Ballast help - 2018 242x

[Shady28]

Boat in the water, seacock valve open (after dealer told me it was and it wasn’t.....), ballasts working, I still have about 1/2 water in my ski locker.

The issue probably stems from reading a post on the forum about the ski locker valve cracking based on its placement under the bag, so I flipped the bag so the valve is on the top.

Three questions...
- The boat is on a lift, do I have to drop it in the water and start an engine to drain it?
- How do I drain it if the bag is reporting empty?
- How should I orient the bag? Valve down like delivered? Put some closed cell pipe insulation on it to buffer it?

Thanks for all the help, searched the forum and couldn’t find these answers.

 

[jcyamaharider]

1. No

2. Unhook the bag, drain it manually and then use a vacuum to suck the bag down tight.

3.I have had no issues with mybvalave in the factory location.


4. You probably need to recalibrate your ballast system.

 

[Shady28]

Worked like a charm. Thanks for the quick advice. If I ever need to recalibrate the ballasts, the port side/battery compartment ballast doesn’t seem to be as full at 100% as the starboard one.

When people talk about holding the down the system control button to reset they system where is that found? On what connext screen? Haven’t had success in getting into the diagnostics.

 

[BigAbe75]

Worked like a charm. Thanks for the quick advice. If I ever need to recalibrate the ballasts, the port side/battery compartment ballast doesn’t seem to be as full at 100% as the starboard one.

When people talk about holding the down the system control button to reset they system where is that found? On what connext screen? Haven’t had success in getting into the diagnostics.

That’s the little gear icon on the upper right of the large Connext screen.

 

[Shady28]

That’s the little gear icon on the upper right of the large Connext screen.

Thanks!

 

[jcyamaharider]

Worked like a charm. Thanks for the quick advice. If I ever need to recalibrate the ballasts, the port side/battery compartment ballast doesn’t seem to be as full at 100% as the starboard one.

When people talk about holding the down the system control button to reset they system where is that found? On what connext screen? Haven’t had success in getting into the diagnostics.

Just an FYI I always fill that one separate then the other 2. It is the last on the line and does get starved for water when the other bags are filling.

 

[Kevin-yyz]

I have a 2018 242x as well and have found the same with the port bag (fills to about 75%). jcyamaharider, In what order do you fill your bags if you want them all full?

 

[jcyamaharider]

I have a 2018 242x as well and have found the same with the port bag (fills to about 75%). jcyamaharider, In what order do you fill your bags if you want them all full?

I have 2 preset settings for now. I have one that will fill the port bag only, and then I have another setting that will fill the rest. My boat is getting ready to go under the knife and I will be adding a dedicated thru hull fitting for the port side pump to fill.

 

[Shady28]

Great advice. Another question on the ballast. Beyond hitting "Drain all", what other actions, e.g. turning boat off, do the ballasts drain?

 

[jcyamaharider]

A different preset or drain all are the only 2 ways.

 

[Shady28]

Just recalibrated the ballast, but how do you drain the bags now? Have to go into a profile and hit drain all?

 

[Shady28]

I’m guessing sooo. So half thought out.

 

[Cambo]

I was tired of messing with the timer and made jumper cables. These ballast systems are designed by the same guys that probably selected the audio equipment and put speakers in series. Three 1'' high volume pumps on a timer trying to pull or push water through a 1 1/2 '' hole perfect scenario for incomplete fill or empty. Some quick plug and play to finish the job with the jumper cable

https://jetboaters.net/threads/ballast-pump-jumper-cable.19754/

 

[Kevin-yyz]

@Cambo, when you attach your jumper cable to the pump does the pump operate in the direction last used in the connext system? Or is there a manual switch?

 

[Cambo]

@Cambo, when you attach your jumper cable to the pump does the pump operate in the direction last used in the connext system? Or is there a manual switch?

It has small battery cable clamps that get hooked to the battery this is used to energize the pump and depending on the pump and the polarity of the clamps the pump will fill or empty. I will send out labels so it makes easy to know what each pump needs to fill or empty they are not all the same




The drive control (speed stetting) gets knocked out of operation if the ballast is not working correctly this is critical for boarding sports and safety while wakeboarding anyone that wakeboards knows what Im talking about. These boats go from 18-20 mph to 25 -30 real quick . Below when you set the ballast preferences the best way to use it would be set all ballast to zero and do it manually and you dont need to leave the boat running. Bad move whoever thought of that idea the boat running could easily suck the rope up and hopefully its not bunched up around someone sitting in the water ,they could easily get wrapped up and pulled under the boat. If this boat had a real neutral it would be fine but that impeller is ready to suck the rope in. Slight breeze or any current in the water and your guaranteed to drift over the rope it goes on of two ways under the boat or away from the boat.

 

[Shady28]

Bringing this thread back, all my bags are empty, but in the calibration screen two bags are listed as 47% and 76% full. The only options I’m presented with on the screen is “empty”. How do I get them to 0 without burning out the impellers?

 

[Shady28]

 

[Cambo]

The cable shown above will take care of the problem and you wont have to waste your time or wracking up engine hours re calibrating the timers . Not sure of your location but it can be used for winterization as well.

Its in stock prority mail and you can have it in a few days

https://jetboaters.net/threads/ballast-pump-jumper-cable.19754/

 

[Kevin-yyz]

Early on I ran into the same problem. I played around with the settings a bit and luckily it somehow sorted itself out and it wound down to 0% without the pumps actually running. After that I ordered the cable from @Cambo. Easily fixed with the cable if the same situation comes up.

 

[Shady28]

Early on I ran into the same problem. I played around with the settings a bit and luckily it somehow sorted itself out and it wound down to 0% without the pumps actually running. After that I ordered the cable from @Cambo. Easily fixed with the cable if the same situation comes up.

I may get the cable, but I’d still love to know how to zero out the bags on the calibration screen for this weekend.

Even resetting to factory settings didn’t zero them out.

Completely dry bags reading 47 and 76% full and the only calibration option is to “empty” them. Frustrating.