BP/W for my first purchase + weighting ques

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Agreed. Love the innovation.

Inspiration came from looking at the following product (got to give credit where it is due):

AGIR Battery Carrier

upload_2021-4-2_21-45-22.jpeg


Instead of the buckle I used half-height D-rings I had floating around in my small parts organizer bin along with the spare tri-glides. The webbing was cut from a harness months ago and was floating around with some other junk on my workbench that as destined for the trash.

The only change I would suggest is to use 2 inch long oval/rectangular rings instead of the half-height D-rings. The D-rings work very well but as I stated, I had them already and was not interested in buying anything new to move this idea to reality. The oval/rectangular rings would just make for a more polished look...so would sewing the tri-glide into the end of the webbing like in the picture above...

...perhaps I will hand-stitch a couple of long bar-tacks with some nylon thread to secure the tri-glides when I eventually make a set of these for my wife....I am all about process/product improvement.

-Z
 
It happens. This would be a regular day:

PICT0139.JPG

but when that other picture was taken nobody else showed up so the DM offered to go see how far we can drift and we ended up dropping just over the wall in front of GoWest and drifting to the Alvin's plane wreck where the boat picked the 3 of us up.
 
What are you trying to accomplish? How much weight do you need? In what wetsuit thickness? What do you plan on doing?
You can get a Dive Rite SS BP and that weigh 6.5# so you can take that weight off or you can get a OMS SS BP and take 4# 11oz off....Aluminum will be over 2# or so. If you want to get a Zen Xdeep backplate will be closer to 8.5-9# wth STA...For example for me with a 7mm wetsuit, boots, gloves, hood I will be using the Zen Xdeep and some weights in my weight pockets...as I shed the 7mm and go to 3mm or so then I will switch to the Dive Rite since I will need less weight.
 
Sorry, more to the point...all else being equal, if I switched from an AL80 tank to a Steel 100 tank I assume I would need less lead on me. Was wondering about how much less.
 
Sorry, more to the point...all else being equal, if I switched from an AL80 tank to a Steel 100 tank I assume I would need less lead on me. Was wondering about how much less.

It really seems to me like you are looking for an equipment solution to a skills problem. For the cost of a steel 100, you could take another class that would probably be far more beneficial.

But, here's a list SCUBA Cylinder Specifications – Huron Scuba, Snorkel & Adventure Travel Inc. PADI 5 star IDC in Ann Arbor, MI
 
To bottom line the tank question for a Faber HP100 vs Luxfer AL80, you would drop 4.4 + 7.3 (from the buoyancy column), which is about 12 lbs. Steel tanks and backplates typically come into their own for thicker wetsuits and dry suits.
 
Typically a SS plate is about 4 pounds more negative than an AL backplate of the same size. But as you can see from the comments above, some plates are bigger than others. My Faber HP100's are about 5 pounds more negative than my Faber AL80's. So all else being equal, swapping a SS plate for an AL plate and AL80 for HP100 tank is pretty close to a wash, maybe 1 lb more negative overall, depending on the particulars.

A lot of ppl end up taking a bit less lead after diving the same equipment 10, 20, 30 times. You just get more comfortable in the water so you lungs aren't as full, you get finer control over your buoyancy, and you learn how to completely dump your wing when needed. If you're carrying like 5lbs more than you think you need, don't sweat it, it's not all that much, and you'll figure it out over time. Best of luck.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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