Rival Ballast System?

Has anyone had any more experience with the Rival Ballast Systems lately? There were a few original posts on this site about them, but I haven't heard anything lately. If you have had some experience with the, can you tell us how you like the system. Also, list what boat you have it in and how much weight. Thanks a lot for any info. I will probably be looking to put this in a Nautique Super Sport.

Definately one of the better systems on the market but hard to fit in a Super Sport. I looked into it as a replacement for my Hippo system but couldn't find a way for it to fit (I wanted to use the same hole in the hull for the intake). Even on a new install, it looks like it would be a really tight fit in a Nautique super sport. There is not a lot of room under the floor for the through-hull, valve and pumps.

Thanks for the info. How did you end up weighting your boat then? Did you install your own ballast? Nice looking boat by the way.

I helped install the Rival in my buddies 03 Tige 22V. The guys from Tige sent us some extra dash buttons and I mounted the switches flush in the pocket right behind the throttle. Looked clean and matched the whole dash. Drilling a hole in the bottom of your boat is always a gut wrenching task, but the in-take and manifold was easy to install. It has 2 rear 500lb sacks, 2 front 300lb sacks and one center 500lb sack. Plus we run around 600 lbs of lead. We never quite fill them 100% so I'm guessing that we are running around 1800 to 2000 lbs. The best part is that they fill and drain in under 5 minutes. If you surf, it is easy to drop, drain and fill sacks to accommodate either goofy or normal riders in under 5 minutes. We have had no leakage issues and I'd have to say it's one of the sweetest set up's on the market right now.

I had a Hippo system in the boat. It did the job but was way too slow. I built a custom system to use some of the parts from the old system. It's about 1400 lbs or so and fills in 5 minutes sitting still. Bit faster moving.

If you can fit the Rival system, it's a great choice (although I think they could use a better valve) but room for a ballast system around the v-drive and transmission is tight in a supersport. Especially if you want to keep things simple for changing the v-drive oil and allowing for an easy alignment check.