"Best" Tanks for Sidemount, and Why?

[Rainer]

Jax, any reason in particular you're looking to dive sidemount? Redundancy?

 

[karstdvr]

There is no perfect...

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I agree. Perfect is defined by the situation. I own 72s, lp80s, 85's, 95's, 108's, and 120's,and will use different tanks for different types of caves and types of dives ie survey/exploration. When I encounter someone who is very new to sidemounting I usually encourage 85's because of their bouyancy and trim characterisitics.

 

[rongoodman]

Do you prefer the Fabers or Worthingtons? I started out with Worthington LP85s and still have two that aren't doubled up.

 

[Scott L]

Jax, any reason in particular you're looking to dive sidemount? Redundancy?

 

[joystershell]

Mike had been using his LP95's to sidemount, but will now be trying out some LP85's, which we have heard are great for that type of diving.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

So, do you have a singles rig and a sidemount rig? Or do you put a single on your sidemount rig?

The Nomad can be used side mount, with back mounted doubles or with a single tank. That capability would be great if I were flying to one or more destinations on the same trip where I needed to dive in sidemount, single or back mounted doubles configurations.

However, given a choice, I dive a sidemount configuration in places I want to side mount, I dive back mount with a SS plate and doubles wing in places I want to back mount in a dry suit and I dive an AL plate, single tank wing and wet suit on tropical pretty fish dives.

If I could only own one configuration and had to do all three types of diving, the Nomad would be a serious contender, but is less than optimum for back mounted doubles or single tank diving.

 

[shoredivr]

If I were mixing single tank and multi tank dives on a trip I would just take my Nomad.

Yes, plus a set of wrenches to rearrange hose routing/length.

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

Obviously Alum 80's work nice, especially for starting out and learning skill development and techniques, but if you are using steel tanks, old steel 72's work but I feel that the LP85's are real nice. If you need more gas, the HP 120's (3500psi) are also work well. The commonality as you can see is the skinnier tanks. I have dove LP98's and have trimmed out real nice but i just find the the 8 inch tanks are a little more cumbersome to work with compared to the skinnier tanks.

 

[Jax]

Jax, any reason in particular you're looking to dive sidemount? Redundancy?

At this point, I really don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

I expect to take a lot of classes, up to and including Intro to Tec and Intro to Cave, and then decide how much further I wish to take my training.

For personal reasons, I will never go back-mounted doubles, nor rebreather. Therefore, sidemount.


Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to proffer opinion and answer questions! I'm learning a lot from you and I'm being guided to the right people and thought processes for the way ahead.

Now, if I can only get this work thingy to cooperate . . .

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

That's good to hear. I don't expect to dive doubles anywhere we go on vacation. Shoot, I don't expect to dive two tanks this year!

So, do you have a singles rig and a sidemount rig? Or do you put a single on your sidemount rig?

What I'd like to hear is that I could use a sidemount rig for both sidemount, and single tank when I travel.

When I mentioned monkey diving, just slinging one tank on the side(can't do that with heavy steels btw), its for single tank recreational diving. I really only do this when I don't want to pack two sets of gear, or if my recreational BC is spoken for...

Do you prefer the Fabers or Worthingtons? I started out with Worthington LP85s and still have two that aren't doubled up.

For bigger tanks... Fabers... 85s and down, Worthingtons. Atleast IMO.