cheapest plastic Backplate?

[VTernovski]

anybody know where I can buy the cheapest possible plastic backplate? (or have one to sell me?) I don't intent to use it for diving, just for the surface use - hauling my doubles... I intent to pad the shoulders with neoprene shoulder pads, this should ease up the pain of carrying the doubles for refills, etc..

I prefer a store that I can buy stuff online... I hate my local dive shops, nor do I have the time to go there... but they probably won't have anything in stock anyway, not to mention the usual overpriced scheme.

Also,.. this should probably go in the tanks section - any good advice on inexpensive compact hand dolly for the doubles? I've seem some with folding wheels, are those any good?

 

[pipedope]

I would look at yard sales or flea markets for an external frame backpack.
Remove the pack, make a mount to attack the tank bands and a way to quickly put them on and take them off.

 

[Wendy]

or home depot and buy a hand cart/dolly, they have them with fold in wheels and the handle colapses down, my friends use them and they work just fine.

 

[rjchandler]

The old style backpacks were usually drilled to accept doubles. I think Leisure Pro sells them.

 

[weekender]

the folding kind do not wear as well as the regular home depot hand cart. i can manhandle my doubles while my buddies have to take more care of the folding types. im not gentle going up curbs and such. they cost about 19 bucks and easily fit in a car trunk so ive never felt i needed to fold them.

 

[Babydamulag]

I saw the coolest doubles carrier in the world while diving in in the PI. One of the customers had made a little set of rollers from grocery cart wheels he had found. He had two boots glued and screwed to an aluminum plate with the wheels mounted under that. He used the manifold cover (he had a handle mounted on his) to roll the thing around. He was the envy of everyone there. It was such a simple design and it was all doable for the average handyman. Great idea and it needs to be copied!!!

 

[Hoosier]

1. eBay. There are often SP vintage plastic backpack at a decent price.

2. I have one for the double. LOL~ The bottom panel (section) is so small to cover the double. So, make sure of the panel's size before buying it. Samsonite is selling the fold cart with the warranty in black color.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

VT,

There's a guy who just posted a bp & harness on SB.

It's pretty reasonable...PM the dude.

I have three bp's, and they come in pretty handy for carting around sets of doubles. Bonus is that if you want to set up a plate for tropical wetsuit vacation dives, and another for cold-ocean drysuit wreck dives, you can.

You can always use another plate! Don't get a polymer plate, just get a second plate that you could actually use. I suspect you'll find out it'll come in pretty handy.

Here's the cart I bought to move stuff around (item #2) - converted to a cart it can haul Gavin's, bins 'o crap, multiple sets of doubles, works moving your gear from apartment to sub-basement parking structures, eliminates extra runs for coolers, carries T-bottles of O2 and He, and generally is pretty handy most of the time:
http://www.handtruckstore.com/2-in-1-convertible-hand-trucks/shop.cfm?N=1576+2523