JeffG
Contributor
sums up my feelings as well
Why do Tech BC's have the butt dump on the inside, not the outside?
- Thread starter beanojones
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Rainer
Contributor
Seriously...
- Messages
- 6,921
- Reaction score
- 26
- # of dives
- I just don't log dives
OP
beanojones
Contributor
- Messages
- 3,204
- Reaction score
- 350
Other than the taco explanation, which is tasty but ultimately unfulfilling, and some guesses on things, was there an actual reason?
Not being at the highest point means front mounted butt dumps trap air.
Dive Rite recently switched from rear mounted butt dumps on the Travel Wings to front mounted ones. I ask them why they switched, and they said their butt dumps have almost been front mounted. (?) Since I have already have six Dive Rite Travel Wings for a rental fleet, which have properly rear mounted butt dumps, I gave up on hearing from them.
Unfortunately other Travel Wing/low lift wing manufacturers also currently front mount their dumps, at least the ones I have seen.
Is there any reason other than fashion why they switched? Reasons given thus far in this thread:
1. "Reach" reasons just don't make sense, at least in wetsuit diving. I swapped my dual bladders over, and never noticed anything other that the dumps were in the rear, and so the wing no longer trapped air. I don't think of myself as exceptional flexible.
2. Worrying about over head snagging also seems a weird idea, since the claim is that front mounted dumps are actually more accessible than rear ones. Which would actually argue for rear facing dumps, if reason 1 was true, and reason 2 was true.
So does anyone know why Dive Rite made the switch, or why other manufacturers have the dumps in front, in low lift "Travel Wings" size, which are not actually big enough to wrap around tanks?
Or alternately are there any manufacturers that have Travel Wings that have rear butt dumps?
Not being at the highest point means front mounted butt dumps trap air.
Dive Rite recently switched from rear mounted butt dumps on the Travel Wings to front mounted ones. I ask them why they switched, and they said their butt dumps have almost been front mounted. (?) Since I have already have six Dive Rite Travel Wings for a rental fleet, which have properly rear mounted butt dumps, I gave up on hearing from them.
Unfortunately other Travel Wing/low lift wing manufacturers also currently front mount their dumps, at least the ones I have seen.
Is there any reason other than fashion why they switched? Reasons given thus far in this thread:
1. "Reach" reasons just don't make sense, at least in wetsuit diving. I swapped my dual bladders over, and never noticed anything other that the dumps were in the rear, and so the wing no longer trapped air. I don't think of myself as exceptional flexible.
2. Worrying about over head snagging also seems a weird idea, since the claim is that front mounted dumps are actually more accessible than rear ones. Which would actually argue for rear facing dumps, if reason 1 was true, and reason 2 was true.
So does anyone know why Dive Rite made the switch, or why other manufacturers have the dumps in front, in low lift "Travel Wings" size, which are not actually big enough to wrap around tanks?
Or alternately are there any manufacturers that have Travel Wings that have rear butt dumps?
They did it to piss off PADI. Bout the time e-learning was being developed and instructors were given the mind control drugs at their idc's to prevent them from thinking on their own.
OP
beanojones
Contributor
- Messages
- 3,204
- Reaction score
- 350
There are tech BC's (wings) that have over pressure valves on both the side facing the divers back and also the side facing the tanks (e.g. Deep Outdoors). Plus, some have them on the left, some on the right and some have them on both sides.
Personally, I like left side facing the diver for several reasons.
1) On Open Circuit I like to keep the right side (hand) free from having to control buoyancy, checking guages etc. This is because you donate air with your right hand in an out of air situation and you also tie / knots, work lines etc with it and operate your primary light for signalling etc.
2) I can easily find my (or my buddies) valve and dump air quickly when needed without looking. I simply find the left hip D ring on my harness and the valve is directly behind it. This is also how we locate our pressure guages and stage bottle rear clips.
3) If the valve is on the outside of the wing facing the tank, you have to reach around any stage/deco/bailout bottle clipped off, then around the wing to reach the valve, which is ridiculous.
quick side note... tank wraparound should not come into it. This only happens when you have a bc that is too big for your rig, or you use a single tank with a doubles wing or a wing that attempts to fit both singles and doubles. If you need a big wing due to steels, stages, drysuit etc, then you will have enough air in it to prvent it wrapping too much.
Cheers
Personally, I like left side facing the diver for several reasons.
1) On Open Circuit I like to keep the right side (hand) free from having to control buoyancy, checking guages etc. This is because you donate air with your right hand in an out of air situation and you also tie / knots, work lines etc with it and operate your primary light for signalling etc.
2) I can easily find my (or my buddies) valve and dump air quickly when needed without looking. I simply find the left hip D ring on my harness and the valve is directly behind it. This is also how we locate our pressure guages and stage bottle rear clips.
3) If the valve is on the outside of the wing facing the tank, you have to reach around any stage/deco/bailout bottle clipped off, then around the wing to reach the valve, which is ridiculous.
quick side note... tank wraparound should not come into it. This only happens when you have a bc that is too big for your rig, or you use a single tank with a doubles wing or a wing that attempts to fit both singles and doubles. If you need a big wing due to steels, stages, drysuit etc, then you will have enough air in it to prvent it wrapping too much.
Cheers
It's easy. Wing tacos around the tank. Dump valve now faces away from the tank and is easily accessible and able to more completely empty the wing. If it were the other way around, you'd have to have some sort of super power to reach *through* the wing to get to the dump valve. Either that or you pull the wing down to get access to the dump valve which would end up trapping air.
If you ever got any wings from Dive Rite with dump valves facing away from the diver, I'd send them back. DR is usually very good about replacing manufacturing defects.
If you ever got any wings from Dive Rite with dump valves facing away from the diver, I'd send them back. DR is usually very good about replacing manufacturing defects.
BabyDuck
Contributor
beano, can you post a pic of the wing you're talking about?
Similar threads
