dollars to develop these specific hulls that give the wake a certain shape and characteristc. when you just load the back it takes the boat and lifts the front. when this happenes it changes how the water flows through the hull and basically it ends up like you are pushing a sheet of plywood through the wake. this also makes the boat incredibly hard to get on plane and going over rollers and stuff the boat will bounce like crazy. so basically spend that little extra cash and invest in a few extra bags and weight down the whole boat. the wake is caused by the displacement of water and so if you sink the whole boat into the water as opposed to just the back then you are displacing the greatest amount of water thus the largest wake possible given the amount of weight added.