fat sac in 1998 seadoo challenger 1800
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Spimothy Leary
Well-Known Member
:lol:
lol, you'd only need one fatty like that to get your wake on... but seriously...
but what he's talking about is ballast, its designed for you to get more wake.
fyi, a fat sac is basically a ballast weight which is designed to be tucked into the center storage and back rear engine bay also, they claim to improve the wake, more wake = more fun... and from personal experience, ballast is a great cheap mod for the wake boarder, and you can remove it for a beginner, add it for the experienced rider.
so like when my daughter was learning how to board,we'd run back to the dock, dump the weight, then pull her around, and when my cousin was getting ready to freak, we'd run back and drop some weight back in.
i've always thought they (fat sac's) were dammed expensive, so, when we added ballast up north to the ski boats, we always used the tube sand out of the mustang, (rear wheel drive fishtails in rain, add ballast, less slip) it was much cheaper... costs about 10% of what a fat sac socts... looks like this, and I think home depot sells them still or a local distributor that sells concrete and stuff to contractors should have them and many car/truck mod shops have a few bags for sale, too expensive to buy online cuz shipping is 4X the cost of the product, so if you can do a local pickup, its pretty dam cheap.
so just a thought, ballast is good but fat sac's are expensive
you can save about $100+ and get the same result, AND with tube sand you can add/delete ballast to get just the right amount for maximum wake...
as far as setup is concerned, each boat is different, so i'd only be giving random advice, i'd just "get" the weight, take the boat out and experiment for a few runs and move the weights around until you start seeing a positive result, if not, free bump and somebody with the same boat can chime in on what worked well for them
hope this helps
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Spimothy Leary
Well-Known Member
i'm 99% sure yes, i've only actually seen one in person (and that was on a piper,not a boat) and i remember the guy had a little 12v pump that plugged into a ciggy lighter to fill, empty, it was basically the water equivalent to the little doo hickey's that fill air into your tube's so you can add/subtract on the fly.
i remember looking into pricing and said,,, "holy crap !, they're like $150 !!!"
anyway, alot depends on how u wake and how hard, we used to move ballast from port to the goofy side when we were practicing certain tricks left or right, but most of the time it was center/rear and port heavy, no many of us were goofy side., so in general we did center ballast and the port side so the bigger wake was on the left side, smaller wake on the right so riders could go big or go small, we didnt' have any right side riders so we never needed to reverse the ballast, just took some out for beginners and added to the port side for advanced.
all this is the reason why portable ballast is necessary.
before we started using sand packs we we using water jugs, anti freeze jugs, hex weights, anything thats small and heavy and could be either strapped in, or wedged in between a couple of things so they wouldn't be sliding around.
imo, go tubesand, its so much cheaper but if you have money to burn, get 3-4 fat sacks, and a tsunami pump, and your good to go....
weight the center, port, rear first, do a couple of runs, and try to experiment with different setups, slide out of the port and put more rear, take out of center and slide toport, etc, and you'll find one that fits well for most of your riding,
oh, don't forget to watch your weight, adding ballast, then 3-4 passengers and your at max load pretty quick, other riders make great ballast and as long as you don't need to feed them, they come cheap !
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El Toro 33809
Well-Known Member
Check for the Seadoo X20. It comes with a tower and fat sacs. Pro ski boats will be better, but if you already have the challenger, they will help.
parrothd
Active Member
I have this one(I think) with the pump about 300lb of ballast, does improve the wake, makes it a little bigger and stiffer, but not much. Once you add the ballast, the tower and 3-4 people I have a hard time planning out. I even have aftermarket props setup for low end hole shot...
These boats are good beginner boats, but they just don't have the power/wake. I made the mistake of wakeboarding behind a real wakeboard boat with 1800lbs of ballast this summer, hence my challenger is for sale and I've been looking at moombas..
You may have better luck, I put this one in the center between the captains seats, maybe if you experiment more you may have better results, you can walk on them, and the pumps fill/empty the bag in a few minutes...
http://www.bartswatersports.com/catalog/Wakeboard_Weighting_Systems/Pro_X_Series_Tube_Sac/index.asp
http://www.bartswatersports.com/cat...g_Systems/Pro_X_Series_Tsunami_Pump/index.asp
These boats are good beginner boats, but they just don't have the power/wake. I made the mistake of wakeboarding behind a real wakeboard boat with 1800lbs of ballast this summer, hence my challenger is for sale and I've been looking at moombas..
You may have better luck, I put this one in the center between the captains seats, maybe if you experiment more you may have better results, you can walk on them, and the pumps fill/empty the bag in a few minutes...
http://www.bartswatersports.com/catalog/Wakeboard_Weighting_Systems/Pro_X_Series_Tube_Sac/index.asp
http://www.bartswatersports.com/cat...g_Systems/Pro_X_Series_Tsunami_Pump/index.asp
hard time planning out wow? how much difference did aftermarket props make? and which ones did you get, i dont think i will be going and getting a larger boat for wakeboarding so this is going to have to do. how do you like the tower you have on your boat would you put the same tower on again or a different one? there are sales on that tower now.
John in Valley Forge
New Member
No, sometimes they are filled with beer and chips.........LOL....
If you filled them with gas you could probably make the Miami to Bimini run round trip.
parrothd
Active Member
For the prop I've forgotten, you can search by my userid and find them, call Dave at impros which is where I got them, he'll give you the best recommendation.
That tower barely fits the challenger, where I mounted it in the front I think the boat is too narrow, maybe if you move the tower aft a few inches the install would be easier.
It looks cool, however you can't add a ski holder where the factory wake boards holders are or anywhere on the sides. Since we Ski I had to purchase a ski holder from them and mount it on the side tube, which works, but not ideal.
The best thing is the HUGE canopy, it can be a pain to get on/off but if it's a hot day it shades the entire boat..Everyone loves it..
If you get the package the bullet speakers sit to low on the tower and get in the way, I ended up taking the speakers from the bullets and replacing the boat factory speakers...
That tower barely fits the challenger, where I mounted it in the front I think the boat is too narrow, maybe if you move the tower aft a few inches the install would be easier.
It looks cool, however you can't add a ski holder where the factory wake boards holders are or anywhere on the sides. Since we Ski I had to purchase a ski holder from them and mount it on the side tube, which works, but not ideal.
The best thing is the HUGE canopy, it can be a pain to get on/off but if it's a hot day it shades the entire boat..Everyone loves it..
If you get the package the bullet speakers sit to low on the tower and get in the way, I ended up taking the speakers from the bullets and replacing the boat factory speakers...
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