Axis Wakeboard Boat Forum

This weekend we had the boat on the lake for the first time with the Ballast Sacs and we were emptying the center hard tank and when we were pumping it out it seemed to backfill the front ballast bag a little. I know that these two share a common drain line going over the side but it was odd that water would backfill into the other one when you are pumping one out. Has anybody experienced this? It would seem to me that it has to flow back through the drain pump to get into the bag. I checked and all lines are hooked up correctly it seems. Anybody have any info on this?!

Thanks

strange?
We have not had an issue like that.
I always run them together when draining until ALL water is purged, regardless if the front sack is emptied already or not. There might be a check valve in line somewhere that is stuck open? I would call Axis and ask-

Could happen. My front sac has occasionally drained back out though the fill pump - 2011's came with a check valve. Check valves are not usually present since they add to the fill or drain times. Im thinking of some finding 12v electronic valves to solve this.

I put in all my sacs today... did what ED suggested and put in ball valves on the empty lines for the rears. It worked very well and now I can fill the hard tanks first.

I had a question on the front bow sack: first, why does the front pnp sack and front hard tank get Y'd into one line for the empty hole? they each have their own vent lines, seems odd, like they should share vents and have separate drains... seems like this would solve the issue of the bag being "emptied" into the hard tank through the empty line and pump.

second, when filling my pnp bow sack it did not vent out water when it was full, seemed to have a bit of air still in it too, it was really firm with water and it was not pissing out the vent. I noticed that the vent line is low where it enters into the footwell area under the steering wheel side, should have been up 5 more inches or so, but I do not think this is the problem. Any ideas?

Thanks alot.

Pm me your phone number and I'll explain what I did to resolve this problem, I went through all of these issues too and found a cheap way to get it fixed, I'd put it up here but I think it would take a big wall of text like the pnp install did,

Johnny if it does it again take off the vent line and make sure you can blow through it, it may just be restricted or need burped or have a kink somewhere, try twisting it

Walter, please try to explain your solution here. Even if its only at a summary level. I and I'm sure other have the same quandaries. We really appreciate the pnp "wall of text" if you later endup finding the time. Thanks!

I have the same issues with my pnp..would love a summary posted here. thanks

Ok guys for those of you who are curious there is really no need to change anything on your front plumbing unless you are like me and have a little ocd about draining two separate cavities out of the same hole. If it doesn't bother you when you drain one and the other is empty, use both pumps anyway, these pumps are designed to be able to hold up to being run dry so it will not hurt them, the only parts in them that make contact are the brushes on the motor and the shaft to seal. If you would like to hook up your drains individually you can do as I did and start by removing the footwell below the steering wheel. Grab some towels because the fiberglass will be all over you in no time. You will need some cutters and a few zipties, look for the 3 outlets and find the Y connector, disconnect the 2 hoses going to it and set them aside. next remove the other hoses one at a time(so you don't get them mixed up with the drains) and route them to the Y, You will have to cut a few zipties holding the hoses together and do a little shaking around to find the right amount of length. after you get that done hook up the first two you took off of the Y to each separate outlet that is left. For the last step that I did was to prevent the overflow from backflowing into the bag was to locate the hose(on the Y) that goes directly left and through a vertical passage in the footwell below the heater outlet, this is the vent for the front pnp bag, disconnect it and follow it under the chillax seat to the top of the bag to make sure it is the pnp bag vent, right at the Y put in a 3/4 check valve just like the one you put on the fill pump side of this bag, making sure you can NOT blow air toward the bag. This will prevent water from entering the bag if you only want to use the hard tank and not the bag. You will now be able to drain each individually without water cross feeding from one to the other. Just be cautious to only put the check valve on the bag vent, if you put it on the hard tank vent it will allow you to fill the tank but you will not be able to drain it unless your boat is out of the water, it will let air out for the vent but will not let air in when you drain, effectively creating a vacuum on the tank, and possibly damage or crack the tank, if you do this and try to drain in the water you will either see nothing happen because of the vacuum, or it will keep on draining forever because its sucking it in through the fill pump. This is how I have my boat plumbed but it really isn't necessary unless you just go crazy thinking about having to run 2 pumps to drain one ballast, but it makes it so that if you only want to use the hard tank in the floor the water doesn't find a way into the bag when filling or draining. Oh ya and grab a pair of your wife's pantyhose and use it in the shower to remove all of the fiberglass stuck in you after attempting this pointless hose routing, just use it like a scotchbrite pad on dirty dishes and don't be gentle, wear it like a glove and get to scrubbing, if you don't have any you will wish you had in a few hours.

updated, or just do as darthwader and drain them both at the same time until all the water is out

That is a good way to re-do that set-up! Yeah I don't blame you for not wanting to run both pumps every time you want to drain one of the front bag or tanks!

So on my boat we have had an issue with having water auto filling into the front tank and sack. Has anybody else had this issue?! It just seems to fill a little with water when we aren't using the ballast at all. Doesn't seem to have an anti-siphon like on the rear tanks. I saw that some people are having to close the overboard ball valves every time?

Has anybody had this issue as well?!