Thanks for input folks....BUT while I have the old style plastic backpack and horsecollar BC...I am going to use my XDeep.....they are great plates and I prefer them.... innovative to fill in backpack with lead, but with 9lb SS XDeep and weight pouches I am trying to cut down or eliminate a weight belt...diving full 7mm booties and 'farmer john - beaver tail & hood' [don't go there Happy!
] which has 18+lbs positive in freshwater and 22lbs in salt water....
Happy...BC looks like a Fenzy [with bottle]....great design and wish I had one....I still use HC with C02....old school that has never failed me...
You will probably not be able to use those plastic blown plates for a double hose regulator and get anywhere near optimal position for best breathing performance. I have tried:
1.The plastic blown plates sit to high on the back.
2.The plastic blown plates are too thick pushing the tank to far away from the back
A bent double plate with the center channel will not work either, again, I have tried.
1. The raised center channel sits the tank too far from the back, with or without a STA.
2. The center channel and top edge of the plate interfere with the regulator "can" and cause it to sit much too high above the shoulder blades.
3. If you try to lower the entire plate to get the center of the cans between the shoulder blades the bottom edge is going to run into your bottom and cut into it and at 5'-9" it ain't gonna work. I am 5-11 and shrinking and it leaves purple bruises across my backside. Maybe if you were 6-2.
Here is where a DH regulator MUST be postioned to get proper breathing performance:
It does not matter your personal preference for a blown plastic plate or bent doubles tech plate, the double hose regulator must be positioned as above and as close to the back as possible due to the laws of physics and they will not alter to accommodate personal preference. Those blown plastic plates with the handle on top some are suggesting are not much better, maybe worse than a tech plate. These harness/plates allow proper positioning:
1. Navy harness (cannot use a wing)
2. VDH Universal plate
3. Freedom Plate
4. Oxy UL textile plate (can work)
These do not work well or at all:
1. Blown plastic plate
2. Any sort of bent doubles tech plate with a center channel and if it has a STA that is about as bad a choice as possible
A VDH plate and an Oxy UL plate. The VDH plates was designed to allow the regulator center of diaphragm to be as close to the lungs center and aligned to the center of the shoulder blades as possible and still maintain a good position of the wing for optimal trim:
I am not trying to sell you one of my extra plates, someone will come along in the fullness of time, they are the best solution and work well with single hose regs too:
Note the crossed shoulder straps and scalloped top edge that help drop the top of the plate to allow the regulator center of diaphragm to sit between the shoulder blades and right up against the back.
A DH regulator can breath wonderfully when set up optimally and breath like sucking from a Shop Vac if not:
BTW, while on the subject, wings that have a center outlet like the X Deep and some others, well, the corrugated hose is right where the DH body wants to be and again by the laws of the universe, two solid objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. But, I am not very experienced with DH regs, only been diving with them a mere 57 years, give or take, maybe I am wrong.
Good luck with the adventure, be safe. Hope it works, one way or another.
