Right, I understand that. I was just wondering if the rail that comes on the Freedom Plate might could be removed and used in place of an STA to simply hold the setup together firmly. I know the hole centers are 9" for the plate and 11" for the wing, just wondering if it would be possible to modify holes in one or the other to line up the two?
1) The rail is designed to be mounted directly to the plate and the rail and plate make up a solid unit. The wing goes over the rail then the tank over the wing. The entire unit gets held together by pressure from the cam bands.
2) The rail is designed to be mounted directly to the plate and the rail and plate make up a solid unit. The wing goes over the rail then the tank over the wing. The entire unit gets held together by pressure from the cam bands.
3) The rail is designed to be mounted directly to the plate and the rail and plate make up a solid unit. The wing goes over the rail then the tank over the wing. The entire unit gets held together by pressure from the cam bands.
One correction and for future reference:
There is no such thing as 9" center holes on a Freedom Plate, they do not exist.
The holes are actually 5.5" center holes and are 3/16" countersunk holes to accept 2 - #10 x 32 stainless screws which sole purpose is to attach the rail and hold it in place for alignment until the cam bands can be torqued down to hold the rig together.
The individual that claimed the Freedom Plate has 9" holes and accepts sex bolts is grossly mistaken, and which statement also gives me further proof that said individual never actually physically saw a Freedom Plate to know this fact.
Unless of course the plate was modified by somebody at which point I have no control over it or the results.
I am tempted to begin welding the rails back onto the Freedom Plate to eliminate this never ending debate and solve the "Do I put the wing between plate and the rail" question.
It might be easier to just let people special order a plate directly from me with a removable rail so I can explain it over the phone.
I dunno, I thought he removable rail was a bonus in that it can be removed to lighten the plate by a pound for travel, or to get the tank as absolutely as close as possible to the divers back by using it sans rail. Some people like different heights of rails for different applications such as using a PRAM - which requires an additional 3/4" of clearance between the can and the plate, but maybe those days need to be gone.
I going to have to decide what to do because this is driving me nuts.
