Am I carrying to much weight on my Halcyon Wing and harness

[MXGratefulDiver]

Total ballast, no, not enough info.

Too much rig mounted ballast for a 40 lbs wing? More than enough info.

Tobin

Granted ... never been a fan of integrated BCDs for cold water diving for just that reason. Most of what a cold water diver's carrying in ballast is for offsetting the inherent buoyancy of their exposure gear. In a neo drysuit with thick undergarment, it's easy to so overload a BCD with lead that it won't float if you take it off ... even in some cases where you really do need all that lead.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[scubadude223]

I have an aluminum tank 80
I have a trilam Drysuit
I am diving with a Bare T100 Undergarmet

 

[cool_hardware52]

I have an aluminum tank 80
I have a trilam Drysuit
I am diving with a Bare T100 Undergarmet

With an al 80 you rig is ~ -42 lbs with a full cylinder and provides ~ 36 lbs of ballast with an empty cylinder.

I haven't used a Bare T-100 undergarment, but I doubt it's +36 lbs.

I'd suggest you test your suit.

Put on your undies and suit,

Jump into neck deep water with a bag of too much lead.

Vent the suit

Pick up your feet, if you sink remove some lead from the bag and repeat until you just barely sink

Weigh the bag of lead. This represents the buoyancy of your suit (and you) with minimum gas in the suit, at the surface.

It's a reasonable starting point.

You may be able to reduce this a bit more.

My definition of minimum ballast is the amount required to hold a shallow stop with an empty tank.

Given that your undies will compress as you descend your suit will be less buoyant at 15 ft than it will be at the surface with minimum gas in. This may allow to conduct dives with less total ballast, but it's something you can sneek up on.

Do a dive, at your shallow stop with ~500 psi see if your wing has much gas in it. If it does you can drop a bit more ballast.

Tobin

 

[tbone1004]

Tobin, it's usually a function of how the weight of the head is factored into required wing lift that I like to know combined with submerged required ballast. Takes much too long for most people and the "normal" way that you usually recommend is how we end up teaching it. It's nit picking, but since I dive without ditchable weight due to doubles I like to have the weight of my head factored into my wing lift, especially in a drysuit. It's specific to the way I dive, but unfortunately I'm always severely overweighted due to twin tanks.

In this case I'm thinking the OP has too much air in his suit and needs to get that sorted out.

 

[KevinNM]

I have an aluminum tank 80
I have a trilam Drysuit
I am diving with a Bare T100 Undergarmet

My Bare trilam with the SB base and midlayer takes 18 pounds of lead in the pouches of my Halcyon infinity to get me properly weighted in fresh water. No STA weight, just the metal STA with an 80. So unless you are a really big guy that seems like a whole lot of extra lead.

 

[cool_hardware52]

Tobin, it's usually a function of how the weight of the head is factored into required wing lift that I like to know combined with submerged required ballast. Takes much too long for most people and the "normal" way that you usually recommend is how we end up teaching it. It's nit picking, but since I dive without ditchable weight due to doubles I like to have the weight of my head factored into my wing lift, especially in a drysuit. It's specific to the way I dive, but unfortunately I'm always severely overweighted due to twin tanks.

In this case I'm thinking the OP has too much air in his suit and needs to get that sorted out.

What I suggest for doubles is wing lift equal to or great than:

The weight of the diver's back gas + the buoyancy of their Drysuit +3 lbs.

If the diver is weighted so that they are negative by the weight of their back gas + ~3 lbs at the start of the dive they will have unused wing capacity at least equal to the buoyancy of their suit. Unless you have an unusually huge, high density, noggin that should provide enough lift to get your chin out of the water.

Tobin