My (or other sourced) tank on a liveaboard

[diversteve]

You'll have to pull the valve to fly with it. IDK what sort of inspection anyone will want to do prior to filling it at your destination also.

Compressed Gas Cylinders | Transportation Security Administration

---------- Post added May 21st, 2014 at 11:43 AM ----------

Shipping a tank UPS Economy Air from Canada to Grand Cayman is going to be about $600...Since it's under 150# it can't go freight.

I think in a substantial box - the airlines might take it as checked - which would be $25?. There's also the option to ship it air freight via the airlines - usually they require it some hours or a day sooner. No idea what that costs but it might be possible to have it ride with you on a direct flight - if there is one.

 

[Damselfish]

I don't think shipping or checking tanks for your average recreational dive trip makes financial or logistic sense, and it isn't something you see people doing. I think the question to ask is, "which liveaboards and operators in places I want to go offer larger tanks?" Or ask liveaboards or operators you are interested in if they have bigger tanks available or can arrange to have them. Some do and it won't be the first time they've heard this request. (As far as needing 2, I've never been on a liveaboard that didn't have my tank refilled before I was dry.)

 

[TheDeuce]

Well I just got a reply to my email to Wayne at Aggressor. He's guaranteed a 100 cube tank for me 'come hell or high water'. So I guess that settles that for my next trip. I'm already getting antsy. 22 months with no diving is a long fast.


[tongueincheek]

Now if I can just get them to amend their dive schedule to accommodate my standard 7-8 dives a day.

6:00 AM - sunrise dive
7:30 AM - breakfast
9:00 AM - morning dive #1
11:00 AM - morning dive #2
12:00 PM - lunch
1:00 PM - afternoon dive #1
3:00 PM - afternoon dive #2
5:00 PM - afternoon dive #3
6:00 PM - dinner
7:00 PM - sunset dive
9:00 PM - night dive

[/tongueincheek]

Ya see, when you've been landlocked in Winnipeg for almost two years, daydreaming about your next scuba trip is like daydreaming about the Easter Buffet after a 40 day Lenten fast. It all looks so good! It's time to manic up that dive schedule!



m.

 

[tdchandl]

having done a number of liveaboards... I've never had a situation where they were not able to accommodate at least a 100cf or larger. Sometimes they charge a little additional to cover their rental or in come gratis provided you make arrangements ahead of time.

 

[kwinter]

IIRC the standard 100 cube AL won't fit in the typical tank hole on a typical dive boat. Hence my idea of going with a 120 steel

Most steel tanks of that capacity are also 8 inch tanks, just like the Al 100. Unless you're talking about HP steel 120s, which would be extremely rare to find on a liveaboard.

 

[ElGaucho]

Just lug around a stage. Pfff. Much easier. You just need a backplate and wing (just to make your life easier, and this is ScubaBoard so you will die if you don't use one), the hardware to clip the tank (look at the hogarthian rig in Cylinder Stage/Deco/Sidemount Straps and Hose Retainers - Dive Gear Express), an extra regulator with a 40-inch LP hose and a 6-inch HP hose with an SPG. Done!

 

[TheDeuce]

Most steel tanks of that capacity are also 8 inch tanks, just like the Al 100. Unless you're talking about HP steel 120s, which would be extremely rare to find on a liveaboard.

If I was taking my own tank down there it would have been a HP120 steel so the diameter would have been spot on. It's a moot point now but I had been wondering if there would have been a problem filling a HP tank with liveaboard equipment.



m.

 

[Wookie]

If I was taking my own tank down there it would have been a HP120 steel so the diameter would have been spot on. It's a moot point now but I had been wondering if there would have been a problem filling a HP tank with liveaboard equipment.



m.

Liveaboard fill stations tend to be far more complex and have far better capabilities than most dive shops. I have helium, oxygen, nitrox from a membrane, 2 different boosters, a blending bank for trimix and different concentrations of Oxygen. Liveaboard compressors tend to be 4,500 or 6,000 PSI Bauers, Makos, or Coltri's. Most liveaboards have 2 compressors, one for air and one for nitrox. A liveaboard fills 100 cylinders per day. Most dive shops fill 3 unless it's a Friday.

 

[TheDeuce]

Just lug around a stage. Pfff. Much easier. You just need a backplate and wing (just to make your life easier, and this is ScubaBoard so you will die if you don't use one), the hardware to clip the tank (look at the hogarthian rig in Cylinder Stage/Deco/Sidemount Straps and Hose Retainers - Dive Gear Express), an extra regulator with a 40-inch LP hose and a 6-inch HP hose with an SPG. Done!

But I've heard that a backplate and wing is dangerous unless you're an advanced technical diver! Not only that, a BPW will do terrible things to your other beloved scuba equipment. It will cause your first stage to clog and implode, dumping debris into your tank, due to the unnatural orientation a BPW gives. Then it will dump all the air, causing you to plummet to the bottom of the ocean. But that's not all!

A BPW will round off your weights causing them to fall off at a random time, sending you skyrocketing to the surface, leaving your girlfriend all alone in the deep blue sea and then she'll never dive with you again. BPWs fog your mask on both sides. Permanently. A BPW will wear out one, and only one, of your fins causing you to swim in circles, preventing you from getting back to the boat. It will force you to urinate. At depth. In your drysuit. It will then rust the zippers on your drysuit shut so that you get to live out your days in uriney goodness. Backplates attract both Hurricanes and Typhoons, ruining every dive vacation you're on, unless it's a freshwater dive in the midwest. Then it attracts tornadoes.

When diving with a boatfull of attractive women a BPW will make you slip on the deck, falling face first while simultaneously stripping you of your bathing suit. It makes whatever water your diving in 34 degrees Fahrenheit so that loss of a bathing suit in front of said women does double damage. It taps into your dive computer and makes it think you're diving 40% Nitrox and changes your SPG to read in Kilopounds per Acre while simultaneously voiding it's warranty by changing the dive number to 55,555.

Then it loses your postcards you sent home in the mail.




m.

 

[Shasta_man]

You'll be fine with all that as long as you aren't wearing split fins.

On a serious note, get to work on some basic cardio work and you'll be in pretty good shape breathing-wise by dive time. And not sucking it up at the beginning of the dive and being correctly weighted is a major help with air consumption because you don't have to keep wasting air going up and down.