Kevin Floyd
Contributor
I understand, at least I think I do, the additional comfort provided by your setup with regards to being able to adjust the snugness of the shoulder straps on the fly...but it seems to come at the expense of a couple of things:
1. it does not seem like you can don your rig even temporarily by just the shoulder straps, this would mean you have to hold or buckle the waist while you grab and maneuver your crotch strap into place.
2. It seems like with your setup you cannot tighten your waist strap independent of your shoulder straps...I prefer a certain degree of looseness for my shoulder straps but like snug waist strap, I don't know how that would be achieved with your setup.
3. Your setup looks like it would require a partner to lift your tank and plate to assist in donning it or that you would need to position the rig on an elevated surface to facilitate donning it...as opposed to lifting and slinging one arm through and then the other.
I played around with a bunch of ways to make my shoulder straps easily adjustable...there were various drawbacks to the functionality gained by each method, and in the end I found that once I zeroed in how loose/snug I needed/wanted the shoulder straps that I did not need to toy with the adjustment. I dialed in and marked the the fit for my wetsuit and did the same with my drysuit to make it quick and easy to adjust the harness and the position of the d-rings, and allows me to make my waist strap as snug as desired.
The above is granted that I do not have any shoulder issues that inhibit me donning/doffing my rig, but if I did, I think I would probably opt for a setup with a QD buckle on one shoulder or one of the comfort/adjustable harnesses.
-Z
I agree with all these points. I found the Sub-gravity harness sliders. I tried one on each side and found most of the issues Z points out. I removed the one on my left side and kept the one one the right. The extra buckle for the van light on the right side keeps it from opening up to much.
I go into the left side first for dawning or carrying, then I can go into the right and pull it tight. The sliders themselves keep a fair amount of tension and don’t slide super easy but just enough to allow you to get in and out easily. I dive a dry suit with zip seals and kept getting the edge of the zip as I was getting in or out and even opened a seal once.
I really like these, they are the best if both worlds.
OP you made note of the plate riding up. I keep my crotch strap shorter so that when I have looped the waist strap through the crotch strap and pull the crotch strap pulls down and forms kind of a V out of the waist strap. This keeps pressure on the bottom of the BP and keeps it from riding up. My wife says it makes it look like I have a pot belly in the dry suit but it works great.