Davpmars Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 I'm curious to know how the stock ballast system works on 2013 - 2016 MB Tomcats. How do they fill in 60 seconds while every other manufacturer takes several minutes? From what I understand, 2 large openings in the back of the boat allow water to enter when you are sitting still. Basically gradually sinking your boat until the hard ballast tanks are full. Is that correct? Anyone have a diagram? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ship Faced Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Looks like this: Flip a switch. These open. Er... valves behind these shiny bezels open... Water enters from rear via fire hose size port. Vents in front under windshield allow displaced air to escape. Flip switch to close, go do your thing - 60 Seconds to fat and happy. Baffles keep partially filled tanks pretty evenly distributed. To drain, accelerate to a speed where water clears the transom - flip same switch. Water exits from whence it came. Air enters from vents under windshield to equalize pressure. 60-80 seconds to empty. Most everybody else pumps through a garden hose. MB fills through a port the size of a fire hose without a pump. Witchcraft dispelled. tjessen21 and BOOMERANG 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davpmars Posted January 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Thanks "Ship Faced" This is very helpful. It also brings up a couple more questions... I assume you have the ability to fill 1 side and not the other if you wanted to weight one side for surfing (without a surf system) correct? Have you ever heard of anyone having mechanical problems with the valves that open and close? Water leaking, sticking open/closed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slavoise Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 Yes, you can load choose how much water you want on each side. The valves have been know to break... Not a huge issue, you can use an Allen key to open/close. The valves are also relatively cheap, I keep an extra one in my boat storage just in case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrangeTJ Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 A couple of things to add: 1. The system empties just as fast as it fills, but you have to be moving at a good clip to get it to drain as the water has to go back out through those same holes. 2. If you have the factory "plug and play" additional ballast, like I do in my F22, the hard tanks have to be filled first, the valves for them closed, then the PNP bags in the rear lockers are filled via thru-hull pumps. That takes several minutes, just like any other boat's normal ballast system. It still empties fast, though, as they drain straight down through big holes directly into the hard tanks and out the back. The system isn't perfect, I guess, but it is fast and it does let you get a LOT of weight on board in a short time. In the case of my F22, 2800 lbs in the hard tanks in about a minute and another 2200 in PNP bags in 8 - 10 minutes more. We actually find our surf wave to be best with the (1100 each) PNP bags about 3/4 full, so more like 6-7 minutes in actual practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clovenburg Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 Several people have changed valves and so have I. We are installing the Valterra valve EV3000 I think is the number. They are bullet prof in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottdpfister Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 Visual help.....not my video Ship Faced 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slavoise Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 Visual help.....not my video Must have had a diesel to pull that loaded boat out of the water lol. oldsmobiledriver 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottdpfister Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 I did it one time this summer. Drained the tanks and forgot to flip the switches, it does fill fast. Puts a nice show on the ramp, F150 3.5 Eco did it! Ship Faced 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slavoise Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 Worse is when your kids hit the pnp switches and you don't realize it until your boat is riding sideways for some weird reason... Dimiz4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duster Posted January 12, 2017 Report Share Posted January 12, 2017 +1 on kids bumping into the switches never no till you are listed and tank is full I am going to be wiring a switch by the shifter there will be no power to the gates until that switch is on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ship Faced Posted January 13, 2017 Report Share Posted January 13, 2017 Worse is when your kids hit the pnp switches and you don't realize it until your boat is riding sideways for some weird reason... I had that happen once. Couldn't figure out why the wave went to crap shortly after 'up' with a buddy surfing. Gremlin decided to 'help' me and opened the surf side tank. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ufophilroth6 Posted June 20, 2021 Report Share Posted June 20, 2021 On 1/11/2017 at 8:05 PM, Davpmars said: I'm curious to know how the stock ballast system works on 2013 - 2016 MB Tomcats. How do they fill in 60 seconds while every other manufacturer takes several minutes? From what I understand, 2 large openings in the back of the boat allow water to enter when you are sitting still. Basically gradually sinking your boat until the hard ballast tanks are full. Is that correct? Anyone have a diagram? I have a 2015 mb tom Kat 24 factory upgraded with a 2020 surf system and ballast when I bought it last year. I am having trouble draining my port bag ballast. I have trouble sometimes after I drain it and it appears the internal ballast start refilling after I close it. Now I can’t get the port side bag ballast to fully drain. Any ideas how to fix this? Could it be that the 2 drains in the the rear need to be cleaned. The boat is always in water maybe it has to be cleaned from algae build up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mbinbend Posted June 8, 2023 Report Share Posted June 8, 2023 Does anyone know if the valves or the big levers to open and close the valves should be greased? It is a challenge to open or close them. Or is it just standard that they take a two arm force to get them to open or close? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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