Beuchat 140 CuFt - comments?

[WetDane]

Hey All,

I'm considering a couple of Beuchat 140s - couple of reasons:

1 - they are 140s...
2 - 18 lbs Neg when empty
3 - would like to loose some weight from my belt.

So I wonder if anyone dives these - any comments about the weight or quality or anything like that?

And yes, I may just go and mount them as doubles for the heck of it... Still have to do the math on that one though...

I dive a dry suit in 45 - 50 degree water and generally wear about 45 lbs on the belt...

Thanks,
Terkel

 

[Green_Manelishi]

man alive you must be one big/strong diver to be willing
to schlep that load.

so far the largest i've ever seen is a 125 and it was more of a burden than I cared to carry. I cannot imagine the size
of a 140.

if a 140 is 18 neg what it is when FULL? You might need some
extra lift in your BC to compensate for such an initially negative cylinder.

G_M

 

[WetDane]

Hmm - that's a very good point G_M
It's about 40lbs neg when full - give or take. Cylinder itself is about 63 lbs, so a hunking piece of steel, but I did the math and found that I would come out about 10 Lbs less than my current setup due to all the lead I can get of my belt... My complete rigs scales in around 130 lbs incl. lead and light.
And in case you wonder, I'm a healthy Scandinavian boy... I know people look funny at me when I tell them what my rig weighs - but hey - at least I have not started talking about mounting them as doubles yet...

Terkel

 

[rcohn]

80 cf weighs about 6 lb (too lazy to look up the exact value) so 140 cf weighs roughly 6(140/80)= 10.5 lb.
18 lb neg + 10.5 lb = 28.5 lb negative when full IF the 18 lb value is correct.

In any case, still a huge amount of negative buoyancy for doubles.

Ralph

 

[WetDane]

Thanks for the correction Ralph,
you're right - it's 28 lbs Neg when full.
I have 55 lbs lift in the rec wings from Dive Rite so I'll be fine - my only concern is if would just be better off getting a couple of 104's and mount them up as doubles right away?!
The Beuchats are on sale for $200 - that's the main thing...

Cheers,
Terkel

 

[rcohn]

I'm not a tech diver (Where have they all gone lately?) but,
28 lb + 28 lb = 56 lb
and you'll need to add to that the weight of any other gear you're carrying such as reels, backplate, canister light, stage/deco bottles, regulators, argon bottle, tools, etc. A BC with only 55 lb lift is certainly not enough buoyancy for double 140s. Remember you can't ditch your doubles on the bottom when you find you have insufficient buoyancy to surface. Tech divers have died this way.

I think you need to seriously rethink your gear configuration.

Ralph

 

[large_diver]

This got me thinking....I have no experience with this, so maybe others can answer...

I heard of a diving death in the relatively recent past where a diver with steel doubles (unclear if he was wearing wet or dry suit) jumped into the water before he turned his gas on and had no air in his BC/wing. He plummeted straight to the bottom (130ft) and was found dead on the bottom with his tanks 100% full. I believe this was on the U-853 off of Rhode Island here on the US east coast.

I also know that DIR advocates stress that people who dive steel tanks (Especially doubles) should not dive in wetsuits.

All that being said -- I guess the point here is that you need to be able to get yourself back to the surface if something goes wrong....this is obviously hard with larger/multiple steel tank gear configs and even harder if that includes a wetsuit that compresses and becomes less buoyant at depth.

Which leads to my question (finally) -- for doubles divers -- are you able to ascend from a deeper dive (say 90-100 feet) if your BC/wing became unusable? Is this a requirement that you evaluate when choosing your gear config?

Thanks for your patience.

 

[WetDane]

He he -
Ralph, you're right again - I got it a little confused -
I was talking about 55# lift for a single 140.
The consideration is to go with regular LP or HP steels at 104 CuFt, such as the PS and mount those as doubles - I think that would work with a 55# lift as they have far less negative - even when full - this is also my mian consideration as far as getting a couple of the 140s just for kicks... Maybe I should just get the 104s as they would make far better candidates for double mounting...

Thanks,
Terkel

 

[rcohn]

Large_Diver,

I'll repost this over here. Note that George Irvine is one of the main guru's of DIR diving so this defines the DIR approach. Other technical divers may have different opinions.

There was a death last year in a PA quarry when a diver jumped in in full tech gear, no air in the BC, and the tanks turned off. I'm sure it wasn't the only time this has happened Clearly any diver should do a predive check confirming that your air is on and your regulators and inflator work. IMO the ability to reach your valves to turn on your air (that's a major reason to use isolated doubles) and in open water diving having ditchable ballast (particularly when jumping in with an empty BC) are critical.


Ralph


***************************************************************************
Since the Al vs. steel issue has come up I thought I'd copy the following which explains the logic behind the dogma that is so frequently repeated. Note that George is talking about doubles.

Ralph

http://www.aquanaut.com/bin/mlist/aquanaut/techdiver/display?46829,from

From: "George Irvine" <kirvine@safari.net>
Subject: Re: DIHUL, was: Fins question
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 12:24:09 -0500

I keep saying it - weight yourself so that with little or no gas you can hover at ten feet, and with full gas you can swim up with no inflation by dropping something.

That covers it.

For tank choice in ocean, big heavy tanks are dangerous boat diving, so are not my first choice. I'd rather add a stage and dive it dry , leaving my back gas intact.

Cave diving is different in that you need more gas to go farther and the decompression is in a safe environment,not open sea with all its vagaries.

 

[LesleyDSO]

This would work with 55lb lift at what depth, WetDane? You say you have a drysuit which will give you added lift. But this is a very negative tank to be trying to get off the bottom if you have a failure with buoyancy. Even if you determine it to be enough lift for you, what about your buddy? Not enough divers consider the possibility of having to bring a buddy up who, for some reason, has no lift. You need enough lift for you and your buddy. If you're planning to use this tank for shallower diving, why do you need something so huge? I can't imagine you're planning to spend hours in water that temperature - drysuit or not. I know they're cheap, but they're only cheap if they do what you want. Otherwise it's just a waste of money and another set of tanks to be moved on. I often have divers wanting to sell these big tanks thru the shop - always the same reasons - too heavy, too negative, too much roll. One wonders why the present owner wants to move them on...