These are my first impressions of the Hog sidemount BC. I have not had this BC in the water yet.
- Does not contain an internal bladder, which could be plus or minus. It decreases cost and makes the BC lighter and more travel friendly. One of Hogs stated design goals. If you are concerned, Hog makes a cover that will protect the wing from damage as a 40.00 option.
- The Shoulder straps and the crotch strap are both sewn to the BC. The shoulder straps are sewn to the wing and not attached to the back plate and the crotch strap is sewn to the butt plate. The webbing used is really soft webbing so if you like stiffer webbing it will require having it sewn into place to replace it.
- They used small gourmets and screw with nut to attach the shoulder straps to the waistband and back plate to the wing. I planned on replacing them with book screws but the gourmets are too small.
- The butt plate is attached to back plate that is not stiff allowing the butt plate to move from side to side. I stop most of the movement by locking the crotch strap down to the bottom of the butt plate so the crotch strap limits the side-to-side movement. Under normal use it doesnt seem like it would be a problem but fully inflated it pulls on the crotch strap and could cause some discomfort.
- The waist belt has 3 different locations so if you have a short or a long torso you can get a great fit. This is a real plus since I do have long torso and this fits better than most BC style sidemount rigs.
- On DRIS they have video showing how to capture the wing on the waistband so doesnt slid back forth on the waistband. After doing this mod the wing covers the area I would normally put d-ring for AL80 tanks but the butt plate is larger than normal and you can move the butt plate tank attachment close to the position where I would normal put that d-ring.
- The inflator hose is the oval one that stretchs and is the one I prefer and normally have to replace on most other rigs I have.
- The Hog Sidemount doesnt come with any extra clips or tank bands so if new that could be a negative but if you been around a while youre not paying for something you really dont need.
- I hope I wont need a trim weight with the side bungee tighten up forcing the air into the lower in the BC but finding a way to attaching trim pockets was a challenge. I ended up attaching it to the strap that the tank dungee attach to which isnt good solution but will work till I figure out if I need trim weights or not. The waist strap will accept couple X Scuba type pockets under the wing without any problems.
- There are a couple of plastic tri-glides and if you see plastic as problem then they will need replacing. The wing to the waist belt are plastic but even if they broke it wouldnt be big deal.
- Like every sidemount rig I have owned the tank bungee that come with the rig are way to stiff for my liking and I have plenty of light bungee on hand to replace them with and the Hog wasnt the exception.
I have not had the Hog BC in the water yet but my impression is it will work fine with dual tanks but because the butt plate does shift from side-to-side it will not be as good with a single tank diving.
The build quality seems like its not up to Hollis or Dive Rite but a stated design goal was to make lighter travel friendly BC and I think they have achieved this in BC style sidemount rig.
If I could change anything what would I change?
I was use a stiffer back plate or I would have expended the butt plate up high enough to connect to the two lower bolts. That would help with the side-to-side movement of the butt plate
I would of connected the shoulder straps to the back plate and make them removable/replaceable.
I would make the crotch strap easily replaceable and not sewn to the butt plate.
I would of put grommets in the bottom corner of the wing to attach to the waist belt but the capturing with tri-guides works, just think the grommets would have been a cleaner solution.
Used slightly large grommets so you could replace the screw and nut with standard book screws used on most other BCs.
I currently own an Xdeep and Armadillo Sidemount BC which I like both of them but they also have their faults. Im not picking on Hog just my opinion and yours maybe be different then mine and I would like to hear them.