Finally..... double hose....

[oldschoolto]

Glad to have the feedback... After thinking and looking at the photo that dale posted, I think if I flip the cheater bar around it will put the aqua master lower on my back to help with breathing... Gonna take it to the pool next week and play with it... As far as neg buoyant tank set... I alway dove 7mm farmer john and jacket with a hood and gloves.... and still needed a pile of lead to get neutral when I was diving 35+ years ago.... With my added " BELLY WEIGHT" I think I'll need even more... I'd like to try and find a fiberglass backpack like I had back in the day...

Jim..

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Let me check and see what I have tomorrow. I had a couple of the thin contoured fiberglass packs and may still have a spare I could send you.

And I call it "bioprene" not Belly Weight.

 

[oldschoolto]

That would be cool.... Let me know if you got a extra one that needs a good home....

Jim..

 

[simonbeans]

I don't want to be the wet blanket here, but why do you want to use any sort of backpack on a set of doubles. The US Navy used a harness many years after the introduction of back packs. The doubles by their inherit nature lay beautifully close to your back, they do not roll or shift and the dh regulator is tight up against your back between your shoulder blades for optimum breathing. If you are determined to use a wing, a wing bladder can be attached to the tank independent of any type of backpack/harness. Luis, who champions the modified vintage plate, still uses just the wing on his doubles without any backpack. Also, what you might do is use a double manifold with two outlets. Here is one being offered on Craigslist SCUBA twin manifold

That way, you can have your redundancy of a second regulator and lose the pony bottle. I would think that 72 X 2 would give you plenty of air.

Before you get so involved with the backpack idea; (most were NEVER) designed to be used with a double hose, you might try a harness or maybe just a flat plate type such as the one that USD or Healthways sold.

 

[oldschoolto]

You're not a wet blanket ....:chuckle: I'm trying to relive my young days of diving long island,ny in the 70's... I hate to get rid of the pony bottle as the tanks fall over without it.... I also like the fact that it's two separate air supplies as most of my diving was solo and when it was buddy diving, I never really saw them till after we were done diving... I have a nice set of usd j-valves to use now that it will be set up as a old school doubles and I'll whip fill them from aluminum 80's because the fill place I use can't do doubles in their dry cabinet and I'll not have to listen to people about using a J-valves...

I really could just make a web harness from all the skydiving harness stuff I got in the old parachute loft...

Jim...

 

[simonbeans]

Right, I forgot you have a dive store with some contraption that prevents filling doubles. Personally, I would go to another dive store, but then, maybe you like these guys. Breaking down the tanks just to get a fill seems to be too much work. If you are in the area of Maine where Luis lives, air fills are not an issue with vintage tanks. Maybe it would be simplest to just have two singles. Instead of one long dive, just do two shorter ones. Besides, think of all the different backpacks/harnesses you could have.

 

[oldschoolto]

I can only fill my tanks at a nearby town... And nearby is a 45 minute drive, The closest " Dive shop" is 3 1/2 hours away.... The contraption is a state of the art, top of the line explosion proof dry fill cabinet that takes upto 4 single tanks at a time... Very clean, dry air for filling scott air-packs... 5 bucks a fill when they charge me... They are a very "by the book" outfit as you may have guessed.. The only other option is to build my own fill compressor and that would never be cost effective...

And diving a single is just not as cool as diving the doubles with pony....:cool2: I'm doing this for the fun of doing it... I have 6 alum 80's for just diving...

Jim...

 

[dead dog]

The fill cabinet can do 4 cylinders at a time, They have a "VERY NICE" 6 cylinder bank setup... The best public taxes money can buy... Just can't put doubles in it and They are by the book... So no way are they gonna play fill it out of the cabinet....

Jim

If the fill cabinet can do 4 cylinders at a time, why can't it do one set of doubles?

Bill

 

[spectrum]

If the fill cabinet can do 4 cylinders at a time, why can't it do one set of doubles?

Bill

I have seen some cabinets with distinct cylinder cradles that probably did not match band spacing or have accommodations for bands.

 

[oldschoolto]

If the fill cabinet can do 4 cylinders at a time, why can't it do one set of doubles?

Bill

The cabinet has four doors with each one tilting open from the top and hinged at the bottom so you can slide the tank in and out... each tank sits in it own explosion proof box... After the tank is put in the box you connect the whip that is just long enough to reach the one tank in the box, If it's a shorter tank you need to put a spacer in the bottom of the box to lift the cylinder up to the right height... then the door is closed and automatically locked before the filling station will work... You set the tank psi you want and then push the button... The fill rate is controlled by the cabinet and you can't speed it up.. this is to stop someone from just opening the valve and get a runaway fill or hot fill.... It's really a nice setup for filling scott air packs and single scuba cylinders... Just can't fill two cylinder banded together or fill outside the cabinet... Like I said.. It's very dry and clean air and there is not a spot of dirt or grease in the fill room... It looks like a hospital room...:amazed: I'll just live with whip filling the doubles... It's really not that big of a deal...

Jim...