The new Freedom Contour - The Rolex of backplates.

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Okay, I transplanted my harness and wing from my soon-to-be-retired BP and onto my new Freedom plate.

I now have some observations and questions.

- I got a size Large plate. I'm 6' 1" with a 34" inseam. When I put the plate on my back and move it up and down until it seems to really nestle into place, it has the waist belt coming around my stomach at about my belly button. If I slide it down about 2 or 3 inches, then the waist belt is where my waist belt normally goes with my other BPs. No big deal, I reckon. Just an observation.

- I have a HOG 23 # wing I'm putting on it. The HOG wing has built-in tank stabilizer rails down each side. The built-in tank stabilizers seem to be just about exactly the same distance apart as the FP's tank rails. So, I don't see how I can use this wing with it mounted on top of the STA.

- I tried removing the STA and sandwiching the wing in between the plate and the STA. The bolts are not long enough.

- I tried using the bolts that came with the FP to just mount the wing without the STA. The nuts are probably just barely big enough to not pull through the grommets, but the bolts themselves would interfere with the tank. So, I changed over to the plastic sex bolts I was using to hold the wing onto my previous plate and that works okay.

The issue I am concerned about is that I don't see any way to use my wing AND the supplied STA.

If I were to get longer bolts, then I think I could do that with no problems.

If I use it with the wing and no STA, then the tank bottom won't be pushed out to hold the tank at the same angle that it would be when using the STA. And the bottom part of the tank would be pinching the wing between the tank and plate. Though it appears that the part of the wing where the bladder is would be past the bottom of the plate, so the bladder itself would not be pinched.

Any suggestions?

What I would LIKE to do is be able to swap tanks without doing anything to hold or position the wing. And have the tank at the "right" angle.

Should I just look for longer bolts, so I can sandwich the wing between the plate and STA?

Or should I leave it like it is and not worry about using the STA?
Reading through this post again....

The reason the bolts are not long enough with the wing sandwiched under the bracket is because the tank bracket base is sitting on those tank stabilizers on the Hog wing and holding it away too far away. This is bad.
Thinking about this, the only way to cure the problem would be to remove the inner rods in the wing
that make up the tank stabilizers (as already mentioned).
If you're not willing to do this then I would suggest looking at other wing options, or I will need to come up with a different bracket solution.
The plate is really designed to be used with the bracket to get the full benefit of the angle of the tank, it's one of the cornerstones of the design.

This kind of thing is one of the reasons the plate used to have a welded on bracket in the past.
 
Would it work to remove the rail covers, unscrew the top bolt but leave the bar in place, position the wing over the railing with one of the upper holes on wing aligned with the top bolt position on plate, then use a sex bolt to hold wing? The sta’s on the Hog wing are inconvenient but it is doable with the older model contour.
 
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Would it work to remove the rail covers, unscrew the top bolt but leave the bar in place, position the wing over the railing with one of the upper holes on wing aligned with the top bolt position on plate, then use a sex bolt to hold wing? The sta’s on the Hog wing are inconvenient but it is doable with the older model contour.
I don't think it will work with the built in roll control rods in a Hog wing at all with this new tank bracket.
I widened the bar placement by about 1/4" and also increased the size of the rods from 5/16" to 3/8" in an effort to get the weight up.
The tank bracket really needs to be securely bolted on with the stock 5/16" bolts top and bottom.
I'm finding out that Hog is probably not an ideal choice of wing for the FP. They apparently don't seem to play nice with each other without a few mods to the wing.
I wish I had every single tank wing in every configuration in my shop so I could see what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately that's close to impossible for me at this time.
 
Just for info:
The bracket pads (the part that will sit over the hole grommets on a wing) are 2.5" wide. The little bar in the middle of the bracket is also 2.5" wide. This little center bar needs to be there so that when the cam bands are torqued down the middle of the plate and bracket don't suck in. It's essentially a bend stopper.
So, anybody thinking about getting an FP, do some measuring on your wing to make sure that what you have will work.
 
Weeeelll... I have implemented a much simpler solution that seems to be okay.

The bottom bolt that came with the plate is 1" long. I went to Lowe's and got another carriage bolt the same size but 1.5" long.

I sandwiched the wing between the plate and STA, moved the 1" bolt up to the top and put the 1.5" bolt in the bottom.

The stabilizer rods in the HOG wing seem to be just about exactly the same width apart as the width of the STA mounting plates. Or, perhaps I should say, the wing stabilizer rods are just slightly narrower. With the STA on top, the rods are right under the edges of the mounting plates.

No big deal.

I put it all together and tightened the nuts down. I don't know what the wing stabilizer rods are made out of, but they crushed down pretty well. The STA mounting plates just crushed the very ends of the wing's stabilizer bars, so no big deal at all, as far as I'm concerned. There is still plenty of rod left in there to stabilize a tank if I ever move the wing back to a conventional back plate. And I didn't have to cut my wing or remove the rods.

With the 1" bolt in the top, 1.5" in the bottom, and the wing sandwiched in there, I mounted the rig onto one of my HP100 tanks. I did this after removing the rubber hose that came installed over the STA rails. Like that, it looks like the 1" bolt at the top comes very close to touching the tank, but I think it might just barely be clearing it. It's hard to tell. The top bolt is definitely not hitting the tank and holding it away from the rails, anyway. The 1.5" bolt in the bottom comes nowhere near touching the tank and, actually, I really don't see why the bottom bolt needs to be any longer than the top bolt in any configuration. The back plate and STA mounting plate appear to be the same thickness at the top and bottom locations, so the bolts seem like they should be the same length top and bottom. As the FCP was shipped, it seems like it could have just as well had 2 bolts that were short, like the top bolt that came with it was.

Regardless, it's all together now and seems fine. If the crushed parts of the stabilizer bars are holding the STA out away from the BP by some extra amount, it definitely seems negligible. If I use it and determine that the top bolt is scratching the tank, I could just put the rubber hose back on the rails and that will surely fix it. Or, I could put a thin washer somewhere between the BP and the STA to space it out 1/16" or so.

Or, I might get a 1" wide nylon webbing cinch strap and sandwich it between the wing and STA, with the top bolt going through it, to make a tank hanger strap for hanging the whole rig on a tank, at the right height, while I do up the tank straps. That should also push the STA out just enough to ensure the top bolt doesn't scratch the tank.

Anyway, I'm taking it diving! (next weekend)

@Eric Sedletzky, the 1.5" bolt I got from Lowe's is Zinc plated, I think. I would be okay with that. But, it also has raised lettering on the bolt head. The bolts that came with the plate are totally smooth (and stainless, of course). I'm just anal enough to be slightly bothered that the raised lettering might eventually rub a blemish into my wetsuit. Where can I get another 1" bolt exactly like the one that came with my plate? I'm pretty sure 1" is long enough for the bottom bolt, even with the wing sandwiched in there.
 
Anyway, I'm taking it diving! (next weekend)

Looking forward to your report.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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