For Sale Official Freedom Plate List: Please respond here.

[wnissen]

Oh, I didn't know you were back in the saddle, I am new to BP/W and still trying to decide between steel and aluminum. Most of my diving is like yours, Eric, 8/7mm or drysuit, but I'm a lot fatter, so I use 26 lbs. in my 8/7. But sometimes I do travel to warm water destinations. Why would I not get an aluminum, bolt 10-15 pounds for cold water, and use a couple pockets for a bit of ditchable? Then for travel I'd unbolt the fixed weight and just use the pockets. Maybe this is a question that requires its own thread.

 

[Wibble]

Oh, I didn't know you were back in the saddle, I am new to BP/W and still trying to decide between steel and aluminum. Most of my diving is like yours, Eric, 8/7mm or drysuit, but I'm a lot fatter, so I use 26 lbs. in my 8/7. But sometimes I do travel to warm water destinations. Why would I not get an aluminum, bolt 10-15 pounds for cold water, and use a couple pockets for a bit of ditchable? Then for travel I'd unbolt the fixed weight and just use the pockets. Maybe this is a question that requires it's own thread.

Get both. It's useful if switching between freshwater and seawater

 

[stuartv]

I use my stainless steel Freedom Contour plate even in board shorts and a rash guard (with a VDH 18# wing - The Dream Rig). I pack it in my carry-on bag when I fly to dive, so the extra 3 or 4 pounds (versus an aluminum plate) doesn't matter to me at all - and the extra weight is nice, when I get there, as I use no lead at all, even with an AL80 or AL100, even in a 3mm full wetsuit.

In other words, I wouldn't bother with an aluminum plate. At least, not until you try the SS plate and decide you actually want to spend that money just to knock off 3 or 4 pounds.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Oh, I didn't know you were back in the saddle, I am new to BP/W and still trying to decide between steel and aluminum. Most of my diving is like yours, Eric, 8/7mm or drysuit, but I'm a lot fatter, so I use 26 lbs. in my 8/7. But sometimes I do travel to warm water destinations. Why would I not get an aluminum, bolt 10-15 pounds for cold water, and use a couple pockets for a bit of ditchable? Then for travel I'd unbolt the fixed weight and just use the pockets. Maybe this is a question that requires it's own thread.

Some people have done that. Thinking it all out and coming up with clever ways of mounting the extra lead seems to be the tricky part. I say just add it to your weight belt, but I’m old school and remember a time before it was in fashion to mount all or most of your ballast onto the rig. There were plastic backpacks and regular poodle jackets that had no pockets or pouches and if you needed more weight you used a bigger weight belt plain and simple. It’s become way too complicated to try and keep up with market whims when we’re dealing with a subject that’s supposed to be very simple.

 

[wnissen]

Get both. It's useful if switching between freshwater and seawater

I had considered that. My current Aqualung Dimension (back-inflate traditional BCD) currently serves me for all my diving, so I was thinking about trying to keep it to one plate.

I use my stainless steel Freedom Contour plate even in board shorts and a rash guard (with a VDH 18# wing - The Dream Rig). I pack it in my carry-on bag when I fly to dive, so the extra 3 or 4 pounds (versus an aluminum plate) doesn't matter to me at all - and the extra weight is nice, when I get there, as I use no lead at all, even with an AL80 or AL100, even in a 3mm full wetsuit.

In other words, I wouldn't bother with an aluminum plate. At least, not until you try the SS plate and decide you actually want to spend that money just to knock off 3 or 4 pounds.

See, I am the opposite, I want some ditchable weight no matter what. When I'm in the setup you describe with my current BCD and an HP 100 / 12L steel, I am slightly negative with no weight. I think I would be about neutral with an aluminum tank, so I'm worried about being negative even with the aluminum plate, since presumably the plastic in my current BC is slightly positive.

Some people have done that. Thinking it all out and coming up with clever ways of mounting the extra lead seems to be the tricky part. I say just add it to your weight belt, but I’m old school and remember a time before it was in fashion to mount all or most of your ballast onto the rig. There were plastic backpacks and regular poodle jackets that had no pockets or pouches and if you needed more weight you used a bigger weight belt plain and simple. It’s become way too complicated to try and keep up with market whims when we’re dealing with a subject that’s supposed to be very simple.

Interesting. I have not used a weight belt much outside of training, preferring the integrated weights on my BCD for convenience. It seems too easy to lose a weight belt. And in any case I wouldn't want to have more than 10 lbs. ditchable, preferably less. I don't really have a choice now but am considering if I should rig up something like this:

Cheap DIY bolt-on weights

I've been looking for a decent way to add weight to my backplate for use with drysuit, heavy undergarments, and a single tank. After reviewing commercially available options I was thoroughly disappointed: 1) Steel backplate. Cheap way to add an extra 5 lbs, but this isn't enough. 2) Tank...

scubaboard.com

It would be able to work with rental weights if I was ever cold-water diving. Thanks for your help, Eric, I appreciate it.

 

[happy-diver]

Here you go integration simple

But then integration can never be simple

But magnificent.

Perfectly so.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I had considered that. My current Aqualung Dimension (back-inflate traditional BCD) currently serves me for all my diving, so I was thinking about trying to keep it to one plate.

See, I am the opposite, I want some ditchable weight no matter what. When I'm in the setup you describe with my current BCD and an HP 100 / 12L steel, I am slightly negative with no weight. I think I would be about neutral with an aluminum tank, so I'm worried about being negative even with the aluminum plate, since presumably the plastic in my current BC is slightly positive.

Interesting. I have not used a weight belt much outside of training, preferring the integrated weights on my BCD for convenience. It seems too easy to lose a weight belt. And in any case I wouldn't want to have more than 10 lbs. ditchable, preferably less. I don't really have a choice now but am considering if I should rig up something like this:

Cheap DIY bolt-on weights

I've been looking for a decent way to add weight to my backplate for use with drysuit, heavy undergarments, and a single tank. After reviewing commercially available options I was thoroughly disappointed: 1) Steel backplate. Cheap way to add an extra 5 lbs, but this isn't enough. 2) Tank...

scubaboard.com

It would be able to work with rental weights if I was ever cold-water diving. Thanks for your help, Eric, I appreciate it.

I never really travel so I’m probably the wrong person to advise on travel setups. But for me if I was to travel I’d just take my regular heavy 4 lb large plate minus the wedge and figure that they will more than likely set me up with an aluminum 80 since that seems to be the default tank in the tropics. The weight of the plate will offset the floatiness of the tank so it would be perfect. Two extra lbs in checked luggage is nothing.
At home I just use a rubber freediving weightbelt with my 16 or 18 lbs and my 7mm wetsuit and call it a day. That’s also with one of my steel tanks too.

 

[stuartv]

See, I am the opposite, I want some ditchable weight no matter what. When I'm in the setup you describe with my current BCD and an HP 100 / 12L steel, I am slightly negative with no weight. I think I would be about neutral with an aluminum tank, so I'm worried about being negative even with the aluminum plate, since presumably the plastic in my current BC is slightly positive.

Why do you want ditchable weight? And I'm asking in the context of diving in warm water, where you may be overweighted by virtue of a steel BP and steel tank being more negative than you need.

With a full HP100 and a steel BP, in shorts and a rash guard, can you not swim up from the bottom with that? I can, easily. But, if you can't, then I can understand wanting ditchable weight.

Adding thin neoprene just makes you more positive, so swimming up is even easier.

Once you put on enough neoprene or a drysuit, so that the steel BP and single HP100 are still not negative enough, and you need to add lead, then fine, add it in a way that is ditchable.

In that case, not sure what your point was about you might need to rig up something like that DIY Bolt-on Weight thread showed. Those weights are not ditchable.

 

[wnissen]

Why do you want ditchable weight? And I'm asking in the context of diving in warm water, where you may be overweighted by virtue of a steel BP and steel tank being more negative than you need.

With a full HP100 and a steel BP, in shorts and a rash guard, can you not swim up from the bottom with that? I can, easily. But, if you can't, then I can understand wanting ditchable weight.

Adding thin neoprene just makes you more positive, so swimming up is even easier.

Once you put on enough neoprene or a drysuit, so that the steel BP and single HP100 are still not negative enough, and you need to add lead, then fine, add it in a way that is ditchable.

In that case, not sure what your point was about you might need to rig up something like that DIY Bolt-on Weight thread showed. Those weights are not ditchable.

It is a matter of debate, e.g., Do you need ditchable weight?

I don't think I'd have a problem swimming up a steel plate with a busted wing, even at the start of the dive, but as a last-ditch (literally) reaction to a severe problem, I'd like to have a passive mode that will at least get me to the surface. I would only need non-ditchable weight in cold water.

 

[Wibble]

Ditchable weight

Problem with that is it's normally placed low down which messes up with your trim.

Non-ditchable weight is normally added around the cylinder, closer to the centre of buoyancy. Pouches on the cam-bands.

In any case ditchable weight means you're inevitably going to loose it at some point.

(I've a typical attitude of someone who ditched ditchable weights along with a "BCD", snorkel and all the other clutter beloved by the dive shops)