To Drain Or Not To Drain

Are there any cons to leaving ballast bags full at the end of the day ?

Yeah, it's crazy if you are going to trailer it.. And it definitely hard on a lift...

SO DRAIN....

I leave the ballast full on the lift occasionally when I am too lazy to drain it, or when we come in from an evening set and know we are going right back out in the morning. I'm not worried about it hurting the lift as the lift is rated for far more than the boat weighs. May not be the best thing for the hull/floor of the boat, but I do it occasionally. It has got to be harder on the boat slamming through a double-up with full ballast than it is sitting on the lift full....?

Why waste gas hauling 500, 1000 or 2,000 lbs if you don't need to?

Depending how much weight you have in the boat, your trailer or your tires may not be able to carry the additional weight. Check your weight capacity for your trailer before hand. Like Andy said why waste the gas hauling all the additional weight around... it takes 10 minutes to empty ballast so why not. We never trailer additional weight.

I used to leave mine full all summer long. Only have a couple miles to drive to the lake though, yeah it was probablly a little tougher on the trailer but i figured 1000 lbs wasnt that bad. Torwards the end of the second summer of doing it i did have a bag blow out when we went to drain it though.

Busting a bag and not knowing it is my only real concern as of right now I'm only running 650lbs of ballast and I live exactly 6 minutes from the lake

Then I'd say your good to go... I wouldn't sweat 60 too much especially being that close to your riding spot. Just make sure your auto bilge is on.

Depends on what you are doing with your boat at the end of the day. Mooring - slight increase in risk of taking on water but nothing to worry about without wind or big rollers. Lift is probably OK as long as lift can support extra weight - but you could stress your hull with the extra weight being dispersed on the small surface area of bunks. Trailering bad all the way around: bad for your trailer, bad for your tow vehicle, bad for your boat - more weight now bouncing around on small surface area bunks.

Edit: I didn't see your last post Montgomey.

(Message edited by bmartin on October 01, 2007)

Put something in (bleach?) to keep the water from going foul if you're going to leave it in. I'm on an Airdock so we leave a couple bags full most of the season, when we do drain...it REEKS (strong sulphur smell). If you have concerns about breaking a full bag, you don't want your boat smelling like old ballast water.

I didn't even think about the stank ass water smell that wouldn't be good . . . This weekend is the 1st time I've left my 350lb bag full I usually only leave my 2 150lb front bags full but this winter I will be building a semi auto ballast system so I guess it wont be much of a problem for very long just until it's too cold to ride . . . . Are the Fly High bags the best for making your own ballast system ?

bleach will break down the plastic/rubber/PVC polypropelyne whatever-the-hell sacs are made of.

And it does STANK like a mofo

Fly High ProX series are from my experience the most durable and user friendly bags to get for sure. Can't go wrong with em. We just got their V-Drive sacs this summer and love em.

I'll leave mine full over night if I leave it on the bouy but I never trailer it with any ballast.