BP/W questions from the green one

[4sak3n]

What do you mean by bent unnaturally? As long as the rig feels comfortable while you are wearing it and is stable, then it doesn't matter how unnatural or bent it looks. You will also find that as you use it the webbing will soften somewhat and mold itself to fall more naturally into the shape that if assumes when you wear it.

And what do you mean that it doesn't fit the BP? Isn't it fitting through the slots? Or isn't it long enough? Crossing the straps usually uses more webbing so the latter probably isn't what you mean.

The strap should start out horizontal coming out of the slot at the top and slowly bend until it is vertical going into the slot at the bottom. The curve that this bend forms should follow the curve of your body under your arm and be quite natural. Have you maybe twisted the webbing by accident whilst setting it up?

 

[TSandM]

The routing of the webbing is not intuitive. It looks wrong, but works fine in practice. Also, when the webbing is brand new, it's quite stiff; as it sits in in position, it will "relax" into place.

If you are a normal sized man, you will almost certainly be better off with the straps not crossed.

 

[SergeK]

All right I'll try to illustrate the point. Give me few minutes, i'll try to make couple of photos, hopefully it will be clear then...

 

[SergeK]

Right, so i made two photos of BP with harness on the coat hanger just to show what i mean. first one is where the straps are crossed,

the second one with parallel straps (well, sort of)

Do you see on the second photo how the straps are twisted and unevenly loaded? In fact only internal part of the strap takes the the whole load and external part is not loaded at all. I assume it should wear quickly. It looks exactly the same when i put the harness on. That is what i want to ask, what to do to make it evenly loaded? If it is Ok and everyone has the same twisted stuff here just tell me not to bother

WARNING: big attachments, beware!

 

[4sak3n]

Hmmm, I see what you mean. To be honest, I had never noticed it but I went and looked at my rig and it is also angled off at the slots like that. I thought that they would straighten out when I wore it so I put my plate on and looked in the mirror but, as you said, the straps were still angled.

So I imagine that it is totally normal and not a problem.

As to wearing ... you webbing will eventually wear away and be cut a bit by the plate. I have a DSS plate which has inserts in the slots to prevent this however, even for plates without the inserts, this still isn't a problem. You will eventually have to replace the webbing as it wears away but I am told that this is only required after a couple of hundred dives so its not really a big deal.

So yes, I guess the uneven loading might lead to wearing of the webbing, but it is to be expected and not a big deal.

The big thing is: is your rig comfortable to wear with the straps uncrossed?

 

[cool_hardware52]

Hmmm, I see what you mean. To be honest, I had never noticed it but I went and looked at my rig and it is also angled off at the slots like that. I thought that they would straighten out when I wore it so I put my plate on and looked in the mirror but, as you said, the straps were still angled.

Take a closer look at your plate. The top harness slots are not horizontal, but are in fact angles outward a bit.

This is not true on all plates.

Tobin

 

[4sak3n]

I wub having an engineer designing the gear I use.

Go Tobin! :luxhello:

P.S. You are an engineer aren't you Tobin?

 

[cool_hardware52]

I wub having an engineer designing the gear I use.

Go Tobin! :luxhello:

P.S. You are an engineer aren't you Tobin?

My formal training is in Construction Engineering, the rest is best described as "Applied Necessity"

Tobin

 

[SergeK]

Well, comparing the two BPs, the one from Tobin https://www.deepseasupply.com/image_store/10012/10012_IMAGE_LARGE.jpg and the one from HH http://www.hammerheadbackplates.com/images/left_hh2handles.jpg it looks like DSS one is designed for the strait shoulder straps and HH one seems to be designed for the cross-strap setup.

See the difference in the location of the top harness slots, DSS seems to have the strait over the top of the slot below and angled outwards. HH, however, has top slots moved toward the center of the BP so that they partially located on the center channel. Also the top slots are angled inwards. Sorry, wrong, in fact they are horizontal.

Well, so I am not settled yet what to do with that.. Is there easy way to convert BP to the strait setup? Say like widening the top slots or like cutting the new pair of top slots higher than the existing ones? Or may be I just stay with the cross-strap setup? Opinions,please

 

[Scubastud16]

I think you'll be fine with it going straight. You won't need criss crossing, and it makes it harder for me to get in and out of the rig (tried it today with a Hollis switch-back harness).