bands and manifolds for mini doubles

[Bowers]

I've posted before about practicality of mini doubles, and have also seen double lp50s used a few times now. My question is; where to find the bands and manifolds for these smaller diameter tanks? I have looked on a quick google search and seem to only find larger diameter bands and manifolds that span around 8"
I currently own 2 AL40's with a diameter just over 4".

 

[Akimbo]

I currently own 2 AL40's with a diameter just over 4".

Are you sure that they are just over 4"? Most steel and aluminum small diameter 40 and 50s are 5.25". You also need to know the manifold centerline spacing. Most of the baby doubles use the less common 190mm manifolds instead of 215mm. I just bought another set of steel double 50s from Piranha. They have a pretty good selection of these components.

 

[Marie13]

I've posted before about practicality of mini doubles, and have also seen double lp50s used a few times now. My question is; where to find the bands and manifolds for these smaller diameter tanks? I have looked on a quick google search and seem to only find larger diameter bands and manifolds that span around 8"
I currently own 2 AL40's with a diameter just over 4".

Contact DRIS - Dive Right in Scuba. They actually sell a complete set of 50s doubled up so see what they can do for you on the bands and manifold for your tanks.

 

[MichaelMc]

I've been looking at this for tiny LP50's, which I understand are 5.51/140mm, same diameter as 7L. AL40 seem to be 5.25 diameter, bands for that may be very uncommon.

U.S. distributers with LP50 doubles seem to include:
* DGX with 8.5"/215mm centers via email,
* DRIS whose product QA claims 9" centers,
* NESS whose separate bands are 'are cut wider to fit 99 percent of the manifolds',
* Piranha with 190mm c-t-c manifold but their band descriptions are a bit confusing.

Europeans have 5.51"/140mm diameter tank bands in 6.3"/160mm and 'wide' 7.3"/185mm separations. And manifold center isolation bars to match from such as BsT, and Apeks, and for bands from V4Tech.

The separation piece of the manifold, the center isolation bar, is separate from the valve parts, but whether euro bands and isolation bar and US valves would be happy is unclear to me. Such as DGX long valves and a BsT 160mm isolation bar. Any advice there on a pursuit of narrow separation for tiny doubles would be welcome. Or if DGX manifolds are just BsT one as they look rather similar.

 

[runsongas]

Doubles Bands Set w/Bolts for 5.5-Inch Cyl

link for the dgx bands

 

[MichaelMc]

@Bowers, I don't know that bands for 5.5" tanks (LP50) will work well for 5.25" tanks (AL40).

I had considered twin AL40s, but the capacity of LP50s swayed me. There were tiny doubles threads that mention people that make custom bands.

 

[Akimbo]

I had considered twin AL40s, but the capacity of LP50s swayed me. There were tiny doubles threads that mention people that make custom bands.

I haven't got these in the water yet but these new gray Faber LP-50's buoyancy characteristics are not bad for warm or cold water:

• DIAMETER: 5.5 inches each
• LENGTH: 25.2 inches each
• WEIGHT EMPTY: 18.9 lbs each
• BUOYANCY FULL: -2.43 lbs each
• BUOYANCY EMPTY: 1.24 lbs each

 

[JohnnyC]

Another possibility is going with LOLA valves and the LOLA "manifold." The isolator is on the valve itself, one each side. The manifold is simply a piece of stainless flexible tubing with a DIN connector on each end. It allows for doubles use, or separating for sidemount, without having to dump the gas and screw around with the crossbar, looking for plugs, etc. Just pop a sealed DIN plug and drive on.

By going with the "soft" manifold, you could pretty easily get whatever size band separation you'd like, simply by buying a set of off-the-shelf bands and taking it to a local fab shop. They should be able to chop the center plate on a set of bands and re-weld them at whatever separation you'd like. It would probably take longer to re-drill the holes after wards than chop and weld the plates.

 

[Bowers]

thank you guys for the help. i'm going to look into the lola valves, otherwise looks like getting a 190 crossbar and making my own bands may be the best option.

 

[MichaelMc]

@Bowers, Disregard my remark that 5.25" AL40 bands would be hard to find. I looked again at the 5.5" bands, and they list as working for 5.25" AL40's. Which makes sense as the center plates would just be pulled 3/4" closer (circumference = 3.14 * diameter), presuming they built them for that to work. If yours really are 4"+ that is a different story.

AL40 twins look appealing for being less negative, but my thinnest NorCal suit should still give me reasonable ditchable weight with LP50s. Even though LP50 doubles look 7 lb. negative empty ((2 x 1.24) tanks - 4.8 manifold - 5 bands) without regs. People do add crush resistant foam or air tubes to make cameras less negative, I could add a few pounds of lift to the doubles and matching lead to me if needed. It would be awkward to help teach with very little ditchable weight on my recreational doubles, when we emphasize having ditchable for surface safety.