Intregal Weight Belts

[paultaylor]

I just brought a BCD with quick release weight holders.

Problem is, I require 14kgs and can only fit 10 in the BCD, 5 each side. This still requires me to wear a belt with 4 plates on it. I thought the whole point of the BCD feature was to eliminate the need for a belt??

I tried putting 2 weights in each pocket of the BCD but got a bollocking from the divemaster...

Any suggestions?

 

[jbd]

I just brought a BCD with quick release weight holders.

Problem is, I require 14kgs and can only fit 10 in the BCD, 5 each side. This still requires me to wear a belt with 4 plates on it. I thought the whole point of the BCD feature was to eliminate the need for a belt??

I tried putting 2 weights in each pocket of the BCD but got a bollocking from the divemaster...

Any suggestions?

From what I have seen the intergrated weight system is good for divers who don't need a lot of weight due to comfort or experience in the water or the environment they dive in doesn't require much thermal protection. There may be other pockets in the back of the BC that you can use. If not you will just have to keep using the belt, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The belt gives you some ditchable weight but not so much that you go ballistic.

 

[Xman]

Having some integrated weight, and some on a belt or harness is just about ideal. Don't worry about it. As others have said, integrated systems usually don't carry enough weight for those in thick exposure protection or requiring significant amounts of weight for what ever reason.
Play around with different distribution of your required weight to get your trim just how you want it.

 

[rickyd]

I wear a 7mm, and need lots of weight. I have four 2 pound bullet weights ( just under 4kg ) attached to the tank straps on the BC. I have double bands, so, 2 weights on each band, on either side of the tank. Gets some weight on my back that way, and very stable and balanced. I also have 9 pounds in each pocket of the weight integrated BC (TranspacII), for a total of 26 pounds. And yes, also using a steel tank.

 

[Dive-aholic]

DUI makes a weight harness that is similar to the integrated bc. You wear it under your bc. It could pose a problem though if you have a jacket style bc.

 

[Quarrior]

Using a weight belt, strap the extra weight to your tank. If you ever have to ditch weight, dumping the weight pockets on your BC will be more than sufficient. No need to worry about not being able to dump the weight attached to your tank.

 

[Diver0001]

I just brought a BCD with quick release weight holders.

Problem is, I require 14kgs and can only fit 10 in the BCD, 5 each side. This still requires me to wear a belt with 4 plates on it. I thought the whole point of the BCD feature was to eliminate the need for a belt??

I tried putting 2 weights in each pocket of the BCD but got a bollocking from the divemaster...

Any suggestions?

(emphasis added)

... Paul,

This is a mistaken assumption. When you're wearing a lot of weight the weight pockets only allow you to move *some* of the weight off of your weightbelt for either comfort and/or better distribution.

My first suggestion, if you haven't already, is to do a good buoyancy check to make sure that you really need 14kg.

Assuming you need 14kg then you should move a maximum of 8 off of your weightbelt into the pockets (4 on a side). That will leave you with 6kg on your weightbelt. If you want to remove more then you may be able to move 2kg to the cam-band, which would leave you with 4 on your weightbelt.

Naturally you'll want to pay attention to the impact on both trim and buouancy when you do that.

And don't overload those pockets. With most BCD's if you overload the pockets you'll eventually lose a weight pocket.

R..