bk plate+wing to Sidemount weight difference

[Andy692]

Hi .all

how much lead to drop ( roughly )

With my bk plate and wing setup I carry 5kg of lead + 1.8kg for the SS bk plate total weight
set up for fresh cold water :
12ltr 232 faber steel
neoprene dry suit with hood, gloves and rock boots
4th element artic under suit
normal accessories , 2x reels , smb, small knife , extra mask, torch and bk up torch , extra double ender ..

for salt water
same dry suit , but no under suit only thin merinos , my weight remains the same .. ish .. 6.8kg

For salt water in a 7mm wet suit again my weighting remains much the same 6.8kg

this has been working for me for a while with a little adjustment now and then, if Im cleaning a boat or working on it ...

Im now making the transition to sidemount , and getting things sorted going to be using the same suits for the same places , but in going to be now diving with two 12ltr faber steels 232 .. so is there some stats for the fabers that tell me the buoyancy and weights ? i cant find this info .. just so I can roughly work out how much weight I can drop for the extra cylinder ? or would one of you extreme tec gurus know ..

Obviously Im going to do a end of dive weight check to dial things in , but just looking for a rough figure ..

cheers guys . .

 

[decompression]

SCUBA Cylinder Specifications – Huron Scuba, Snorkel & Adventure Travel Inc. PADI 5 star IDC in Ann Arbor, MI

 

[Fires]

Short answer in bold, waffle answer in the rest

I don't have the exact matching components to help, but I can offer some insights that may at least give you an idea. Because as you say you are going to do the usual check anyways. But first some other waffle

I have definitely porked up over the last year, so have seen that obviously affect my weighting more than anything. I started a note on my phone/laptop where I now input my weighting as much as possible when I remember it for the different configurations. I have only recently done this due to the same thing as you (swooping over to sidemount) and me now having too many variables to really remember. As time goes on I am sure some will cement themselves back into my mind, but I basically have the following variables and can make combos of them:

Wetsuit
Wetsuit + Hood
Wetsuit + Chicken Vest
Drysuit
Single cylinder
Twins
Sidemount
1 stage
2 stages
Fresh
Salt

I think that is basically it. So what I did, was create a section for each main set up (i.e. twins, backplate single, sidemount) and then under each have a wetsuit and drysuit section, and a label of fresh or salt added + the other specifics. I thought it is quite a neat idea to figure things out as I change items.

So anyways, back to your Q, the closest thing that I have that may help you is as follows. If I dive my backplate and wing (our backplates from memory are around 2 - 2.5kgs) and a 10l faber steel, with a drysuit and undergarments, I need around 8kgs in fresh. I used to be on 6, but 8 is a bit more comfortable with the thick undergarments I have.

When I go and slap on twin 12s in the same configuration and water, then I drop all that weight and I can hold a last stop with 30bar remaining. Bearing in mind the backplate is still there. So theoretically for sidemount, I should just need to add the 2.5kgs that I am missing from the backplate. But it would probably be more like 1kg as the sidemount wing also weighs in negative, but no clue if it is as much as 2.5kgs.

However, for sidemount (so far, as I have had very few dives) I used 8kgs last and was heavy at the end, this was with 2 x 12 faber steels. But I have not sorted this 100% yet as I used coltri steels that acted like alli's (pool part and needed 8kgs) and then swopped to the fabers for open water - which is where I felt too heavy. A friend of mine who is about my build etc. confirmed he was on very similar weighting.