bill-da-ho
Guest
Like the others said drop the belt, use the intergrated and add to the trim pouches. I have a raider which is like the ranger with options. I use about 2/3 rds in the pouches and 1/3 rd in the trim pouches in back. On the surface don't fully inflate and lean back.
Also if your using 16-20 lbs in freshwater and a 3 mil you need to learn to relax in the water, your breathing way to heavy if you need that kind of weight. Try relaxing on water for a few mins to get your breathing under control then make your dive.
Fyi I used to dive with 6-8 lbs fresh water, 3 mil with my seaquest raider. I went to a ss plate and wings, alum 80 and dive with 0 to 2 lbs max. w/my steel tanks I'm heavy in fresh water but in salt I add 2 lbs w/ belt and I position my weight in the small of my back. I spent $750 on my raider 8 yrs ago. I bought my plate/wings and harness for $300 after two years of diving with my raider and havn't gone back to it yet. And no, before you ask I'm not into tech or dir diving.
befor I added more weight, I had my BC empty, got down to the bottom, about 4 feet of water, completely exhaled, and floated up. I do spend a bit of time at the surface befor starting the dive. I feel comfortable? I'm sure I'm not at the optimum breathing?
With my old BC, I used 16 pounds and was able to maintain neutral fairly well, I could swim 2 feet off the bottom without bouncing off, I had some problems initially with using the bc air for an elevator, but now have gotten away from that and feel really comfortable while diving. I'm a fairly large person, 6'2', 250 lbs. Would that affect my weight needs?