XB 21 weight distribution and side slide seat or something better

[twsykes]

Hey guys,
I love my XB21 2 seater but I have never spent much time getting things perfectly balanced but I want to now and I want to make it very easy to do. I have a number of guys that are different sizes in the passenger seat and I want to design something that makes it easier to adjust weight on the fly rather than Sand bags etc.... Has anyone ever designed anything in the rear fuel compartment or anything on a slider that allows one to shift weight according to load? I run lithium batteries right now so batteries are not an issue. A couple questions:

1 - is there any kinda slide weight system out there or do I need to come up with one
2 - Is that a side slide seat for the XB21?

Right now my boat will run about 88 or 89 full out but it has never been balanced I can tell even any that speed. I feel I can pick up a few more MPH not to mention a goode bit of drivability with better balance but i want to make this much easier to do than just guessing>> Any thoughts?

 

[Jr in Jax]

Sometimes when a Aboat seems unbalanced, the propshaft is too low below the pad.

 

[twsykes]

Hmmm, interesting.. I will check that. My thoughts on the balance is more that the boat does not see level on the pad tho...

 

[SLOmofo]

On my XB2003 I glued a bubble level, the kind thats used in an RV, to the over hanging lip of the dash. That way it's easily seen while driving. First things first. When you set up to check prop shaft height I'd do this. Level the boat front to rear and also side to side. Glue the RV level to the dash and mark the jack plate with the prop shaft height. Now you have a permant starting point for reference.

 

[xb03fs]

Hard to beat a couple bags of lead wrapped in duck tape. Small compact and moving 50 lbs from gunnel to gunnel seems to be able to make boats drivable with partners up to 200 lbs or so vs solo....

Also when running solo, all out I have a third Bag I leave in cockpit I can move while running...

Leaning left trim more...

 

[Allyfishing]

There's no side slide available for an XB21 Bassport Pro. The center garbage/pottie prohibits such movement obviously. Now there is a trick that was described to me by a performance minded XB21 owner whereby he removed his bucket from the forward slide assembly and moved it over a hair (to the left) and drilled new holes but it's not much.

Get a 4 foot level and lay it across your front deck right in front of the consoles where you can see the bubble. At idle notice which way the bubble is and move tackle and or ballast accordingly. If you went lithium for your cranking battery well then you will have an even more difficult time balancing side to side as I have done that myself and ended up putting my 80 AGM cranking back int the rear port compartment Totally threw off all balance and performance.

Honestly, the XB21 forces an owner who is a die hard fisherman to be very critical in their tackle organization etc. to take full advantage of every possible way of organizing for balance particularly side to side. It was also mentioned about shot bags. I for one use 2 25LB shot bags to rear port for ballast when running solo and I'm 200LB .

You'll get it, it's not rocket science. Be creative and organized in how you stow your stuff. I have plano style boxes for hard baits etc and they are placed in a few plano style tote bags that i bought at CAbelas. They're just a canvas type of bag open at top with web handles. that makes for easy mobility as needed. Other terminal tackle is small plano style boxes of various sizes placed in larger Sterilite boxes that latch and keep out water. Easy to move around.

 

[twsykes]

So, I installed Lithium batteries, Removed the rod holders and created foam ones and much more in the way to weight loss to my XB21. The boat is definitely not balanced right and I am running around 88 MPH... Other than just putting a 25lb bag to the left and right I have not tried to balance everything out because I want to create an adjustable weight distribution system and place it in the boat where I can move weight left and right according to load but I have some questions that I know some of you can answer:

1 - Where should most of the weight be? over the pad or in the rear, left compartment or in front of the cooler (2 seater)
2 - If you guys were creating a way to counter balance the weight with some type of slide setup where would you do this?
3 - If lead acids batteries are removed (ie... 110 lbs etc...) would you install all batteries In the left rear now?

What I am really trying to find out here is what is the optimal placing of weight in the xb 21?