For warm water, aluminium or stainless steel plate?

[Corleone]

I have 1-2mm wetsuit for regular everyday diving, and 5mm for cold months or traveling. I use 4-6 kg. we use AL tanks here and incase of traveling, the destinations on my mind, they mostly use AL tanks. as I'm approaching GUE, I need to have a plate. so based on all of the above am I better of with AL or SS plate ? any recommendations, brands, anything that I might have missed?


I have Travel XT form Dive Rite. wonder if I can keep the wing and attach the plate or should I get a different wing?

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

Do you use the 4-6kg in your 5 mil suit or the 1-2? You may want to get an AL plate for the warm water stuff and a Stainless Steel plate for the cooler water.

Did you mean the travel pac BCD or just the Travel XT wing? In the case of the Travel Pac BCD you cannot attach a plate to that unit. If you have a Travel XT wing I'm assuming that you are using a Transpac harness. You cannot attack a wing to that harness, you'll need to get either a Hogartihan, deluxe, or Trans Plate harness.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Using 4 kg with a 1 mm suit and 6 kg with a 5 mm suit... doesn't make sense to me....

 

[Corleone]

Did you mean the travel pac BCD or just the Travel XT wing? In the case of the Travel Pac BCD you cannot attach a plate to that unit. If you have a Travel XT wing I'm assuming that you are using a Transpac harness. You cannot attack a wing to that harness, you'll need to get either a Hogartihan, deluxe, or Trans Plate harness.

I have Transpac XT & Travel XT. unfortunately I have to replace/dump the transpac XT for a plate due to GUE standards. so I will get a plate and a webbing and so I'm wondering what type of plates and will it work with the wing !!

Using 4 kg with a 1 mm suit and 6 kg with a 5 mm suit... doesn't make sense to me....

I might be over weighted for the 1-2 mm but anyway I have gained a lot of weight recently, I will not be surprised if I would need 8 kg with the 5 mm by the time it gets cold in here

 

[eelnoraa]

Since you are taking GUE class, assuming at your local dive sites, the best is to talk to you instructor. They should know what work best for your location.

In my case, I chose AL plate for warm water travel The AL plate is also used for home cold water double steel. If I don't need the AL for home use, I will probably stick with SS plate.

 

[Nasser]

A steel back plate is usually just under 3 Kg so based on how much weight you've said you're using, if you get the steel backplate you would require very little if any additional weight for the 2mm and a little more for the 5mm. Unless you are using a 15l steel cyclinder, then there won't be too many situations where the steel plate will be too much.

However, make sure that you are indeed properly weighted and diving a balanced rig in the first place and also consider how you are going to distribute that weight with respect to trim. Perhaps you can take the course and rent to learn how to do this properly and then make your purchase.

 

[MEENO]

Using 4 kg with a 1 mm suit and 6 kg with a 5 mm suit... doesn't make sense to me....

I think that You're forgetting the wight of the back plate


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[Colliam7]

I need to have a plate. so based on all of the above am I better of with AL or SS plate

The proper answer is, it depends on you, and your inherent buoyancy characteristics (and, to a certain extent, your preferences for exposure protection).

The safe answer is: the AL plate. Or, actually, one of the lighter SS plates that are now being sold in place of AL (e.g. https://www.divegearexpress.com/dive-rite-xt-lite-ss-backplate). It is the safe answer because you can always add a small amount of weight if you are underweighted with a light plate, while it is hard to take weight off if you are overweighted with a standard SS plate when wearing no additional weight. You could also consider a Kydex plate form Deep Sea Supply.

But, there are more than a few divers in this world who are not overweighted in warm water with a SS plate, and you may be one of them (I am). When I dive warm salt water, I wear a 1 mm full exposure suit. With an AL cylinder, and a SS plate, I still add 4 lbs of weight. So my inherent buoyancy characteristics allow me to use a SS plate for warm water diving. Some people are inherently less positive, and for them, even an AL plate is enough to let them dive without added weight. Frankly, many divers end up with both. You need to assess your inherent buoyancy, in the 1-2 exposure suit (which I presume is the thinnest you will wear, without a floaty / fabric BCD, in fresh water. If you are negatively buoyant, you may not want want a steel plate. If you are positive, then steel may be a better choice. If you were using steel cylinders, then all bets are off and you might lean toward AL / light SS plates.

As for brands, I won't offer a suggestion. I have a torso that allows me to use a 'standard' length plate (~15 1/2") without difficulty - I have several Dive Rite SS plates, and both SS and AL OMS plates, all of which work fine - for ME. You can get longer, or shorter plates if your physiology requires that, you may hear from some that the angle of plate curvature makes a substantial difference for them, etc. I am probably not sufficiently discerning, or skilled enough, to make such an assessment.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I have 1-2mm wetsuit for regular everyday diving, and 5mm for cold months or traveling. I use 4-6 kg. we use AL tanks here and incase of traveling, the destinations on my mind, they mostly use AL tanks. as I'm approaching GUE, I need to have a plate. so based on all of the above am I better of with AL or SS plate ? any recommendations, brands, anything that I might have missed?


I have Travel XT form Dive Rite. wonder if I can keep the wing and attach the plate or should I get a different wing?

Plate material is a function of required ballast.

Assuming you are neutral in your swim trunks; with a dive skin (little to no buoyancy) + an empty al 80 you would need about 4 lbs of total ballast. Your reg provides about 2 lbs of ballast.

A lightweight plate, aluminum or kydex, and harness will provide about 2 lbs.

With thicker suits the ballast a Stainless Plate provides is benefit.

If you want one plate for both you may want to consider adding some neoprene. A 3mm suit (typically around +4 lbs) and empty al 80 (+4) makethe ballast provided by a SS plate and harness ~6 lbs and reg ~2 lbs just about ideal.

Tobin

 

[halocline]

It's unusual to be overweighted with a steel plate and AL80, because the tank alone requires 4lbs of ballast, and the plate only provides 5-6. If your GUE class is in single AL80s, I'd go with the steel plate. Any exposure suit at all and you'll be fine. If your class is in double AL80s, one would think they would require even more ballast but for some reason I trim out better in double 80s with an AL plate. The bands and manifold put a substantial amount of ballast on your back.

The other side of the coin is that you can use an AL plate and put weights on the cam band to approximate the weight distribution of the steel plate. It's not quite as good but it does work. I end up doing that on trips to Mexico that I'm bringing gear for doubles and single tank.