Ballast

[Rusty Razor]

I am trying to understand the ballast system. The way i understand it is as follows. Boat is stationary, pull down levers and wait few minutes to fill main ballast tank. Flip switches to fill port and starboard tanks. Here’s my question. The gauge says tanks are full but the bags are not even a quarter full, so are these bags in the back additional?, and if so how full should they be?

[Sbentz101]

Gauge for ballast is only going to read the hard tanks.  Once those are full (which I like to verify by placing my right hand over the driver side and feeling vent hole. Air will be blowing out if it's still filling and the air will stop when tanks are full) then close levers and start pumping in ballast for bags.  You'll know the bags are full when they start to overflow out the holes on the back of the boat for each side.  

[Rusty Razor]

Thanks for response and excuse my ignorance. The guy i bought from did not give me a rundown on the system. So there are three hard tanks. Gauges are for the port and starboard tanks. Once these are full the rear bags start filling and you know they are full when they overflow.

 

[Sbentz101]

No worries, that's what this forum is for! There are 2 hard tanks and 3 bags. Dont start filling bags until tanks are full...and make sure to close tank levers before filling bags. And yes, gauges are will read the tanks...which when draining pulls the water from bags into the tanks so when draining and it shows gauges empty on both sides than you know bags are empty also.  

[Rusty Razor]

Ahhh. I finally understand how my boat works. Thanks