Adding a 4th ballast pump - MC 205V

Boat is a 2006 MasterCraft 205V (X1)

I have purchased a new Jabsco ballast pump for my front triangle sac so I no longer need to use a fat sac pump. I would like to fill all 4 sacs at the same time with little-to-no monitoring/adjusting. Currently the boat is equipped with the three stock pumps all pulling from one through-hole. It is very difficult to see the fitting at the top but I am assuming it is a three-way fitting as the boat only came with three pumps.

1) Can anyone confirm there are only three fittings without me taking the floor up to check?
2) If there are only 3 fittings, is there a part I can swap to branch it into 4? Or do I need to drill another hole in the bottom of the boat just for the new pump? Or split on fitting into two using a brass 'Y'?

I am a little concerned that even if I can split the current through-hole into 4 pumps it may not provide enough water to fill 4 sacs at the same time, therefore defeating the purpose of the project.

Any guidance would be great!

You do not have to pull up your floor to see the manifold. It should be in the port side bilge back under the motor. It has been a while since I've been back there looking at it, but I'm pretty sure you're correct in that it only has 3 places to feed pumps. I'd get back there and look at it before I started worrying about drilling through the bottom of my boat though.

You can see the manifold under the engine. On my 2003 X-2 there are three 3/4" hoses feeding the pumps. The hose running from the thru hull pickup to the manifold is only 1". It really only flows enough water to run 2 pumps at once. I am planning to add two 3/4" thru hull pickups this winter to feed the rear pumps. If you want to fill all 4 at one, I would definitely add another thru hull.

Thanks Justin, I have seen the same thing with stock set-up. Rarely do I try to fill the two back sacks and the center locker sack all at the same time because it takes forever. I guess that makes me start to think that if I am going to put another thru hole I should make it another 1 '' and move one hose over to the new hole. Two pumps per thru hole.

A fourth pump seems to be a bit overkill. Why not just mimic the Fly-High system and use one of your existing pumps?

Then, you would only need to turn the valve when one ballast tank fills/empties to change water flow to the other.You would need a 3-way valve, one-way valve, hose-to-bag fittings and some hose clamps = ~$100 or so. No maintenance required, no electrical issues, no replacing impellers and no drilling holes in your hull.

@ JRW160 you will be so happy you did this I have an 02 X Star and did a thru hull for every bag. Drilling through the hull is not that big of a deal take your time and you will be happy. I can fill all three at one time. Would love to see Brendens wake with the triangle in the front and how the hell he keeps water from coming over the front.

@ Brenden you running 750s in the back???

750s in the back, stock center locker bag, the triangle sac full in the front and typically 150 lbs of lead under the triangle. We don't typically have any issues with water coming over the bow, but coming off plane you do need to be careful not to swamp over the back. We ride in the Tahoe area at 5500 ft. elevation.

I am only running 3 pumps and have a 3 way valve that splits between the ski locker bag and the integrated bow sack. I usually also run a 350lb bag in the walkway and another 350lb bag on top of it across the front seats. I am seriously considering removing the integrated bow sack and adding a bow filler cushion and running the bow triangle. It's a big hassle to fill the other bags, but they are necessary if the 750s in the back are full.

If you are going to do it, do it right the first time. You say u want to just hit switches, so drill the thru hole/s and be done. I went from a boat that i had to fill 3 sacks with over the side pumps. Hated it. Bought new boat with everything on switches but only had to turn 2 valves when emtying. In my quest to "just flip switches" i spent a little time and money so that i was able to ditch the manual valves, and now i hit 4 switches to fill and 4 switches to empty. I could not be happier. So i say go for it and drill. Good luck and post picks as u do it and of the wake when you are done

I engineered this solid wood bow filler the other weekend, if you like I can send you the plans. Only 2-3 splinters so far.

I used to have the integrated bow sac, with a splitter valve from my center locker filling it. So little water would get in there it was a bit of a waste, many times I would just leave it filled for months at a time to avoid filling/ draining. I always ran an additional large sac(550 lbs) in the walkway to make up for the lack of weight the integrated bow sac produced. That pretty much defeated the purpose of having the integrated bow sac as I had to fill the 550 with the fat sac pump.

For a while I just took the integrated bow sac out from under the seat and threw it on top of the seats. This worked much better, but still not enough weight and still required a few hundred lbs of lead to counter weight the sacs & people in the back. It did open up space in the walkway for backpacks, boating sodas, etc.

I now tow with a old truck w/ a questionable engine and am trying to eliminate as much lead weight as possible without impacting the wake in any way. Therefore I went with the triangle sac.

What I would really like would be a triangle sac w/ and extra 'rectangle' on the bottom that also fills the bow space to the floor. I think that would be the perfect amount of weight and I could ditch the last of the lead.

I'm hoping to get a cushion made and build a custom sub box to support it

That sounds much nicer, if we ever actually hung out in the boat vs just getting our riding in and and bailing I would probably do the same. I may get real fancy and put carpet on the top of mine.