Hollis SMS 50 - Ditch the bungees?

[Joost Arnold]

+1 for this
dirt simple and gets steel tanks up high behind your arm pits, not hangin' low
Does not work that well with unweighted AL80s since they like to "roll-up" once they are down to around 2000psi and that ends up disconnecting the bungie from the valve so the tank will suddenly be hanging from the neck clip.

I do not recognize the problems with the bungees, for me the Hollis standard seems to work fine. However, diving with AL80s I would like to maintain a balanced trim (straimline) at the end of my dives. I am going to try putting a 2 pnds on the lower tank strap but maybe there is a better way to do this. Any suggestions?
(I only have about 15 dives sidemount (and Hollis sms50) so I didn't change anything yet. I feel it's better to get comfortable first and then make small changes, one at a time. Allready the set feels great and I got rid of my back mount stuff. For now I mainly dive open water but things can change. I have my configuration set up as a copy of Jeff Loflin's instruction video. I guess I had a great instructor cause I really don't understand a lot of the remarks regarding the inflation hose... A little side-roll will do and who needs a lot of stuff hanging lose or over your vest?)

 

[JamesK]

I do not recognize the problems with the bungees, for me the Hollis standard seems to work fine. However, diving with AL80s I would like to maintain a balanced trim (straimline) at the end of my dives. I am going to try putting a 2 pnds on the lower tank strap but maybe there is a better way to do this. Any suggestions?
(I only have about 15 dives sidemount (and Hollis sms50) so I didn't change anything yet. I feel it's better to get comfortable first and then make small changes, one at a time. Allready the set feels great and I got rid of my back mount stuff. For now I mainly dive open water but things can change. I have my configuration set up as a copy of Jeff Loflin's instruction video. I guess I had a great instructor cause I really don't understand a lot of the remarks regarding the inflation hose... A little side-roll will do and who needs a lot of stuff hanging lose or over your vest?)

A better way then weights on the tanks? Yes. IMO unclipping the tanks and moving them to a dring forward on your waist is a better idea. I am not a fan of adding the weight to the tanks. Do you need the four extra pounds? How much weight are you diving with now? Where is it located? What will moving that weight do to your trim? When diving wet with double 80's I use 0-4 pounds in salt water depending on exposure protection. Moving that weight can throw off my trim.

 

[Joost Arnold]

A better way then weights on the tanks? Yes. IMO unclipping the tanks and moving them to a dring forward on your waist is a better idea. I am not a fan of adding the weight to the tanks. Do you need the four extra pounds? How much weight are you diving with now? Where is it located? What will moving that weight do to your trim? When diving wet with double 80's I use 0-4 pounds in salt water depending on exposure protection. Moving that weight can throw off my trim.

Thx for this suggestion! I was using 2 pnds in the pocket in the neck of my sms 50 and 4 pnds on a waist belt. That was in warm salt water in a 3mm wetsuit. I used the 4 pnds mainly to compensate for the boyancy of the tanks late in my dives. At the start of my dives I could do without them. Did you add an extra D-ring on the waist belt? Seems like a great suggestion, I'll definitely try this.

 

[DevonDiver]

I routinely put 2lbs on each cylinder cam-band, when using AL80s. It's a good solution for general open-water sidemount IMHO. That leaves me with only a further 2lbs needed on my rig - which I'll put either directly on the spine strap or split 1lb on each shoulder strap. Even with the weights, I'll drop the cylinders down onto the lower waist D-ring when they get slightly neutral.

For obvious reasons, I don't use weights on the tanks when doing confined/overhead penetration dives.

 

[JamesK]

Thx for this suggestion! I was using 2 pnds in the pocket in the neck of my sms 50 and 4 pnds on a waist belt. That was in warm salt water in a 3mm wetsuit. I used the 4 pnds mainly to compensate for the boyancy of the tanks late in my dives. At the start of my dives I could do without them. Did you add an extra D-ring on the waist belt? Seems like a great suggestion, I'll definitely try this.

No problem. Yes I added two drings slightly forward of my hips to clip the tanks in. I prefer low profile drings for this.

 

[Joost Arnold]

Great suggestions. I'll use them to make my configuration fit me perfectly.
With a little trial and error it will only get better. And that's funny since I'm allready very satisfied with my set.
(Reading some posts here I feel lucky I had a good sidemount instructor and not an instructor that only tried this a few times and then starts teaching.)

 

[DevonDiver]

I'll use them to make my configuration fit me perfectly. ...I feel lucky I had a good sidemount instructor and not an instructor that only tried this a few times and then starts teaching.)

One might suggest that a really great instructor would already have addressed personalized configuration issues with you, as part of training

 

[Akroedge540]

With my SMS 50 I made a few changes that suit what I like better. The old school kit works great. I also changed the power inflator hose to the dive rite hose since its more flexible. I removed the padding on the shoulders because it serves no purpose. I ran a semi rigid plastic tube from the dump valve to the shoulder and inserted cave line to relocate the dump control to the left shoulder. With aluminum 80's I have 1 lb on the cam band. I use 3 lbs in the top pocket with 1lb in each of the lower pocket. That's all with a 7mil wetsuit, 6.5 mm hood and boots, and dive rite fins.

My first two dives were great with the system and I like it fairly well. I ran the tanks down to 2000psi each and didn't see much change in trim. I also hooked an aluminum 40 of O2 at the beginning of the dive and it can carry it, just the wing is fairly inflated.

Overall I found the system to be light and smooth. It's streamlined well. Also with throwing two tanks out front there really isn't a change in trim and it's quite addicting!!

 

[flots am]

Just a quick followup for all those that helped out.

I completely removed the Hollis bungees and snap bolts and replaced them with a loop of bungee from home depot, and it works awesome. The HD bungee doesn't require two men and a boy to stretch over the tank neck, but still holds it nice and tight. Ditching the snap bolts got rid of the "confusion" happening at the tank neck and front of the harness (there was too much stuff in too small an area)

I also got rid of the Hollis tank straps, which seemed to be very durable, but never worked quite right and replaced them with SCUBAPro straps.

Everything is working awesome!

Thanks again!

flots

 

[Doppler]

For the record, here are pics of my SMS50 with "Edd_Sorrenson" updates to bungee and inflator hose.