Experience with Halcyon Traveler Pro BC System?

[MattPSI]

I am shopping for my first BP/W and am interested in the Halcyon Travelor Pro System. Any thoughts or impressions on the product from current users, or people who have used it? I am interested in the fact that the setup could go from dry suit diving to tropical vacation diving without the need for reconfiguring the backplate/harness or increasing my luggage weight. I have no plans for tech diving in the future. Thank you

 

[Storker]

I've got one. I use it for my regular diving since I wanted a BP/W, use single tanks and have tanks with different buoyancy. 40# wing, since I dive dry with quite a bit of weight and want my rig to be positive when I doff it. It's a BP/W, it works. You pay a premium for the blue "H" (OK if you can afford it), can't use it for doubles (doesn't matter to me, since I only have singles. It fits my diving best), it's very light with no weights in the pockets, weight can easily be varied up to 8#. Even before I started using it, I took off the shoulder strap pads, and after a dozen dives I also removed the BP padding. I like the weight pockets that came with mine, since I like to take off as much weight as possible and hand it to the boat tender before I climb aboard.

It's a BP/W where you can quickly and fairly easily change the weight. It works. No fuss. I like mine. If you don't need the variable weighting, it's probably not worth the price. If you do, it does the job well. I have nothing to complain about (except the price, but if you buy a premium brand, you pay a little extra for the brand, no matter if it's diving gear, cars or other stuff...)

 

[MattPSI]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. The cost is steep for sure. But if you start adding up costs for extra backplates, possibly different harnessing and or/weight systems, it can begin to make more sense when comparing to other high end systems. I haven't done an exhaustive search, but I'm not familiar with any comparable system. But if anyone else is, I would be interested.


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[Yellowdog]

I was in Key Largo recently and used my Halcyon Traveler for the first time . The regular Traveler has a 30lb wing. The nylon back plate has 4 pockets that except up to 3 lbs each. I could have added enough weight to the plate to dive without ditchable weight but I chose to put 5lbs on the backplate and 5lbs in the Halcyon acb10 weight pockets, 2.5 on each side. Diving with the traveler compared to a traditional bc was great. I felt totally streamlined, used 2lbs less weight ( probably could have dropped 2 more ), and used a bit less air than on my last trip. The Traveler was easy to pack and easy to move around with from rental car, to boat, to hotel and back. I liked everything about it except for the backplate weight pouches. They work well but I found them a little cumbersome to load and unload. Not a big deal but I would not want to do it too often. It I lived in a place where I dove frequently I would get the Aluminum or ss backplate. Since I will only be using this bc for travel I can live with the weight pockets. The other issue I had was that on one dive I was hitting my head on the 1st stage of the regulator. I tried to shift the bpw down but found it was fairly firmly in place and figured that maybe I had just strapped it too low on the tank. When I got back on the boat I realized that I had pulled the shoulder straps tighter than I intended to and this moved the backplate up on my shoulders. The cinch system makes it easy to adjust but also easy to get out of adjustment. If I had realized what the problem was I could have adjusted it underwater and I will know to loosen the shoulder straps in the future. Also I am going to install a couple of belt slides on the harness to mark my spot and keep the shoulders at the same place on every dive. Overall I really liked diving with the Traveler. Like anything else there is a learning curve when you are using a new piece of equipment. If money were no object I would use the Traveler for travel and set up an Eclipse or Infinity with a ss backplate for colder weather diving. If you go with a Pro you would be able to just swap out the wing from the traveler to a ss backplate. Depending on how much weight you use in colder water you may want to go with the 40lb wing. It is only slightly larger than the 30.

 

[MattPSI]

Thanks Yellowdog, I appreciate your thorough comments. I am leaning towards the 40 because my rig is pretty heavy with a tank mounted pony and I would like to put a majority of my other ballast onto the backplate too. I will always keep some ditchable weight in the pockets as well. I also plan to use steel tanks when possible. I am also wondering if the wing moves around a lot when changing tanks, since there is no STA with the traveler models. I don't see holes to secure the wing with screws like you normally would if an STA was not used on metal backplates.

 

[Yellowdog]

The Pro uses an Eclipse Wing so I assume that there are the same holes available as on any Eclipse wing, even if that is not how it attaches to the Traveler backplate. I am going to set up am aluminum BPW with a 30lb Eclipse wing and decide which I prefer for travel. In my limited diving experience I think that it makes sense to have some ditchable weight. The Halcyon ACB10 pockets are large but made for only 5 lbs each. They look like they could fit 10+. With 5lbs on the backplate I need only 2+- on each side for tropical diving, so I am thinking about removing the acb10 pockets and adding 2 Halcyon ( XS Scuba or ... ) trim pockets to the waist belt and using a belt slide to keep them in place. The trim pockets are about half the size of the acb10 pockets but I think would still be easy to open if needed.

 

[Storker]

I am also wondering if the wing moves around a lot when changing tanks

IME not at all