Does anybody use lead on their boat?

Just curious about some alternative weighting devices..how many of you use lead in your boat? I dont want a lot of fat sacks taking up tons of room in the storage compartments. Thanks, Colin

I have about 300 lbs in static weight in my bow - lead and sand bags. Works well. But don't put too much. Remember that this adds towing weight to your vehicle and will lower your gas mileage on your boat.

I have about 600 to 700lbs of lead in mine (in addition to the stock 700lbs of water).

The weight is in ~20lb, ~40 and ~60lbs bricks that I covered with marine carpet. I leave the lead in for the most part and only take it out for extended towing. My boat is pretty light and I have a tandem axle trailer so I don't worry about the additional weight much.

I've been slowly moving the lead closer and closer to the middle of the boat. I've found that in my boat (Cal-Air DD) the handling and wakeshape are better with more lead towards the middle. Too much in the bow results in rollers over the windshield and too much in the back reults in bow bouncing a bit.

Also to let everybody know i have dry storage with my boat so dont need to worry about towing etc.

If you don't have to worry about towing LEAD,LEAD LEAD!

I have 350 lbs of lead in the BOW. Anymore and my hydro-hoist would sink.

Would there be any damage done if you were leaving your boat in the water for 2 weeks straight with all the weight still in it?

Colin ~ I don't want to tell you how to weigh your boat down but, SINK THAT $&!T. j/k dude you ride a 17.8MPH with any extra weight you wake is not going to be any good. If you put more weight you need to speed things up a little.
SICK A$$ BOAT BRO.

I dont understand i mean logically the boat will sit lower in the water with more weight, therefor making a bigger wake, i mean i will experiment with the speed and where the weight will be etc, but im just curious about the lead issue, i was thinking about getting lead from a tire kingdom or something and filling up a bunch of pvc pipes with it.

Sean M,

How did you attach the marine carpet to your lead bricks? I have some lead bricks that I covered in plast-dip, but it's starting to peel off. I was wanting to cover them in carpet, but I'm not sure how to do it. Thanks.

Colin ~ yes the boat will sit lower and the wake will be bigger, witch is why you will need more speed. The lip on the wake curl over and wash it out. I don't know any other why to explain it. maybe someone else can better.

I carry 650lbs. of lead always! Only 15 miles to lake from home. When going on extended trips it stays home.

400lbs under the front bow cushion
150lbs over each rear hard tank
(2) 40lb bags in the cockpit for fine tuning

Justin, did you coat the lead with primer before spraying it on? I coated mine with primer and haven't had any problems with it peeling.

gramps, that's a lot of weight up front! what'd it do to the wake?

Joe, It makes the transition longer and takes some of the steepness out of it.
Blabel @ San V at 80' or 85' @ 22.7 with 2 in the boat.

Lead is so long ago,gold bars are in. Just kidding! Lead is great because you can move it around easy.

are you sure that is 80'-85' looks a lot closer than that.

Justin, I used lots of Liquid Nails. I carpted the lead about 3 seasons ago and have never had a problem at all. None of the carpet had pulled up.