HenrikBP
Contributor
This is my new favorite travel rig: an aluminum Freedom plate with a 30 lbs Oxycheq Mach V wing.
The plate is laced with standard (stiff) backplate webbing in standard HOG fashion. The slots in the plate for the waist straps are big enough that I can pull on the waist straps to tighten up the shoulder straps. To get the shoulder strap length the same every time, I threaded 2 plastic keepers on the shoulder straps, so that the keepers "bottom out" on the plate when the waist straps are pulled and shoulder straps tightened.
The whole rig disassembles and packs very small. I carried the plate with wing and harness in a medium size backpack as carry-on. I would guess the weight to about 5-6 lbs: 2 lbs for the tank and another 3-4 lbs for the wing, webbing and hardware. It's just a guess though.
The plate fits me rock solid during the dives - upside - down and sideways - no problem. The "organic" shape of the plate is super comfortable too. I dove it with a 3 mill wetsuit, but tried it with just a skin and was just fine.
The tank mounts solidly on the plate, I'm sure partly due to the "tank capturing" bend at the bottom edge of the plate. I found it easier to mount the single tank and also found the tank to be even more solid on the plate than with my standard SS backplate.
Granted - with the lighter plate I needed to add a bit of extra weight to the pockets on the cam bands. I ended up with 2 x 4 lbs on the top cam band, which left me a pound or two heavy, but perfectly trimmed/balanced with my (heavy-ish) Hollis F1 fins.
I can highly recommend the Freedom plate. Thanks Eric.
Henrik
(no affiliation - just a happy customer)
The plate is laced with standard (stiff) backplate webbing in standard HOG fashion. The slots in the plate for the waist straps are big enough that I can pull on the waist straps to tighten up the shoulder straps. To get the shoulder strap length the same every time, I threaded 2 plastic keepers on the shoulder straps, so that the keepers "bottom out" on the plate when the waist straps are pulled and shoulder straps tightened.
The whole rig disassembles and packs very small. I carried the plate with wing and harness in a medium size backpack as carry-on. I would guess the weight to about 5-6 lbs: 2 lbs for the tank and another 3-4 lbs for the wing, webbing and hardware. It's just a guess though.
The plate fits me rock solid during the dives - upside - down and sideways - no problem. The "organic" shape of the plate is super comfortable too. I dove it with a 3 mill wetsuit, but tried it with just a skin and was just fine.
The tank mounts solidly on the plate, I'm sure partly due to the "tank capturing" bend at the bottom edge of the plate. I found it easier to mount the single tank and also found the tank to be even more solid on the plate than with my standard SS backplate.
Granted - with the lighter plate I needed to add a bit of extra weight to the pockets on the cam bands. I ended up with 2 x 4 lbs on the top cam band, which left me a pound or two heavy, but perfectly trimmed/balanced with my (heavy-ish) Hollis F1 fins.
I can highly recommend the Freedom plate. Thanks Eric.
Henrik
(no affiliation - just a happy customer)