I decided to write a review of the XDeep Stealth Tec 2 sidemount rig. Although late to the game, the information is current as of today (July 3, 2018) and I expected the product would be well seasoned by now - any bugs and shortfalls should have been worked out. This will be a 2 part review, one on assembly and one on use. They will be approximately 1 week apart as I am doing the sidemount course next weekend. I will put a final thoughts in after part 2.
Part 1 - Assembly
I recently received my X-Deep Stealth Tec 2 which I purchased as a complete set - harness, droppable weight pouch, butt plate, and Tec Wing (non-RB). It came in a really fancy box and had really fancy sealed zip pouches with the XDeep logo all over it. Looks impressive, but looks are only surface deep!
I assembled this past weekend and that is when the struggle begins. The fancy packages are not labelled with anything meaningful. Despite the manual saying if you buy everything as a kit the wing will be attached - this was not the case. The manual is useless for assembly - the instructions are half baked vaguely referring to adjustment points with yellow arrows pointing to a general vicinity. They also dont show which way things are supposed to be put. I ended up taking it apart and putting it back together only to realize I did something backwards only to take it apart again. The one thing that saved me was a video by Dave from Deep Dive Gear I found on youtube. I guessed at how the buttplate attached after putting on the wing as the instructions didnt have the wing on when assembling it - the wing changed everything - I put it on the only way I could think of doing it. There was also no information on how to make the knots to attach to the wing - "Put the bungee through a suitable mounting loop of the compensator and install a bolt-snap at the end of the loop." I also ending up chopping up my bungee's as I misjudged how long I needed to make the loops - I needed to make them alot longer than I did. Suggested size or range would have been nice.
All the straps are new and really tough to slide through the mounting clips, especially when doing connections on the underside.
One would think that Xdeep could have made some training videos on assembly instead of all the fancy packaging and promotional videos.
Oh, and I have extra parts left over but I never got to the droppable pouch. Of course I will take all these pieces with me to my first class.
My rating of XDeep assembly and instructions - fail
Part 1 - Assembly
I recently received my X-Deep Stealth Tec 2 which I purchased as a complete set - harness, droppable weight pouch, butt plate, and Tec Wing (non-RB). It came in a really fancy box and had really fancy sealed zip pouches with the XDeep logo all over it. Looks impressive, but looks are only surface deep!
I assembled this past weekend and that is when the struggle begins. The fancy packages are not labelled with anything meaningful. Despite the manual saying if you buy everything as a kit the wing will be attached - this was not the case. The manual is useless for assembly - the instructions are half baked vaguely referring to adjustment points with yellow arrows pointing to a general vicinity. They also dont show which way things are supposed to be put. I ended up taking it apart and putting it back together only to realize I did something backwards only to take it apart again. The one thing that saved me was a video by Dave from Deep Dive Gear I found on youtube. I guessed at how the buttplate attached after putting on the wing as the instructions didnt have the wing on when assembling it - the wing changed everything - I put it on the only way I could think of doing it. There was also no information on how to make the knots to attach to the wing - "Put the bungee through a suitable mounting loop of the compensator and install a bolt-snap at the end of the loop." I also ending up chopping up my bungee's as I misjudged how long I needed to make the loops - I needed to make them alot longer than I did. Suggested size or range would have been nice.
All the straps are new and really tough to slide through the mounting clips, especially when doing connections on the underside.
One would think that Xdeep could have made some training videos on assembly instead of all the fancy packaging and promotional videos.
Oh, and I have extra parts left over but I never got to the droppable pouch. Of course I will take all these pieces with me to my first class.
My rating of XDeep assembly and instructions - fail