Can you mount a 30 cf PB on your back next to an 80cf?

[Norm]

A 3 or 4 pound weight can easily be used on the opposite side of the pony to balance you out. (Brackets can easily be fabbed from stainless steel, they can be clipped on, or even veclro closing containers, such as ammo pouches may be used as well. Some folks just stick one in their pocket)
Don't forget to allow for this weight when doing buoyancy calculations or or considering weight that you can dump!
Norm

 

[diver_paula]

Most of my wreck diving has been done with a back mounted pony bottle. Whether I was using a AL80 or LP St95. I found the 30ft3 pony easier to handle than a smaller one. Given it's height it can be attached to the primary tank so that the bottoms of both tanks are at the same level. It give the rig more balance when gearing up, etc. A smaller pony would be mounted higher and the rig would thus be top heavy.

Paula

 

[ClassAction]

Sure you can.

Of course your rig will be off balance, it will create a line trapper between the tanks and the PB will need to be left on (with chance of gas leaking out) unless you can reach the valve.

I've seen several posts that warn about a pony being left on, and others praising the stage bottle because you can "charge it" and leave the valve closed during the dive. Why would a pony/stage be so inclined to leak? I plan on buying a decent reg for mine. Why would it leak any more than my octo (which doesn't leak)?

 

[Jeddah Aquanaut]

Ok, I guess I now realize that most people that feel like posting are against pony's. But I'm gonna use one. Yes, I have plenty of training (Divemaster) and dives to realize how to plan a dive and execute it. But the point is, I'm going to use one, and I wish someone could offer the correct set of brackets to mount this thing to an 80 or a 104. I don't plan on using it as a way to squeeze another 10 minutes out of my dive. I plan on using it IN CASE SOMETHING HAPPENS. Thank you.

Well, my friend/instructor sometimes takes a 30c.f. pony mounted next to his steel80, and has no problems that I've been able to observe. Lots of fishing line around, but never gets entangled. He uses a set of straps that keep the pony hooked to his main tank. I take mine on a sling, as do a few other friends of ours, but that's choice. As I said, this one friend does fine. With more than 1,000 dives under his belt, and a MSDT, I guess he knows what he's doing.