Avy ballast upgrade questions

jtryon · August 10, 2017

In the various upgrade threads I've been reading I haven't found anything that answered these questions. The Avy and the Tige 24V are the two possible boats that I'm looking to upgrade to next, and I know the older versions of either of these boats (I'd be buying 2003-2005ish to stay in my price range) have small ballast systems stock. With this in mind, I came across an '03 Avy ad the other day and looking closer at the stock ballast drain location on the starboard side it seems that the 3 exit holes are really close together. If I was going with an aerator pump upgrade instead of switching to an impeller system, is it possible to enlarge those drain holes to support a bigger pump and hose or are they too close together for that? Additionally, would it just be plug-and-play to swap in new bigger pumps and hoses re-using the stock switches or are electrical upgrades needed to support that as well? I'd be wanting to go with Rule 17A (3700gph) pumps to fill the Enzo sacks that would be installed.

jtryon · August 10, 2017

Example I pulled off the web....those drain holes don't look like there's much room for enlargement to support a bigger pump and hoses.

stoked · August 10, 2017

You could always drill another and do a tee.

When I upgraded the intakes I pulled the cartridge drains and check valved the lines to use the old thru hull drains. At 1.25" line, the stock holes had no problem passing the water.

bomoseen avy · August 11, 2017

Duffy Mahoney was an inspiration for my "03 Avy ballast set up when I did mine. It is aerator pump and he had two of the mayfair 1000gph pumps wired in tandem to fill and two to drain. My 1500# custom Avy sac drains in about 6 minutes with 2 pumps. Also sips current and you don't need engine on when draining. Not to discourage you from drilling bigger holes, but this was a nice work around for the time issue of filling and draining.

No pictures but you may get some ideas reading the old threads. I can't remember if BigCat ended up doing something similar...