Dive Rite Transpac II

[Kim]

Thanks for the tip, I travel quite a bit and have been contemplating a travel wing, anything else I should know about the travel wing or are you perfectly happy with it?

Not really. It has the complete round 'donut' shape so trapped air isn't a problem. The only thing that I've had a few issues with is how the dump valve and the inflator hose scew on to attach. I've had it happen that when I unscrewed them for rinsing and cleaning the part that was supposed to unscew didn't, but the deeper screw part that keeps one side mounted to the wing did. A bit of extra glue fixed that though and it wasn't an issue later.

 

[Vie]

I've seen Dive Rite Trans Pac II's offered online and was wondering if anyone knows the difference between a Trans Pac and Trans Pac II.

The TransPac I was less adjustable as it was not a completely modular system like the present TranPac II. The TransPac I can also be fitted with a pair of large, velcro secured, weight integrate pockets that are different from the small ones offered now.

The Scubapro X-Tek/S-Tek harness seemed to have been a copy of the original TransPac.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

The II designation has been dropped.

http://www.diveriteexpress.com/bcs/transpac.shtml

You can see older versions of the original TransPac as mentioned by Vie on eBay from time to time. One of the first giveaways is the Dive Rite letering is set vertically on the shoulder strap of the original TransPac while the lettering is set horizontally on the TransPac II and it's latest presentation as just the TransPac.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Here's an eBay listing with an "original TransPac" harness for comparison - as long as the listing link continues to work.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dive-Rite-Super...ryZ16053QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The current production TransPac (i.e. TP II with the II dropped, among other thigs) can be seen at www.diverite.com

 

[archman]

Yeah, listen to WarmWaterDiver, this is confusing. Here's the manufacturing time hierarchy, near as I can figure it.

1. DiveRite TransPac (original design)

2. ScubaPro X-Tek (pretty much the same as the TransPac, but cost a LOT more)

3. DiveRite TransPac II (small changes made in response to SB copying original TransPac, which is now unoffically termed the "TransPac I")

4. ScubaPro S-Tek (trifling changes made from X-Tek, mostly for marketing)

5. DiveRite TransPac (slightly modified TransPac II, with more sizing options. Oh and you get some color choices)

So you have "old" TransPac's, "new" TransPac's, and TransPac II's which go in-between, like peanut butter.:06:

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

I have an original Trans Pac that I will eBay some day (soon). My wife & I each have a TransPacII which has a LOT of improvements over the original TransPac. We'll keep our TPII's for the rest of our diving years I expect.

Here's a link for the TPII so you can compare against the current TansPac - use the "Click to Enlarge" in the upper left-hand corner of the page.

http://shop.divebooty.com/181.html

No big difference with the current TransPac other than the note on the sizing chart at DR Express - I don't think there are more sizes, I think there are less - M/L has been dropped for 2006.

I guess they didn't have room for stitching a Roman numeral III and decided to just make things very confusing for folks looking at their current product.

 

[archman]

I have an original Trans Pac that I will eBay some day (soon). My wife & I each have a TransPacII which has a LOT of improvements over the original TransPac. We'll keep our TPII's for the rest of our diving years I expect.

I dunno, I found the changes between the original TransPac and TransPac II not that big a deal when it came to actually diving. I dive an X-Tek which is essentially the same thing as the TP, and actually prefer it in many ways to the TP II (which I also have). DrBill swears by his X-Tek.

I might just get an Oxycheq O-Pac or A-Pac next... those are nice-looking rigs that may be superior to either DiveRite or ScubaPro. DiveRite appears to have gone awfully commercialized the last few years, which cheapens my impression of them. Still, the TPII's quite the sweet rig; I'm just fickle.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Maybe mine was defective - but I found common issues with the UK reviewer.

http://www.divernet.com/gear/dtst1097.htm#wing

Also, I will be eBay'ing some DR Sport Wings (ever seen these unbaffled things?)

 

[archman]

Also, I will be eBay'ing some DR Sport Wings (ever seen these unbaffled things?)

Oh man, I haven't seen those in years. ScubaPro made the same things for the X-Tek back in the late '90's. They always seemed far too floppy to me, so I purchased the bladders that were bigger but bungeed (rec wing) and smaller and compact (travel wing).

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

My first experiences with doubles were with the Sport Wing. If you can learn to deal with air shift and bubble trapping using those, everything else is a piece of cake IMO.

My first modification was to use twist ties (I had no zip ties handy) to wire the little plastic brackets at the corners to a grommet on the side of the TransPac. Even with doubles this gave me a quasi-Quasimodo appearance if my list was less than zero (i.e. all the time), to either port or starboard.

Taco Taco Taco - Bell!