How much is too much ballast???

[boneil]

Adding weight to my boat for the first time.  Didn't find anything in archives on how much is really too much...

I have used the wake the CG calculator from freak.  UNBELIEVABLE!!!!  Freak you saved me from what the MCraft fat sack dealer told me to do... blatently wrong.  Found this page after purchase  of the sacs.   You are a genius!!!  Although I seem to remeber someone stayed in all weekend to put together.  If I messed up giving props pls. let me know.

I have a delimma though... How much weight is too much?  After Optimizing the weight with full sacks per freaks calc.  I have created this table for number of riders and ballast.

 People     PWeight     Ballast     Total
 2     350     1,311     1,661
 3     525     1,311     1,836
 4     700     1,311     2,011
 5     875     1,311     2,186
 6     1,050     1,311     2,361
 7     1,225     1,311     2,536
 8     1,400     1,311     2,711
Average People weight is 175 per person

I've also heard that sacks not filled up can slosh around a bit.

I always struggle to find riders, but now 7 people want to ride tomorrow.   Is this too much weight???2,500Lbs..  I bought the sacs at a boat show in Dallas... good deal!  MC Boat Seller guy warned me that too much weight in Toyota would not be good for the engine... plus the low end torque on a toy can't handle alot of weight.  Also long term stress would hurt the engine.  Funny this guy too respected me for my love of Epic... but personally I had not planned to go over the 2,000Lb. on the first run and prob ever. 

Would appreciate your advice and experience.  Wake is already great without the weight and would hate to mess something up for what I expect will be an extra couple of inches added to the wake.

As always.... I love you man!!  Every Damn one of you!!!

Brian

[boneil]

PS  If I'm an idiott and you just pick this up on Saturday.  Pls.! SMS text or call me at 214.417.7821.  I have a new board and ballast and haven't been able to hit the water in 2 weeks.

[festivus]

dude, I don't get into that whips, chains, and handcuff stuff.  SMS scares me. 

[boneil]

You should try it... except for the handcuffs... Can't key the numbers during

OK with folks traveling to find smooth water.....  no such thing in Dallas... I see things slowed down so I'll answer my own question.  2300 on relatively calm water wasn't a prob.  Worked our way up to it. 

However, when I calculated the Center of Gravity for what was actually in the boat including people I should have had a minus 5 inches... and at idle speed the bow was plowing, but at skiing speed the bow seemed to rise too high.  Wake was huge and steep.   Funny with 6 in the boat, full tank of gas and 150 in the bow the wake was great.. smooth, large and rampy.  Which i guess is my preference for when I'm out practicing how to fall.  The steeper slopes with ballast increased them.  Anyone know of a sight to diagnose wakes and how you should adjust your take-off?

[highflyn]

Boneil,
Last memorial day i took a little trip with Cal (aka Village idiot). He let me throw his two side sacks into my boat. Here's how I figured the numbers came out.
One side sack in bow  350lbs
on side sack in trunk   350lbs
internal ballast           700lbs
anywhere from 6 to 8 normal size folks. 850 to 1200lbs
total weight came to around 2250 to 2600 lbs
The wake was SWEEEET, unfortunatly so was my hangover so I was never able to adjust to the killer wake.
Good luck
Terry

[toyotafreak]

Brian, thanks for the props, and more importantly, for being the first ever to use the calculator. Thing with the calculator is that the sheet's 'empty' CG is a swag, and it sounds very likely that your desired/target CG might change with weight. Witha buttload of weight, I think the v-drives get very sensitive to fore/aft distribution (hence the first, private revision of the calculator). I remember being able to tell the difference in porpoising (nose up/down oscillation) and ride attitude with just two Fat Buddies in the v-drive compartments. Also, I can tel a definite difference between empty and empty plus 160 pounds of metal under the bow cushion.

Big thing with the sheet is that you'll be able to guess how much a certain arrangement has moved your CG, and then with some experience, you'll see where you hull likes to ride at a given weight.

I had a total of about 3K in my S22 last year including water, lead and flesh. Big wake, pretty tough to get on plane. Right on the edge with that arrangement. Sometimes with just 700 in the walkway, 700 in the tunk and four adults in the cockpit, the boat has a problem with nose-high trim. The easy fix is to have someone sit in the bow area.


Please just keep notes (like in the spreadsheet) about what you tried and how it went. Empirical data like that will surely help you in the future.