Karl_H
Contributor
I would think that you don't really need that much lift for warm water sm as guys have been using a 40lbs - 50lbs wing for doubles n tech for a while here.
If your using a 12L hydration pack why not just consider a 25lbs travel wing? I'm sure the dss 25 would do great.
Personally I went for the oxycheq mach v 30 as it's really narrow and won't taco that much but for my skeleton harness, I'm still looking for a wing that is as narrow as possible yet is wide enough around the center portion to allow the waist straps to pass through the slots.
Maybe I'll just ask if oxycheq will be willing to do a special 40 recon
SangP
The lift on the 12l hydration pack is perfect in salt water, even with 4 full Al80s, it does struggle a little in fresh water though! I'd guess the actual lift would only be around half the possible when warn under the harness - maybe around 15lbs.
I prefer a BC that can fit neatly over the razor harness or a slimline one that can go directly under the harness itself. My main worry is the hydration pack being punctured or torn and loosing all buoyancy - this is based on actually loosing buoyancy from the same set-up after tearing the seal between the power inflator connection and the pack while passing through a restriction. Luckily this was on a short penetration dive with half full Al80s, although it still caused problems getting out without a total silt-out......
I've modified the set-up a little to make it more resilient, I was thinking of just buying the Cordura material and having something tailored to fit the hydration pack inside. This will allow more flexibility in the fitting of the BC to the harness and also give some added protection which I'm looking for.
I did look at the travel type wings but I'd prefer the lift to be lower on my body for sidemount - The hydration pack works very well for what I want, the problem is it's not quite as reliable as most commercially made dive gear.
Karl
