Need advice before I start reinventing the wheel...

[mello-yellow]

Aluminum 80's and 63's, and HP steel 80's and 100's are all 23" in circumference. My LP steel 72 is 21.5" in circumference. One and a half inch does not sound like big difference, but it makes attaching LP 72 to my wing a pain -- velcro on the tank band does not match well, and tank band leaves a free end which does not tuck in anywhere.

Is there a known way to deal with this? I've been thinking of putting a thick rubber sleeve around the tank (say, part of leg from old worn-out wetsuit) to give it more girth. But before I start fooling around, has anyone already solved this problem?

 

[SparticleBrane]

Why not just tighten the tank strap...?

 

[spectrum]

Maybe your strap is just a bit too long. I run 7-1/4 to 6-3/4 cylinders an I'm able to bind the tail of my straps down on the small cylinder and still have plenty to work with on the bigger ones. I believe yout 72s are in between at 6.9". I do need to favor one side so I have enough exposed tank radius on the tail side of the buckle.

Pete

 

[rstofer]

Right! I wind up with the buckle over on the right side of the tank. I use both 6.9" and 7.25" tanks interchangeably.

Richard

 

[mello-yellow]

Why not just tighten the tank strap...?

I think you misunderstand. Of course I tighten the tank strap -- how else would I attach the tank at all? But the more you tighten the strap, the longer is the free end.

Maybe your strap is just a bit too long. I run 7-1/4 to 6-3/4 cylinders an I'm able to bind the tail of my straps down on the small cylinder and still have plenty to work with on the bigger ones.

Perhaps it is too long (actually, they are -- I use two straps on a single-tank adapter). There is no way to stick the tail end anywhere between tank, adapter and backplate. Worse, as I mentioned, on one of two bands velcro patches do not align properly with this LP 72.

 

[H2Andy]

hmmm ...

i would be careful putting an extra layer of rubber or whatever on the tank ... it may not hold up

if i were to do it, i'd use more like a sleeve of rubber that covers probably 2/3's of the tank so that it's much harder for it to slide off

i wonder if buying smaller straps might work? or even possible?

 

[mkutyna]

I don't understand. You're rotating the tank straps so the buckle is as close to the BC/wing/plate as possible but you still have a lot of excess tank strap beyond the buckle? Is there something else going on here that I'm not getting?

 

[halocline]

Shorter straps are the answer, sorry about that. You can try rotating the strap in the STA so that the buckle is all the way on one side of the tank; that gives you more room for the left over strap. If that helps but the left over is past the velcro, try looping a bit of inner tube over the strap and maybe you can tuck in the end under the inner tube.

I go through this with my LP72s. Eventually I bought the SP style cam straps, those work great.

 

[WD8CDH]

30 years ago, USD had stainless steel cam bands that had multiple slots for different size tanks. You could probably adapt those bands to the STA. Or just get shorter straps with the velcro in the right place..

 

[rstofer]

I am using the Dive Rite tank bands and they work just fine for both tank diameters. I suppose it is possible that other brands are not as accommodating.

How about using one of those plastic nets on the smaller tanks?

Richard