Is DR Travel Wing wimpy?

[SteveFass]

If you help me with this, then I promise this will be my last Transpac question. I'd like to know what is the toughest workout you (or someone you know) gave to a Dive Rite Travel Wing -- and still felt safe, confident, and comfortable.

Great depth? Large steel tank? Lots of heavy gear (weight)? High chop surface water?

People say lift can vary, even when rated with the same lift by the manufacturer, so even though the Travel Wing is rated to 30 lbs, because it looks so small I'm doubtful how it can perform outside of easy warm water dives.

I know that I can get a bigger wing for more challenging dives, but at $200+ per wing, I'd like to keep the number of wings down to a low number.

Thanks once again.

 

[archman]

I haven't dove it using anything bigger than an Al80, but I've taken it to "cool" 70 degree ponds quite a bit with no problem, wearing 16-19lbs. of lead. I've also used the rip-off ScubaPro TravelWings extensively in the Bahamas, where the wings took quite a bit of abuse from outdoor storage, getting trampled, hurled off boats, poorly rinsed, etc. over a two month period. The wings took it and still look oh so pretty. I'd still be using the thing if only it properly fit the TPII. Stupid straps don't align right, so I had to buy a near-identical DR travel wing when I swapped out my BCD. Boo!

 

[drbill]

I've dived a comparable wing (SP Trav-Tek) in cold water (down to 48 F) with a HP 120 steel tank for several years and love it. I also travel with it. I do have a separate BCD (same kind, a SP X-Tek) with a Rec-Tek wing but I haven't used it yet. I should add that when I started diving, we didn't have BCD's so that experience is a factor.

Dr. Bill

 

[Charlie99]

30 pounds is quite a bit of lift. To quote Jarrod Jablonski, founder of GUE:

"....divers do not need excessive amounts of lift;... if, in fact, a diver does need more than .. 30 pounds for singles, then they do not have a balanced rig and are an accident waiting to happen". p. 70, Doing It Right, Fundamentals of Better Diving

 

[Rick Murchison]

Been diving a travel wing for about 6 years with everything up to 125's with no problem. But... just so you have some real numbers, I just took my transpac/travel wing (without backpad or cummerbund) out to the pool, manually inflated it and stacked weights on it 'til it sank.
28 pounds.
Rick

 

[SteveFass]

Judging from your backgrounds I guess I can't ask for tougher tests or higher votes of confidence for the Travel Wing for any type of single tank diving.

Thanks Rick for the scientific test. These manufacturers should be held accountable for innacuracies in their released statistics. A near 10% error is not "close enough" to me.

You folks should know how much us newbies appreciate and value access to the brains of such enormously experienced divers. Good karma is coming your way.

 

[Kim]

I too dive a large (14ltr) steel tank with my travel wing to any recreational depth with no problem. Using a 5mm full wetsuit I only have to add a small amount of air to compensate at depth. If I tried to fill it right up I'd probably do a Polaris impression.

Ricks test seems to confirm that the claimed 30lbs lift is very close to reality. You'd have to be very incorrectly weighted to get into problems with that it seems to me.
I believe as well it has the same lift as the Venture wing - just the different shape.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Thanks Rick for the scientific test. These manufacturers should be held accountable for innacuracies in their released statistics. A near 10% error is not "close enough" to me.

I suspect that if I'd had the transpac backpad on there, used a power inflator until the overpressure relief valve vented and done the test in salt water I'd have had to stack at least 31# on it to sink it. And not to pick a nit (well, actually, I will pick a nit), but 2/30 is over 30% less than a 10% error.
Rick

 

[SteveFass]

Pick all the nits you like. I may have exaggerated the point, but I have been dispointed in the amount of useful information manufacturers of expensive diving equipment provide to consumers. Then I read a finding in the last BC review in Scubadiving regarding (for some manufacturers) large discrepancies of manufacturer stated lift vs. "actual" lift. It hadn't occured to me (nor did the article state) that part of the the error could innocently be do to the different ways of measuring lift.

 

[archman]

Heck, I never got the mileage my truck advertised at the dealer. My dive lights always burn down early. I'm not feeling any healthier drinking C2 over regular Coke. My DSL connection is always much slower than I was told.

Over-hype from manufacturers is common everywhere. Dive gear ain't no exception.