making a ballast tank

(stotts12) · (stotts12) **Join Date: Dec 2008** 07-22-2012, 9:26 AM

i was thinking about making my own extra ballast tanks for my boat and my plan was to just take a couple garbage cans and silicone valves into the bottom of them and either let the water go into the bilge and pump it out or siphon it out. Has anyone ever made their own ballast tanks before or have any other ideas?

(tx_foilhead) · (tx_foilhead) **Join Date: Apr 2009** 07-22-2012, 9:38 AM

Water weighs 8lb a gal or so, it's going to take a pretty large trash can to make much difference, the. You have to deals with it sloshing around. Just get some bags.

(nitrousbird) · (nitrousbird) **Join Date: Sep 2008** 07-22-2012, 10:35 AM

That sounds really ghetto. Please don't.

(WakeDirt) · (WakeDirt) **Join Date: Jun 2011** 07-22-2012, 10:49 AM

That sounds really ghetto. Please do

(wakerider111) · (wakerider111) **Join Date: Jul 2006** 07-22-2012, 12:12 PM

ive seen people make there own water storage for older campers without plumbing or to add more storage to a smaller existing tank.

what they did was used PVC pipes to link several 5 gal jugs together. maybe something like this will be better

however, if you don't have such things laying around, the price i bet will be as much or more than just buying some ballast bags

(stotts12) · (stotts12) **Join Date: Dec 2008** 07-22-2012, 1:52 PM

the closest place that sells sacks is 4 hours away and im not going into the city for another week or two so i was just looking for a cheap alternative until then

(kskonn) · (kskonn) **Join Date: Mar 2011** 07-22-2012, 4:26 PM

Why not just buy online and have them shipped to your house?

(ralph) · (ralph) **Join Date: Apr 2002** 07-22-2012, 4:39 PM

I built some tanks for the back of my Sanger, I wanted a false floor style tank rather than have them on the side and also wanted 350 pounds each. I just used glass over ply and covered them in carpet. They work great!