Pony slinging feedback

[RyanT]

Keep the knob outboard. You want to be able to easily reach down with your left hand to manipulate the valve. If the valve is tucked in, you'll have a hard time reaching it.

 

[saxman242]

Using a choker on the bolt snap is definitely the way to go.

 

[Cyborg Pirate]

Take a piece 5'16" bungee (the white stuff from West Marine since it has more stretch than the black dive stuff has) and make a small loop out of it. Maybe about 3" diameter or so. Put this around the tank valve before putting the regulator on. then clip the top bolt snap into the bungee with the opening pointing away from the tank. All set!

This will keep the bolt snap tight to the valve and thus hold your tank up tighter to your body. The bungee works much like the Dive Rite choker system but allows the bolt snap to be pulled away from the valve to make clipping and unclipping much easier.

This is my suggestion as well. The stretchable choker makes it cabale of clipping and unclippingnit but keeps it tight to the Dring. As Tbone mentioned look at where your Dring is....

 

[CWK]

Using a choker on the bolt snap is definitely the way to go.View attachment 509214

For me, the valve would be facing the wrong way.

 

[GJC]

I have an oxycheq bpw with a hogarthian harness.

View attachment 509146 View attachment 509147

In addition to the above suggestions:

The lower tie looks too long. Shortening it and maybe even moving the lower band higher will pull the cylinder closer to your body and put the top more toward your feet and under your shoulder. The distance between your d rings (shoulder and waist) should be about the same as the distance between the snap bolts at their longest stretch. The further apart the snap bolts are, the more your cylinder will sag and flop around.

 

[1atm]

Before you change the rigging kit, you can try adjusting the length of the lower bolt snap by threading it under the rigging kit. Ie take the lower bolt snap and pass it along with its cord under the rubber tubed part of the rigging kit.

If you only have one stage (rather than multiple, no scooter etc), you can also clip the bottom clip to the crotch D-ring.

I dont dive pony’s, but do dive stages (Al80, Al40, etc), and I like to be able to work with standard rigging kits. What I’m trying to say, before changing the rigging kit, change the distance between boltsnaps, etc, do try to find ways to make standard setups work. It will make your life easier when renting/borrowing gear eg in vacation. If it doesnt work well that way, then by all means adjust the gear.

Regarding the valve, I have the knob facing left and the valve orifice facing up. I cant think of anyone I know who dives differently. The way you have rigged it in your pics looks good to me.

One more comment regarding the position of the shoulder D ring: make sure this is in the right place for using the D ring, ie to reach it intuitively, rather than driven by what you want to do with the pony. Plenty of tutorials online on hogarthian or DIR setups, but loosely speaking it would sit at or very near to your collar bone.

 

[Fastmarc]

The choker did the trick for me as well. However I do not have the choker in the hook of the snap. I prefer the snap to be facing forward, so I thread the snap through the choker, leaving the hook free for only the shoulder D-ring.

 

[Darcimus]

I dive an i3 so I gotta sling my 40 on the right side. Sucks, but I make do. Still on the fence about BP/W and just going sidemount so I gotta suck it up for a bit longer. Can't do doubles. My back won't be happy with the added weight.

 

[wKkaY]

Thanks for the feedback, the choker was exactly what I needed. Diving the pony has been quite comfortable except when I want to flip over (e.g. going belly up to look at something above me or when surfacing). When available I use a small 2lb tail weight to help with trim.

 

[Bowers]

you may also be interested in slinging it like a sidemount bottle. put a loop of bungee under your armpit on the backplate that can be looped over the valve to pull it up tight. lower attachment just goes high on a waist d ring. with valve knob pointing out. this allows for amazing streamliming. picture is with al40, but a 19would be similar principles