Backplate / Oxycheck questions

[gbrandon]

Im looking into buying a backplate/wings setup for my cold water diving. (Pacific ocean off california). I use a single PST E-7 100 right now with a drysuit (compressed neoprene) and would like to know the following:

What should the backplate weigh and what material? Should I be looking at a aluminum 11lb backplate or a 6lb SS backplate? Do they make both in SS and aluminum? I want to get some weight off my weight belt. Im most likely going to buy a Koplin.

I have my mind made up for the oxycheck wing. Next question...what lift, the #30 or the #45? Note that I will only be diving singles with this setup. which brings me to the next question..

How do I eliminate the STA (single tank adapter)? I thought I read on here that It can be done. Is this correct?

Is all the webbing, etc basically the same or should I be looking for specific things? Ie, D-rings, pockets, etc?

Any info appreciated...

 

[Dryglove]

gbrandon once bubbled...

What should the backplate weigh and what material? Should I be looking at a aluminum 11lb backplate or a 6lb SS backplate? Do they make both in SS and aluminum? I want to get some weight off my weight belt. Im most likely going to buy a Koplin.

I have my mind made up for the oxycheck wing. Next question...what lift, the #30 or the #45? Note that I will only be diving singles with this setup. which brings me to the next question..

How do I eliminate the STA (single tank adapter)? I thought I read on here that It can be done. Is this correct?

Is all the webbing, etc basically the same or should I be looking for specific things? Ie, D-rings, pockets, etc?

Any info appreciated...

As far as the weight of the BP it depends how much weight you want to take off of your weightbelt. I personally use a fredt bp that weighs about 8lbs with no harness and about 9lbs with the harness. Aluminum Bp's dont come in 11lb versions.Aluminum bp's generally weigh a few pounds.

Both Koplin and fredt make very high quality bp's and come in many sizes and weight configurations to fit your needs.

One important aspect of a wing is it should be able to float your gear at the surface without you being in it which could be important if you kayak or small boat dive where you have to board the boat or kayak then pull your gear up.Its kind of hard to try to get your gear on and off when its trying to sink There have been some good reports from the 45lb wing which is the one i may buy in a few months.Most people would push the halcyon 36lb wing before the koplin wings came out. My 36lb wing just barely floats my setup in salt water without me in it.

The only way to eliminate the STA is with the halcyon newer style wings with the 2 ribs. I personally cut the ribs out of my wing and use a fredt 2pc STA which i like much better.

From what i have seen the majority of the d-rings and webbing are the same.They ussually include a d-ring at the left hip and a d-ring on each shoulder strap near the collar bone.

The nice thing about a bp is you can further balance and remove weight from your weightbelt with the use of a channel weight.

My single tank set up consists of a 8lb bp, 2pc sta(2lbs), channel weight(7lbs i think) and a 8lb weightbelt. Sure beats wearing all 25lbs on a weightbelt.

 

[gbrandon]

lal7176 once bubbled...



As far as the weight of the BP it depends how much weight you want to take off of your weightbelt. I personally use a fredt bp that weighs about 8lbs with no harness and about 9lbs with the harness. Aluminum Bp's dont come in 11lb versions.Aluminum bp's generally weigh a few pounds.

Both Koplin and fredt make very high quality bp's and come in many sizes and weight configurations to fit your needs.

One important aspect of a wing is it should be able to float your gear at the surface without you being in it which could be important if you kayak or small boat dive where you have to board the boat or kayak then pull your gear up.Its kind of hard to try to get your gear on and off when its trying to sink There have been some good reports from the 45lb wing which is the one i may buy in a few months.Most people would push the halcyon 36lb wing before the koplin wings came out. My 36lb wing just barely floats my setup in salt water without me in it.

The only way to eliminate the STA is with the halcyon newer style wings with the 2 ribs. I personally cut the ribs out of my wing and use a fredt 2pc STA which i like much better.

From what i have seen the majority of the d-rings and webbing are the same.They ussually include a d-ring at the left hip and a d-ring on each shoulder strap near the collar bone.

The nice thing about a bp is you can further balance and remove weight from your weightbelt with the use of a channel weight.

My single tank set up consists of a 8lb bp, 2pc sta(2lbs), channel weight(7lbs i think) and a 8lb weightbelt. Sure beats wearing all 25lbs on a weightbelt.

Thanks for the info. Ill have to call and get a reccomendation from koplin regarding what size I want. It sounds like I want a 1/4" thick SS which should come out to about 11lbs?

My main reason for wanting to do without the STA was that I heard that since your tank is spaced away from the wing your trim is off a bit since the center of gravity has moved and also that its harder to reach your tank valve when your wearing it. are these points true?

Im still at a loss of the channell weight. Can you elaborate? Is it simply a channell of SS or Lead that slides onto the backplate? If so, where does it attach and how does it attach?

A 8lb weightbelt sounds great!! Also, would you reccomend a soft weight belt like the sea soft? Im currently diving a jacket bc with integrated weights so im kinda spoiled by not having something else to put on every dive.

Lastly, are you dry suit diving?? what tank are you using?

 

[MrSquid]

gbrandon once bubbled...


My main reason for wanting to do without the STA was that I heard that since your tank is spaced away from the wing your trim is off a bit since the center of gravity has moved and also that its harder to reach your tank valve when your wearing it. are these points true?

Don't worry about this... I too cut the built-in STA from my Pioneer wing and went with a conventional STA. It only moves the tank about 1/8" further away.

 

[Dryglove]

gbrandon once bubbled...



Im still at a loss of the channell weight. Can you elaborate? Is it simply a channell of SS or Lead that slides onto the backplate? If so, where does it attach and how does it attach?

A 8lb weightbelt sounds great!! Also, would you reccomend a soft weight belt like the sea soft? Im currently diving a jacket bc with integrated weights so im kinda spoiled by not having something else to put on every dive.

Lastly, are you dry suit diving?? what tank are you using?

Here is a picture of the channel weight that fredt made for my bp.It can be held in place with the cam straps if using the newer style halcyon wing with the built in sta or in my case the two pc STA bolts directly to it sandwiching the wing.Just be careful not to get to much weight up high so you wont be head heavy or feet light.With my 8lb belt it seems to balance out pretty good.

You can also make your own as they arent really that hard to make.I have made a few for my double 72's. If you make your own you can custom design the amount of lead poured in the channel.

I purchased my weightbelt form heath74 on this board and just use softweights in it. http://www.idsewing.com/

When i dive single tanks i use a faber LP95 . Yes i dive a trilam drysuit.

Hope this helps

 

[Dryglove]

Here is a link for making one. Just one quick note, as far as i know a channel weight and p-weight are the same thing. A v-weight is used for doubles. Just so you know the difference.

http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/vweight/pweight.htm

 

[SeaJay]

That looks much cleaner and easier than I ever thought it would be. Pretty impressive...

Hey, about this "poisionous vapor" thing... What do I have to do to prevent toxicity? Will a simple breathing mask work?

I've also heard that if there's moisture, your lead can "pop." How bad is it? What do you do to prevent the problem?

 

[Dryglove]

SeaJay once bubbled...

Hey, about this "poisionous vapor" thing... What do I have to do to prevent toxicity? Will a simple breathing mask work?

I've also heard that if there's moisture, your lead can "pop." How bad is it? What do you do to prevent the problem?

I poured the ones i made in my garage with the garage door open.Im sure i still killed a brain cell or two anyways

I was told to make sure there is no moisture around the hot lead or in it as it will make the lead pop. I made sure all my lead was dry and had no problems. It would still be wise to wear eye and face protection along with a full leather suit if you own one Like i said i am no expert on this and have made about 4-5 channel weights of varying weight to suit my needs depending on which tanks im diving and which exposure protection im using.The main thing is, just be extremely cautious and careful around hot lead as it could spoil your day and your channel weight if handled wrong. :boom:

 

[JeffG]

SeaJay once bubbled...
That looks much cleaner and easier than I ever thought it would be. Pretty impressive...

Hey, about this "poisionous vapor" thing... What do I have to do to prevent toxicity? Will a simple breathing mask work?

I've also heard that if there's moisture, your lead can "pop." How bad is it? What do you do to prevent the problem?

It is that easy. Just have the wind at your back, and wear some good coveralls, and some heavy duty gloves (just in case).

Moisture...Pop...??? I never had any problems..Where would the moisture come from, where you couldn't dry it off?

Jeff

 

[FredT]

JeffG once bubbled...

Where would the moisture come from, where you couldn't dry it off?

Jeff

Lead recovered from the sea is often wet INSIDE! As lead cools it shrinks. This can open micro cracks into a porus area in the center of the casting. Once this porosity has filled wiht water it's alomst impossible to get it out short of serious heating. This "little bit" of water will expand to 1800 times it's origainal volume when it flashes to steam! Strange how it can empty the pot rather quickly.

I had a full 200# pot 1/4 empty itself when my son "helped me" by tossing in a 2 pound teardrop fishing weight we had recovered from a liberty ship. Time delay between the lead hitting the hot pot the a curtain of molten lead coming out of it was about 2 seconds. The effect was about the same a dropping bowling ball into the pot from about 30' up

Any "suspect" lead should be assumed to be "wet" and treated accordingly. Suspect lead has to be loaded into the cold pot FIRST so the water has a chance to boil out while the lead is still mostly solid as it heats to melting.

Moisture can also come from rain, sweat dropping off your hair, and the odd bird flying over.

FT