Emptying Fat Sacs

Most of my experience is with factory ballast systems, and I just recently started using fat sacs to compensate for most of my crew moving away. Filling them is easy, but emptying them is a pain. The pump always loses its prime and we have to push on the bag and keep messing with it to get it to empty. Any tricks, or is this part of the fun?

We drain it as we are moving, we put the drain point at the back of the bag so when we start up, we get the bow to rise a little and it throws the water to the back and almost helps force it out of the pump...drains quicker as we are heading back to the dock...works pretty well...lol

Make sure you get all the air out of them when filling them. Burp them a couple times when you're getting close to capping them then make sure to not let any in when you're hooking the pump back up to empty them. Besides getting more water (and weight), the lack of air allows the pump to just run without losing it's prime when emptying

Hope that makes sense

Ryan, just suck on the end of the hose that goes out of the boat, that will take all the air out and you shouldn't have any problems after that. If you don't have a clear hose, just be careful because you won't see the water coming and can choke on it.

Also, like Greg said above, have the drain vent towards the back of the boat so when your boat is on plane, it's forcing all the water to the back of the bag, thus, keeping pressure on the pump.

After you drain your sacs get all the water and air out of them by folding them up and putting the cap back on it. This will eliminate having to burp the sacs when filling and there will be a minimum amount of air in the sac. It takes a little longer to fold them up but is well worth it. Fold them the same way each time and they will get easier to do. Once they are folded tight I kneel on it to force all the air out and put the cap back on.

Do what Darin suggested. If there's no air in the bag it will drain very easily.

You can create a siphon if you get the drain point lower than the sac. I have drained many sacs with just a tube and no pump.

As far as burping: take out both top fill point caps and start filling, once the water starts overflowing out of the open hole the air is out.

when it gets close to the bottom, grab one end of the sac and pick it up and wedge your feet under the water thats left and let the sac rest on your shins while holding the other end up. progressivly walk foreward raising the bag higher as more water drains. if that makes sense....

It's just part of the fun. Especially, choking on a gallon of water when it unexpectedly shoots out when aiding the pump. (Kudos on the advantages of a clear hose, but I have two pumps, one of which is older with old white ribbed line) No better way to end a day of great riding.

this is how i drain! always fools non riders