Doubling AL80's, bad idea?

[dhampton82]

I was thinking about going to doubles soon and I was just wondering if it is a bad idea to double AL's? I was thinking that maybe the positive bouyance multiplied by 2 might be a bad idea.......

Any suggestions on this, as I dont know if I am ready to spend the $$$$ to double up some steel tanks yet.

Also I dont know if doubled up steel might sink me......I am only 5'6" and weighing in about 140. I use about 12lbs of lead in a 3mil farmer john with an AL80 and a jacket style bc. If I do double up some steel tanks and switch to a bp/w, will I just sink like a rock?

 

[rjack321]

fresh or salt water? diving dry? is there some objective in mind for these doubles we should know about? or just want to try them out to see if they work for you?

 

[MilitantMedic]

Generally speaking doubling steels with a wetsuit is a bad idea. Doubling AL80s with a wetsuit work great. For starters the extra weight of the manifold, extra first stage and bands *help* offset the bouyancy of the 80.

If you doubles up steels with a wetsuit and lost bouyancy you would sink like a rock, hence it's reccomended to use a drysuit with steels.

It all comes down to getting you weighting dead on as well. As a wild guess if you are only using a 3mm and you're 5'6" and 140# you *probably* are a little overweighted now.

Have you done a weight check?

BTW if you want to double up AL80's on a BC I have a set of bands to do it.

 

[xScubaStephx]

Steel tanks remaining neutral near the end of the dive is a plus.Then you wouldnt need any weight.

 

[xScubaStephx]

Please explain why twin steel tanks wet is a bad idea.

 

[MilitantMedic]

Except if one was to have problems at the start of a dive, now they have a tremendous amount of weight on. If you lost bouyancy (i.e. wing failure) you could be screwed.

 

[MilitantMedic]

Here's an more indepth thread. This topic has been well hashed-out on SB many times.

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=77558&highlight=double+steel+wetsuit

 

[xScubaStephx]

A redundant bladder or lift bag is standard here in cave country

 

[MilitantMedic]

Now you're adding gear to fix something that caused by using improper equipment. BTW using a lift bag for bouyancy doesn't work well in overhead.

 

[xScubaStephx]

Yea your probably right.My dad has a DR dual rec wing,but his buddies carry lift bags.I was wondering how awkward it would be riding one out of a cave.