BP/W set up help/advice

[rstofer]

The loud clunking noise you may have heard was the penny finally dropping for me with what you guys are all saying!!

So if I understand it right, if you are weighted yourself (I assume you must be bouyant still regardless, for safety purposes?), then your rig is only having to lift "its" weight, and that weight doesn't include what weight you are personally wearing, as you are ensuring that is bouyant? (and assuming that I'm not terrifically overweighted by the story I told on my previous post about being "floaty", then I can probably handle quite a bit of the weight myself).

Apologies for the stupidity - I appreciate the time you've all taken to explain this to a newb!

It all comes down to balance. In the end, you want to be able to float without your BP/W wearing whatever weight you have decided to wear on your body. Your BP/W needs to be able to float everything else.

It's pretty obvious that you don't want to sink when you ditch your rig and, of course, you could just dump your weights if you had such a problem at the surface. But the real point is that you may decide to don your gear in the water. Say, for instance, you were diving from an inflatable. You would tie your rig to a tag line (it floats when inflated, right?), don your weights and get wet. It would be nice if you stayed at the surface while you don your rig.

Then there is the idea of trim: putting the weight at your hips with a harness or putting some of it on the backplate with weight plates. If you wish (and I don't. Remember, my back is trash), you can add 8# plates to the DSS 6# backplate. In that case, you would have even more weight trying to keep you horizontal in the water. And you would have less weight at your hips.

I'm not going to do weight plates but, if I did, I would think of them as an incremental refinement. Get the BP/W set up. Get your weighting correct with the harness. Make sure you are balanced as described above. Then you can consider moving weight from the harness to the backplate to get the trim perfected.

It could be that the negative steel tank and the negative SS plate are enough to keep you in trim. Or not... With an Al 80, I would definitely be thinking about weight plates because the tank is so floaty when empty.

Richard

 

[S&V]

My wife and I got DSS Hogarthian BP/W rigs because they were so very well engineered and built, but they also turned out to be great travel rigs. Easy to pack and use.
We have SS plates and 17/26 lb wings, fine for warm water and AL80 tanks. All dive gear except regs/computers/cameras goes into checked baggage at less than 50 lbs each.
It's nice to have the SS plates with AL80 tanks to keep some weight off the belt - wearing a full 3mm I carry 2-4 lbs, my wife 4-6 lbs. We use XS Scuba weight belts with the velcro pockets, a very simple way to go.
Hope this helps in the decision process. I love tinkering with gear, but I have not done anything with our DSS rigs - they are pretty close to perfect.

 

[Mayor]

Can't beat good old pool time for testing gear. I have three new divers with new gear (BP/W) that want to get weighted right. Let's go to the pool and see what's what. You really have to put the time in to get it right.

 

[scuba127]

I also have the DSS Hog Rig w/Stainless Steel Plate and 20lb. wing for aluminum 80's. Outstanding rig for tropical diving w/single aluminum 80 but had a problem getting the plate on rented doubles on Bonaire. Ended up using the the instructor's steel plate and leaving mine in the shop. Also, found the rig was heavier than my old jacket BC. I couldn't completely fill my dive bag and stay under 50lbs. with the steel plate on board. I plan to dive single aluminum 80s, double aluminum 80's and possibly single steels on dive trips to the Carib so I'm thinking about switching to the Kydex since, as I understand it, I'll be able to get it on rental aluminum 80s and, it goes without saying, it is the best option for single steels. Obviously it will fly a couple of lbs lighter. Both plates would be the best option but not sure I want to transport both plates. I used the velcro XS Scuba pocket on the hog harness with the steel plate and that worked out pretty good. Any input? Apologies to the OP if this is a highjack.