Hollis HTS - too heavy?

[Texasguy]

I'd like to ease myself into the backplate & wing diving. I ordered Hollis HTS harness but recently I noticed that it is 8 pounds. Add to that a 2lb alum. BP, 11lb in 130cu steel tank... not counting other involved weights.. Will I be heavy as a brick? With 3mm suite there will not be that much buoyancy, does it mean I will have to heavily rely on my wing to keep me neutral?

 

[superspeed]

The HTS is a soft backplate...its "dry" weight might be 8lbs but it is made of mostly cloth. It will not be 8lbs negative in the water...or even close to that.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

A 3 mil with a steel 100 and al plate? Depending on your build you may not need any weight to sink.
Scratch that. There seems to be a lot of unnecessary padding on that harness so it may have some inherent buoyancy of it's own to overcome. Kind of defeats the purpose of going to a plate and harness system of any kind.

Why did you decide on it instead of just going with an aluminum plate and basic harness? If you're using a 3 mil the padding on the harness is just extra stuff to mess with. Like the cummerbund. See no purpose for it at all. Another thing to fasten and unfasten that with a suit on is not going to give you any benefit.

 

[superspeed]

Jim, there is a good amount of unnecessary padding but it comes off quite easy too, the back pad is prob +2 lbs in the water but comes right off. The padding on the shoulders would be hard to remove but could come off. Having said all that, I agree with you, BPW is a better option than going half BPW with the exception that the HTS2 rolls up and packs really nice!

Also, the cummerbund comes off really easy.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

If all the stuff comes off why have it in the first place? If that's easing into something there are much cheaper ways of doing it!

 

[eelnoraa]

As superspeed mentioned, the HTS is no where near 8lb negative in water, probably even positive. So my question to you is why add a AL backplate if you already have HTS. It functions without a solid backplate.

But are you overweighted with HP130 with 3mm suit to begin with?

 

[superspeed]

If all the stuff comes off why have it in the first place? If that's easing into something there are much cheaper ways of doing it!

In his case, trying to ease into BP/W, I could not agree more. Why not just go straight to BP/W and if you really want get an adjustable harness.

 

[Texasguy]

In his case, trying to ease into BP/W, I could not agree more. Why not just go straight to BP/W and if you really want get an adjustable harness.

I can buy just the regular kind harness any day for $60 or so. The HTS I got new for a really good deal. I thought if I will buy a regular harness, then a soft plate padding (I am a wuss, I don't have any padding of my own), shoulder padding, etc, it will come to more than I got HTS for. Maybe the cummerbund feature sold it for me, I like support in that area. Plus, I like Hollis products in general.

As someone said, I can take off some features to customize to my own liking. In the end, I can always sell it.

---------- Post added February 18th, 2013 at 09:20 PM ----------

But are you overweighted with HP130 with 3mm suit to begin with?

Probably a bit.

 

[ams511]

The padding will really only help you if you need to suit up and walk to the dive location. In the water you will not feel the difference, especially if you are wearing a wet suit.