Results... Fill & empty times, pics of wave

The the custom install worked awesome! I timed the fill and empty times and it takes exactly 7 minutes to fill the custom Avy sac with both pumps running. If I am also filling any aux sacs then the time increases. My usual set up is to fill the custom sac completely, fill a 500# sac on the back seat completely, and also a 200# sac in the bow completely. To fill all of these sacs simultaneously it takes about 11 minutes. About the same amount of time to drain them but maybe a little faster. The system will both fill and empty while sitting still in the water or while the boat is moving. I was a little concerned about how well it would drain while under way because of water being forced into the water intake. It seems to slow the draining down a little but not significantly.

The only slight problem I have with the system that I was not anticipating was that the aux fill lines do not have very much pressure when filling. The pumps are so powerful they shoot the water right past the "T" that goes to the aux fill lines. The aux lines get some flow but not very much. I got around this by slightly closing the inline ball valves that go to the custom sac. That way there is not quite as much pressure going to the custom sac and it forces some into the aux fill lines. I just keep them slightly closed (mostly open) all the time now. This allows me to fill/empty the custom sac as well at the 2 aux sacs that I always use at will. Fill/empty time with the valves like this is 11 minutes.

Now I can launch the boat, hit the fill switches, pick up my tow vehicle park guy, and by the time we go wakeless out of the marina the ballast system is full and we are ready to ride. No more wasted 20 minutes once we get out of the marina to fill the ballast. Although the ballast install was rather expensive it gives us 30-40 minutes extra riding time every time out. And to not have the headache of several manual pumps and moving stuff everywhere is worth it alone.

Here are a couple more pics of us surfing. I am 6'3" and well lets just say 250+ to be nice. The wave is large, long, and tons of push even for us big guys.

Also included 2 pics of how the custom sac looks filled up in the compartments. This was filled with air before the install was complete. I keep meaning to get some pictures of it full of water on the lake but keep forgetting. Too much surfing fun to be had!