Dive Xtras CudaX
- Thread starter tbone1004
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And that takes #3 or 4 design of the nose….?
Do they work for NASA??
Do they work for NASA??
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I have that nose and I also have one of the newest noses. The new nose is MUCH better about not keeping water on it that then drips off into the body when you open the body.
But, I do like the idea of putting a shammy or small towel under the nose for catching water droplets in the future.
Hopefully, going forward it won't really be an issue anyway. I've only wanted to open the body while it was still wet when I was dealing with dialing it all in. Either, wanting to connect my laptop to change a setting, or change the weight inside. I may FINALLY have it all sorted out now. If so, I would only need to open it at the very end of the day, when I'm back to home/hotel and it has had time to dry.
What are they main drawbacks of the BlackTip body?
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it's PVC and compresses ever so slight at depth which causes a buoyancy shift. It's not nearly as bad as the big gavins and UV's of old but when you are very deep it certainly does happen. Aluminum is definitely more stable. For anyone but extreme cave divers and deep wreck divers though it is inconsequential and should not be something that causes you to avoid it.
The PVC compresses?! I thought the loss of buoyancy was just from the nose and tail pushing in, compressing their O-rings.
From a practical perspective, other than a slight loss of buoyancy from surface to depth, I don't think the BT body has any particular drawbacks.
From a manufacturing perspective, it seems that there is a drawback in the ability to make them with a perfectly consistent material density. The result is that the tubes do not all weight exactly the same amount. Thus why they started shipping with wheel weights stuck inside and many people report that their BT's are not neutral, out of the box. Also why some early units had issues with the tube buckling. I got one of the first BlackTips - what is now called a Travel, but before there was anything else. I took it on a dive to 250' last year and the hull started to buckle in. It never gave way or flooded. The scooter worked fine during the whole dive. I contacted Dive-X about it afterwards and they sent me a new tube right away. Comparing them, I could see that the original tube had 3 reinforcing rings inside the tube and the new one has 5. I don't think they have the problem with buckling anymore. But, I regard it as an example of how slightly inconsistent density in the tube material could be a problem in manufacturing.
Otherwise, the BT body seems pretty durable and the overall unit is nice and light. I'm guessing it would take a hit (e.g. falling over on a boat) better than a scooter with an aluminum body. But, that is pure speculation.
As a complete newb reading this thread, despite the minor drawbacks of the BlackTip, we are comparing a ~$2k DPV and a $7-8k+ DPV. As I understand it, the batteries are extra with both. These prices aren't in the same ballpark.
I guess I don't understand why someone would pay more unless the specific BlackTip model just doesn't give them the range or depth? School me please. Thanks
I guess I don't understand why someone would pay more unless the specific BlackTip model just doesn't give them the range or depth? School me please. Thanks
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