Ballast issue with Supra 21v

I bought a new 2005 Supra 21v early this year and the boat has been great except that it was taking 15-20 minutes for the front ballast bag to fill completely. The dealer convinced me this was normal and not to worry about it. Well, over time, is started to take even longer so I opened up the floor this weekend to take a look.

The ballast hoses are routed in a channel that runs diagonally from left to right over the gas tank along with several other hoses that go from the back to the front of the boat. The two hoses for the front ballast bag take a sharp left turn at the upper right corner of the gas tank so they can go down into the "basement" storage area. The problem is that both hoses get pinched both by the flooring piece that fits on top and by turning the sharp corner at the end of the gas tank. Basically, there is room for one hose to route through here, but not two. I was looking for an alternate way to route the hoses, but it's not obvious what I can do. Is there anyone there that has a 2005 21v and knows how this is supposed to work? I really don't see how two hoses are supposed to fit in the space provided. I've thought about cutting a notch out of the bottom edge of the floor piece to make room for the second hose, but that seems extreme and their should be a better solution! At the moment, I've swapped which hose gets pinched so now the bag will fill fast and drain slow. Gets me wakeboarding sooner, but didn't really solve the problem.

Thanks to anyone with ideas or suggestions.

Can you take pictures? I have a 06 21V and there is only one hose that goes to the front bag. You should have a manifold made of sprinkler valves. I had the same problem with my times, except I didn't have any kinks. The system that Supra uses just needs to be changed. Here is a link that my other thread:
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/349923.html?1156739867

As you see in the pics, I changed out the manifold completely, and will be adding another pump. Just by changing out the manifold I was able to reduce my fill time by about 7 min. Once I had the other pump I am hoping my fill times will be somewhere in the 5-7 minute range. Get some pics, that will help a bunch. Hope that helps you some.

david you might know this already but it will fill alot quicker if you get up on plane and then start filling. stay up on plane and they fill2-3x quicker....
good luck

David-

Had the exact same problem! I re-routed the fill hose under the passenger seats and cooler. I cut a hole in the bulk head about a foot behind the battery that leads into the locker to run the hose threw it. Cut a cross in the carpet instead of a circle and use it as padding in the bulkhead. I needed new hose though as the old stuff was kinked. Going on 30hrs now with no additional problems. Fill time 20min with it kinked, 6max after.

Couple of other things, I had straight quick connects (instead of the 90 deg) laying around so I put one coming off the manifold and ran it with the passenger-rear-bag drain line to get it into the passenger storage compartment. Also I left the front drain line in the original location.

Badboy, my boat is kept at the marina so I can't take a picture until I go out again, but there are definitely two hoses. The fill hose attaches directly to the bag and the drain hose attaches to a small pump (or manifold?) next to the bag. The input of that device connects to the drain valve on the bag. Sounds like they fixed the problem for 2006 by only requiring one hose.

Diggs, thanks for the tip. I did know it filled quicker on a plane, but I didn't know by how much. For my case, I need to resolve the pinched hoses before I do anything else.

Pwork, that may be the answer for me. I got some extra hose from my dealer already, so I think I might give your idea of routing along the passanger side a shot and leave the drain hose routed where it is.

Any other suggestions before I try this one?

David, so you do only have one fill hose. That should be the same with all of us. I had the exact same set up in my 05 SSV. One fill and one drain to each bag. I'll have to look at mine under the floor board to see if I have any kinks or not. Post the pics when you go out next.

bbr Had this on the computer, if you'll notice, the drain line on the bottom is fine, but the fill line would get kinked by the bottom of the floor board because the floor almost sits on the tank.

I see, but the floor doesn't give at all, and neither should the tank. I wouldn't think that it would kink at all. Might be wrong though.

I don't have any pictures as I still haven't been on the boat yet (been out of town), but my hoses are routed like pword shows, only worse. I have a heater unit that was installed under the dash, so there are two additional hoses run over the gas tank in this same channel. Since I have less space in the channel, my ballast hoses hug the left edge of the channel, which is more shallow and makes for a sharper turn, which is why they are more pinched. Basically, there is no room for two balast hoses in that channel with everything else that is being routed through there. The heater was installed by the dealer...maybe they were supposed to route the heater hoses somewehre else? Anyway, I'm going to see this weekend if I can reroute the fill hose through the passenger side and leave the drain hose as is as pwork suggests. Thanks to both of you for the tips.