Bags vs. Hard Ballast

I own a Supra, saw this article and thought I would post it up. Kind of interesting, answered some of my questions. Not trying to start a ballast war, just some information for people to read. There are pro's and con's to every ballast system, this article just had some good information in it.

Bags VS Tanks. We get all sorts of questions about this topic. Here we will answer a few of the common questions we get asked:

Why does Supra/Moomba use bags instead of tanks?

A bag system is actually a more expensive system that is more rider friendly. If you want a bigger wake simply take out the stock bag and put a bigger bag in. Up to 3200 lbs all with a flick of a switch. Did you know a leading competitor of ours has a stock hard tank system but offers an OPTIONAL, more expensive, bag system? With Supra and Moomba you have it standard.

Which is better, bags or hard tanks?

For the wakeboarder or wakesurfer, bags are better. Why? It gives you the option of having an upgradable system to have the biggest and best wake possible while still being plumbed into the stock system. Some of our competitors also still put their hard tanks in the rear storage compartments. You lose your storage all of the time when you have these. At least with bags, when empty, you can use ALL of your storage compartments.

Why do you not put your ballast under the floor?

Supra and Moomba do not do this for many reasons. Number one, under floor ballast tanks are TINY. Who wants a tiny ballast system resulting in a tiny wake? Number two, open bags are upgradable with the stock ballast pumps. Number three, open bags are more serviceable. Number four, what are you sacrificing if you put your tanks under the floor? Our stringers go there; where do our competitor’s stringers go or do they have any at all?

Don’t bags take up your storage space?

We are the first to admit, yes, bags do take up some of your storage space. Supra and Moomba improve on their bag shape and size every year so that the storage space in the compartments can still be used even with the ballast is full. If you had a competitor’s boat with a measly 850 lbs of ballast, to match our wake a rider would want to add another bag in the storage compartment. This would take away storage space, most of the time more space than our bags takes up. Plus, wouldn’t you want it all hooked up to the stock ballast pumps to fill all with a flick of a switch?

Why do I need a big ballast system? The stock system is as big as I’ll ever need.

Supra and Moomba and WAKEBOARD, WAKESKATE, and WAKESURF boats. If you want a small ballast system, no problem. We can take our ballast out or replace our huge stock systems with smaller bags. But why would you want to do that? We’ve never met a wakeboarder that doesn’t want a big wake.

Let’s compare the size of the stock ballast systems in the 22 ft range for a few of our competitors, most of which use hard tanks.



MasterCraft X-Star 865 lbs

Malibu Wakesetter VLX 1250 lbs

Tige RZ2 NONE

Super Air Nautique 220 849 lbs



Now Supras and Moombas:



Supra Launch 21V 1450 lbs

Supra Launch 22SSV 1450 lbs

Moomba Mobius LSV 1200 lbs

Moomba Mobius XLV 1450 lbs

So yes, our boats do come with more ballast. Do our boats need it? NO!!! But why not have it? After all, these are wakeboarding boats. Put any of our stock boats against a competitor’s stock boat and I promise Supra and Moomba will walk away with a win every time.

I do think one of the MB boats now has a 2000 lb hard ballast system that fills in 60 seconds and the Epic boat has a 4000 lb hard ballast system.

After owning a Supra with 85 hours on it this year, my only con to bags is no gauges, and when you upgrade to a 750 lb rear corner bag you will loose about 80% of the storage space when the bag is full. Not a huge problem, but definitely a sacrafice, although you are getting 1500 lbs of weight in the rear of the boat which throws one sweet wave.

With the Z5 cargo rack you really dont need any storage for wakeboards, kneeboards, surfboards, or tubes in the boat. Everything can be placed on the rack which is a huge help when you go to the larger bags.