I am contemplating putting a ballast system into my 226. I keep hearing people recommend ballast bags rather than a full on ballast system. Has anyone here installed a ballast system on their boat? Thanks
ballast is for creating a wave and there is no better way than to to use weight displacement for that. given that, the pro wave boats have stock of about 2500-3000+ lbs of fillable ballast from the factory. enthusiast and pro teams add even more ballast taking up all the room available in storage bins for extra bags and lead weight. on average these top wave boats are displacing over 12,000 lbs of weight (including boat and people) to get the power, size, length, and height of wave they crave. given that, if you are looking to have a wave that a pro or enthusiast would die for, you need to upgrade to a wave boat and add all those aftermarket ballast systems and bags of lead weight to get in their playing field. for the factory stock ridable waves, you could start with just the add-on wedges that will form a useable wave right away. adding any amount of ballast into that boat would be worlds better than without the weight. however, if your boat doesn't have space on either side of the engine for the rear port and starboard ballast points, then you are going to have a massive bag on top where people are taking up space to walk around or sit. bags range in all sorts of shapes and sizes to meet any need. they can hook up to your existing factory fill/drain system or you can use a drop in the water pump and hose to fill/drain the bags (think like a riding tube you use an air pump to fill but this is a bag for water with a water pump that you drop in the lake). the traditional spots for hard sided ballast tanks are up front under the deck in the "ski storage spot", and by the sides of the engine for port and starboard. typically 40-80 gallon tanks for stock boats. then we have the plug and play systems (like on malibu, centurian, supra, moomba, tige, etc) that add on to the factory system and uses the storage bins under the seats for the extra soft sided bags. on my r7 surf, i have 2 tanks in the rear port and starboard locations but not all the way at the stern where they have the most effect. they are a few feet forward. i can't get official numbers from cobalt as none of them have been able to find or were willing to find out tech details. based on size of tanks, i calculate the stock ballast of the r7 surf to be about ~1330 lbs. the r5 has an additional tank in the center ski locker and is said to have 2100 lbs of ballast stock. both boats total weight would be in the 7800-8000 lbs total weight displacement range... about 4000 lbs short of the pro waves. now remember, ballast isn't the only thing forming that wave. the pro wave boats still rely on listing the boat to the side and pitching the bow up to form the wave. on the cobalt surf boats, that's where the drive trim and the surf tabs come into play. the factory surf left or surf right setting has my trim about 60% up and opposite side tab pretty much all the way down. i don't have a gauge for how much tab is used. the older wave boats just filled the bags on one side and have all the people sit on that side to create the list and pitch. i probably gave too much info but hope that helps...
on my r7 surf, i have 2 tanks in the rear port and starboard locations but not all the way at the stern where they have the most effect. they are a few feet forward. i can't get official numbers from cobalt as none of them have been able to find or were willing to find out tech details. based on size of tanks, i calculate the stock ballast of the r7 surf to be about ~1330 lbs. the r5 has an additional tank in the center ski locker and is said to have 2100 lbs of ballast stock. both boats total weight would be in the 7800-8000 lbs total weight displacement range... about 4000 lbs short of the pro waves. [/QUOTE] I Have the R5 Surf, but have recently purchased external fat sacks to add even more weight. If I have 7 or so people in the boat, and I fill the factory ballast tanks, I get plenty of weight without the fat sacks. I have only used the fat sacks when I have only 2 or 3 people and we want to wake Surf. I cheat though and strap the 750lb fat sack BEHIND the rear seat, allowing free seating anywhere in the boat, plus it moves the fat sack to the very back. I'm a little nervous about the stress this is placing on the rear backrest, but I use three straps to distribute the load, making sure two of them are right next to the support rods. How is the R7? I love the size but curious about the wake it generates?
I love the size of the boat too... we don't have any extra ballast on ours so the wave is like in many of the youtube vids out there. it's ridable and normal looking wave but it's short and very close to the swim deck. i would like to have it further back and will be trying different tab and trim settings to see if i can shape it a little. we have a hybrid so i think we can't expect it to compete head to head with a true surf boat. I did contact wavemakers and a few other places that supply extra ballast systems but none of them have any knowledge of the cobalts. so i would need to find any space available myself and measure. the challenge here is even if you find some space (ie: ontop of the existing hard tanks) can they work there without damaging anything (other pipes, wires, or pushing too much on the bulkheads and other structural members) or getting damage (engine heat is right next to it). i'm thinking lead bags may make more sense for me in the engine bay next to the existing hard tanks.. I think the safest thing to do is what you did with the bag on top and strapping it down. with it strapped on the rear seats do you have to climb over it to get to the swim deck?
Thanks for the post! When I was looking for extra ballast, I never found anyone with knowledge of cobalt eithet. I don't remember where the "walkthru" for the swim deck is for the R7, but mine is on the driver side. So the fat sack sits in the middle of the seat and there is still about 12-18" on either side so it doesn't block the walkthru. I bought a 750lb and 2 400lbs but honestly I've only filled the 750 and put on the back. The wave was great. One of these days I'll fill all of them and see if it gets any better. Probably put one 400 in the front and one on the Surf side.
Hello I'm just replying with some info and also looking for some help. I find the R7 definitely needs extra on top of factory ballast with only 3 people in the boat, which frankly for such an expensive piece of kit is not really good enough. That aside, with 3 adults we get a great wave with 800lbs across the back seat, and 250lbs in the ski locker. However I'm not prepared to accept the loss of seats or space in the boat so I'm working on a plan this season to add 400kg of lead (which takes up very little space) and 400lbs of ballast to the engine room, and I'm going to double up to 500lbs in the ski locker and 250lbs up front under the seats. If you're interested I'll let you know how it goes and how I did it.
Hi Jem, would love to hear your final setup and experience you made. How much did you have to add and where did you put it?
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