DIR Curious question-swivels.

[JeffG]

Forgive the question, but how do you route the 40" hose with the ridgid elbow? I would guess down in front of the right shoulder and back up?

Under the the right arm and into the mouth.

 

[John_B]

Did you recently compete in a beauty pagent? Standard fittings and non moving elbows are okay. An elbow is about the only way to cleanly use a 40" hose as an open water first stage and does not make donation any tougher. Elbow fittings with a swivel type ball joint = bad.

Are they DIR? I'll leave that to you.

Does the 40" hose (90° elbow or not) work as well as a 5' or 7' hose for an s-drill? From my experience, no, not nearly as well I had been shown long hose routing and had some practice doing s-drills. Like I said, it is the easiest path to the bungeed backup for most people who were trained with BCDs and octos. I just think the long hose is better.

BTW, check my gallery, that used to be part of my OW setup for the better part of a year. FWIW, that Zeagle elbow is the most rock solid 90° swivel elbow available and I'm including the Kirby Morgan (I've owned pretty much all of them at one time or another).

John (Grasshopper)

 

[Couv]

Hey guys,

Thank you for your answers, however, I see I have done a poor job of asking it. Let me rephrase:

Have any of you eliminated the swivel on a first stage that had one? If so how?

Have any of you eliminated the swivel that is on most if not all second stage regulator hose fittings? If so, how.

Thanks again,

couv

 

[rainman_02]

Q: Why?

 

[Thalassamania]

Hey guys,

Thank you for your answers, however, I see I have done a poor job of asking it. Let me rephrase:

Have any of you eliminated the swivel on a first stage that had one? If so how?

Have any of you eliminated the swivel that is on most if not all second stage regulator hose fittings? If so, how.

Thanks again,

couv

The swivels that you are referring to ("turrent" on the first stage and 360^o rotation on the second) are very similar in design and utility to that found on an SPG and pose very little risk.

 

[John_B]

I eliminated the turret on my DST by selling it and buying something else, does that count? Because in single tank rig, having the hoses float around when gearing up was pain in the ***.

The internal (up/down) swivel on the second stage is actually useful, otherwise the hose threading would have to be just about perfect to have the reg in your mouth without having it pulled at an awkward angle. How many of those o-rings actually fail? Is that a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist?

John

 

[Couv]

Q: Why?

Just curious. I am not trying to convert anyone here, this question was meant for someone who has converted his gear not to question the necessity of it. I enjoy reading post in this forum because there are many common sense approaches to issues that many of us have overlooked. I will keep my 1st stage turret and 2nd stage swivel, but my interest was piqued by some of the threads I have read recently.

I agree with Thal and others that this is not a problem that requires a solution, but never-the-less there are some who do not agree and perhaps have come up with an interesting engineering approach. It is not unheard of for the turret bolt to have been over or under torqued and fail. In fact SP stopped using brass turret bolts presumably for this reason. In my first post, I mentioned that a SP MK 9 is the same as a MK 10 except it has no turret. I thought perhaps there are after market products one can modify his regulator to accomplish the same.

The second stage swivel, while I find it convenient and not a problem, might be viewed by some as another failure point. In the aviation industry, there are lot of applications that use flexible hoses that do not have a swivel. The o-ring is eliminated by use of a metal on metal seal. The fitting connector (called a B nut) is free to turn without movement of the hose and can be easily positioned and screwed into place. However, once it is torqued down it can not swivel. Similarly, a commercial diving hose has such a fitting. You may have seen similar flex lines connecting your sink faucet or gas plumbing. Again, I am interested to know if one of you may have adapted an aviation type line to your regulator and if so, how did you do it?

"JohnB...I eliminated the turret on my DST by selling it and buying something else, does that count?

"

Yes

Thank you,

couv

 

[Doc Intrepid]

couv,

The swivels I've examined unscrew from the second stage fitting. Use two adjustable wrenches in opposite directions, gently. Don't bugger up the threads. Not difficult.

Don't know why you'd need to 'adapt an aviation type line to your regulator'. The objective is to eliminate potential failure points, ad hockery, and convolution.

What problem are you trying to solve? I suspect that, whatever it is, a better solution exists than 'adapting an aviation type line to your regulator'.

Don't do that.

If you want to remove the swivel, first disconnect the hose from the second stage. Then, as noted, remove the swivel from the second stage fitting. Don't crank on it...the second stages are generally polymer these days. Save the swivel and sell it on SB. Someone will buy it. Finally reconnect your LP hose directly to your 2nd stage. No worries.

Doc

 

[Couv]

Doc,

You must be yanking my chain.

 

[gibson1525]

Has anyone tried the trident super swivel?, looks like it might be a safer option to the 360 degree swivel.

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