Ballast System - After market!?

[Doug]

I know there are alot of threads on doing your own ballast system, people claiming there are people coming out with ballast systems you can purchase, etc., etc. It seems that this is something that should be persued by more people? After all, the tower speaker market has tons of people making aluminum canisters and fiberglass enclosures. I'm suprised that the people in the pump industry aren't jumping on the bandwagon and coming up with better pumps for this nich market.

Anyway, I'm considering making a product similar to something done by Wayne of Launch Pad. There is an article in LevelX showing an aluminum manifold with a bunch of aerator pumps. I'm a little curious to know if anyone has fabbed something similar to this? I'm at the forfront of R&Ding product and concept. I've talked with Flow-rite about there valve used for shutting off the supply from the water inlet on the under side of the boat. Has anyone used an electric valve for this type of application?

My present concept is a "three bag fill" manifold. You will be able to fill bags individually. and additional one or two pumps (in parallel) will empty the bags drawing the water through the fill pumps. There will be an electric valve on the input to the manifold to shut off water supply and a valve on the output of the empty valve(s) to prevent water from flowing out of the manifold (when not emptying).

I am also considering having electronic control. Since you will be driving while filling, going at a speed over 20MPH may not be good for blasting water into the manifold to the sacks. With electronic control I can sample the PP speed sensor and shut the inlet valve off at above 20MPH. I may also be able to individually trim (empty) sacks by preventing water from being drawn out of certain bags by PWMing the fill motors with the electronic controls.

Also, is 3/4" NPT on the inlet/outlet sufficient for fill/empty?

I know this a long one, but I'm trying to tap into this large knowledge base to increase my learning curve.

Doug G

[jim Bogden]

you could get away with 3/4 from the manifold to the sacks but the rest of the system I would use 1". Quick fill times is the key to a good system. I made my manifold out of pvc

[mkcarte2]

Here is a guy making some ballast systems. Check his site out.

http://www.make-a-wake.com/pages/875814/index.htm