marcanthonya
Registered
I've been diving for 2 to 3 years now, When I started out, I was searching on eBay searching for a good BCD, I already had the rest of required equipment. I ended up purchasing a secondhand Hollis STG RIDE 23lb for around 180 $ , was said to be mostly used in freshwater. I was quite happy with the performance of the BCD, although I was missing weight pockets. Furthermore, I really like the back inflate and harness of this setup, but felt it could be improved with a backplate. Until recently, I replaced my soft plate with a Mares XR backplate and custom-made stainless steel support plate. I wanted to share my piece of work that I've achieved through some work and passion.
I've been trying to document more details about the setup, although until now I still have not touched the water with the recent upgrades. For being a rec diver, my gear is quite different than what most of my dive buddies use, I do take pride in my gear. I built the the stainless steel support plate for the aluminum plate as support for both the backplate and the wing aircell. As before it had a softplate that was tied down with 6 plastic screws, and the harness would thread on the tie in points, because Im not using and STA and my bc has 2 slots for the cam bands seen in picture 2, I wanted to support them both so that they do no break, I used a 3 mm 316 stainless plate for rigidity and weight. bolted everything down with 3/8 316 bolts using in total of 9 and one 5/16 stainless steel bolt with lock nuts, I wanted to share my achievment with yall, to see if anyone has any concerns, any way I can Improve my setup with your feedback. I also wanted to check if anyone has done anything similar to me. and would like to post their BC setup.
Lastly as for the weight of the new bcd setup without a tank.
It weight roughly 5.6 kg on a scale
the bcd has a factory weight of 5.5 lbs which is around 2.5 kg
thus meaning the rest of the system has a weight of 3.1 kg. I know the aluminum backplate has a weight of 0.75 kg
meaning that the plate most likely weighs 2, 35 kg. I calculated the weight of the plate using the density of the 316 stainless steel plate and concluded it weighed around 1.92 to 2.2 kg but I supposed with the rest of the stainless steel fasteners it has a weight of around 2.35 KG. if the weight calculations are true I should have 5.1 lbs of non lead weight. I normally use around 6 to 10 lbs of lead weight tp go down normally. so I will try to use 2lbs to see If I reach a sweet spot between 7 or 9 lbs of total weights. I only do saltwater dives using a 3mm wetsuit, Hope yall like my work
I've been trying to document more details about the setup, although until now I still have not touched the water with the recent upgrades. For being a rec diver, my gear is quite different than what most of my dive buddies use, I do take pride in my gear. I built the the stainless steel support plate for the aluminum plate as support for both the backplate and the wing aircell. As before it had a softplate that was tied down with 6 plastic screws, and the harness would thread on the tie in points, because Im not using and STA and my bc has 2 slots for the cam bands seen in picture 2, I wanted to support them both so that they do no break, I used a 3 mm 316 stainless plate for rigidity and weight. bolted everything down with 3/8 316 bolts using in total of 9 and one 5/16 stainless steel bolt with lock nuts, I wanted to share my achievment with yall, to see if anyone has any concerns, any way I can Improve my setup with your feedback. I also wanted to check if anyone has done anything similar to me. and would like to post their BC setup.
Lastly as for the weight of the new bcd setup without a tank.
It weight roughly 5.6 kg on a scale
the bcd has a factory weight of 5.5 lbs which is around 2.5 kg
thus meaning the rest of the system has a weight of 3.1 kg. I know the aluminum backplate has a weight of 0.75 kg
meaning that the plate most likely weighs 2, 35 kg. I calculated the weight of the plate using the density of the 316 stainless steel plate and concluded it weighed around 1.92 to 2.2 kg but I supposed with the rest of the stainless steel fasteners it has a weight of around 2.35 KG. if the weight calculations are true I should have 5.1 lbs of non lead weight. I normally use around 6 to 10 lbs of lead weight tp go down normally. so I will try to use 2lbs to see If I reach a sweet spot between 7 or 9 lbs of total weights. I only do saltwater dives using a 3mm wetsuit, Hope yall like my work
