Ditchable weight options with a BP/W

[smorneau]

I am thinking outside the box a little. Here is what I am going to try in the water tomorrow. I unthreaded my lead and threaded about an inch and a half of cut rubber bicycle tubing between each piece of lead on the belt where it comes into contact with the drysuit and on the two ends of the belt, effectively covering all suit contact points with a rubber sheath. I am hoping it will provide some grip between the belt and the suit. I also applied some surfboard wax (Sex Wax) to the rubber pieces. I am pretty optimistic that this will take care of the spinning belt problem for a cost of about 50¢. I will let you know how it works.

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[Mitchell Teeters]

I have a couple XS ditchable weight pockets on my waist strap of my harness. They are pockets that are upside down, and XS has mounted handles (rubber tabs) on them so when you pull the velcro lets loose and the pockets dump. $15 ea for the pockets. I can easily put 9lbs in each (6hard3soft). Velcro holds quite nicely.

 

[smorneau]

I am thinking outside the box a little. Here is what I am going to try in the water tomorrow. I unthreaded my lead and threaded about an inch and a half of cut rubber bicycle tubing between each piece of lead on the belt where it comes into contact with the drysuit and on the two ends of the belt, effectively covering all suit contact points with a rubber sheath. I am hoping it will provide some grip between the belt and the suit. I also applied some surfboard wax (Sex Wax) to the rubber pieces. I am pretty optimistic that this will take care of the spinning belt problem for a cost of about 50¢. I will let you know how it works.

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I used this modified weight belt today and it worked great. It did not even slide or rotate even an inch. Stayed put the whole dive! I wish I would have thought of it sooner. An instructor saw it today and said he is going to do it to his own.

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[mahjong]

So you don't have ditchable waist weight pockets, which go on your harness waist belt? If not, this is one possible solution. I use the Halcyon small pockets, designed for 5lbs each, so a total of 10lbs. But I have often stuffed 7lbs in each pocket with no problem at all. But there are, I believe, large sized pockets designed to hold 10lbs each.

I have been diving a SS BP/W and have put all the weight I am willing to put on the rig itself. I am still wearing a weight belt because I want some ditchable weights. I am trying to balance my weight between the rig and non intergraded ditchable weight. I am using about 20lb on the belt when diving here in the northeast during the winter with the extra thermal protection needed.

The problem I am having is my weight belt does not stay put a around my waist even if I tighten it during the dive. It slides down and also rotates on my torso making reaching the belt buckle for an emergency nearly impossible in a hurry. I know part of the problem is I have no hips and the other part of the problem is the slickness of my fabric drysuit.

I have been thinking about getting a DUI classic weight harness and am unsure how well it will work underneath my BP harness. Has anyone else had any experience using a DUI weight system under a BP/W any offer any advice or suggestions for ditchable weight not on the BP/W rig.

Thanks

 

[BVickery]

My husband uses a DUI Weight & Trim under his harness. No issues at all, and he likes it. He has the same problem you do -- no hips.

I have the same issue as TSandM's husband. No hips, and have an artificial one to boot. Find the DUI Weight and Trim works great. A few people have them for sale used as of late so may be able to pick up one relatively cheap compared to new.

 

[GRH]

How much ditchable weight is recommended? Would 10 lbs. be enough for a 194 pound drysuit diver?

I tried a used DUI weight harness last weekend so I had 10lbs. of ditchable weight on the harness and 10 lbs. of ditchable weight on the BC. Seems like it would be simpler if I lost the weight harness and added trim weight pockets to the tank bands. The SS backplate and STA add 12 lbs.

I am a new diver with 15 dives, the last 5 with a drysuit, and after dealing with too many problems with a jacket style BCD switched to a Halcyon Infinity BC with a 40# Wing, SS plate, Weighted STA, and ACB 10# weight pockets. My first outing with the new BC was a two tank dive last weekend. The first with a HP 100 steel tank, 10 lbs. of ditchable weight on the BC, 10 lbs. on the used DUI weight harness I was trying, and a pair of 2 lb. of ankle weights. Trim felt VERY good although I might want to go to 1 lb. ankle weights or shift the weight to a belt. I assume I will be able to drop some weight with experience.

The second dive was with an AL80. I added 6 lbs. to the DUI and my trim was off and it was difficult to keep my fins and legs up in a horizontal position so obviously the weight was too low. I will be adding a second steel tank so I don’t have to adjust weight for two tank dives.

Thanks.

 

[Crush]

How much ditchable weight is recommended? Would 10 lbs. be enough for a 194 pound drysuit diver?

IMHO, zero weight needs to be ditchable for a drysuit diver provided that you are properly weighted (that is, neutral) and your lift wing is sufficiently buoyant. The only time you need to ditch weight is if you are sufficiently negatively buoyant that you can't swim up. If you are proficient with the use of your drysuit you fill it with air as you compress/descend. No change in suit volume = no change in buoyancy. The wing is useful if you want to provide some lift and leave the suit a bit compressed. In the event of a catastrophic wing failure your suit should bring you nicely to the surface (if you are not overweighted). In the event of a catastriphic suit failure your wing should have sufficient lift to help you swim up.

That being said, I have about 8 lbs of lead in pockets where I can reach them and pull them out of their pouches to dump.

 

[eelnoraa]

How much ditchable weight is recommended? Would 10 lbs. be enough for a 194 pound drysuit diver?

The amount of ditchable weight should NOT depend on your weight. At the end of the dive, you should be neutrail with empty tank. So at the beginning of the dive, you should be roughly over weighted by your gas only. If add 1 or 2 lb for margin, with AL80, gas is 6lb, so you need at msot 8lb of ditechable weight assuming total wing failure and no redundant buoyancy available.

---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 AM ----------

For those who recommand weight pockets on waist harness, does it get in the way of mounting a canister for you?

 

[GRH]

Understood; just adding context as a new diver in case more experienced divers want to suggest how I might consider distributing my weight as I begin to fine tune trim. Obviously the SS/STA puts 12 pounds on the BC backplate. I will use HP 100 steel tanks for local dives. I assume 5 x 2 (10 pounds) on the ditchable ACB weight pockets, and for simplicity, my assumption/hope I would be fine putting an additional 8 to 10 pounds of trim weights on the tank straps, therefore not needing the weight harness. I realize what works for others may not work fo me.

 

[Crush]

The amount of ditchable weight should NOT depend on your weight. At the end of the dive, you should be neutrail with empty tank. So at the beginning of the dive, you should be roughly over weighted by your gas only. If add 1 or 2 lb for margin, with AL80, gas is 6lb, so you need at msot 8lb of ditechable weight assuming total wing failure and no redundant buoyancy available.

---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 AM ----------

For those who recommand weight pockets on waist harness, does it get in the way of mounting a canister for you?

You are of course right about being overweighted by the amount of gas that you will use. I find that, at the end of a dive, I can vent extra air from my drysuit if needed, allowing some squeeze so as to offset buoyancy.

My trim weight pockets are on my top cam band, bottom cam band, and on my waist strap. The waist strap pouches are kept from sliding around by using a cable tie to secure them to the BP. This required me to drill extra holes in my BP (one on each side) for the cable ties to pass through.