Pony Bottle Regulator?

[charlesml3]

Works perfectly fine on my Zeagle Stiletto BCD. I keep the 13 mounted valve side down on my right side tucked in close to the bladder.

-Charles

 

[Hatul]

Works perfectly fine on my Zeagle Stiletto BCD. I keep the 13 mounted valve side down on my right side tucked in close to the bladder.

-Charles

Can I ask you what is the distance between the two tank bands, say from center to center, the width of your tank bands and what is the length of the 13 pony along the wide part?

Adam

 

[scubaflier]

why not just pay attition to your depth, time and psi and you wont have any problems.
diving isn't difficult people are. dive a while and it will become more clear to you.
after 1000 dives you'll look back on this and laugh

 

[redacted]

why not just pay attition to your depth, time and psi and you wont have any problems.
diving isn't difficult people are. dive a while and it will become more clear to you.
after 1000 dives you'll look back on this and laugh

Because diving involves mechanical devices and, regardless of how well you pay attention, it is just a matter of time before they fail. If you really work hard at paying attention, you will know exactly the depth, time, and psi remaining that the failure occurred. But you may still be dealing with an OOA situation. A pony is one way of making it very likely that you will be able to report all the data you observed by paying attention, to someone on the surface.

 

[Hatul]

Because diving involves mechanical devices and, regardless of how well you pay attention, it is just a matter of time before they fail. If you really work hard at paying attention, you will know exactly the depth, time, and psi remaining that the failure occurred. But you may still be dealing with an OOA situation. A pony is one way of making it very likely that you will be able to report all the data you observed by paying attention, to someone on the surface.

I agree with you. And besides that, no matter how careful you are people make mistakes, and you want to have a way to bail yourself out when you make a mistake.

Adam

 

[elmer fudd]

If you get a DIN regulator, all you need to do is rotate it 90 degrees from normal and your hose will point straight down. I've got a Zeagle Envoy on my pony with a button gauge. That's the way I run it and it seems to work great.

 

[charlesml3]

Hatul,

Here you go:

 

[krunchy]

FWIW, unfortunately at this point I have zero faith in the "insta-buddy system"... Out of 30 dives done in the carribean, away from the quarry where I do most of my practice diving, I've had a few very positive experiences and several that were profoundly negative, including one where the guy jumped first, didn't wait to submerge, and took off literally in the opposite direction we discussed. Nobody else still in sight, I decided to do the entire dive alone rather than bail and go back into the boat. When it comes to diving with people I just met "Hope for the best and prepare for the worst" is going to be my motto. I don't trust anyone with my life except my wife, and she can't always go with me.

I am going to be doing a lot of dive travel in the future, and using insta-buddies as well. Your post has convinced me to pick up 19cf pony set-up as well. The extra money isn't really an issue for me, and will put me at ease. (like my upcoming Blue Hole dive)

 

[speleodiver6]

. Other than the Zeagle/H2Odyssey I haven't been able to find anyone that sells regulators with that style, and nothing comes up outside those 2 brands searching for pony regulators. I've seen on another thread folks writing about using a "bottom of the line" scubapro MK2 or similar, with a pony pressure gauge, but it seems this kind of arrangement would be heavy/bulky and not the best for travel. For those of you looking at this with experience using a pony, what kind of regulator have you got attached to your pony tank? For those of you using a center drop regulator, have you had any trouble with maintenance?
Thanks

The original question you asked had to do with the quality and streamlining of the regulator to use with a pony bottle.
I can tell you that the H2Odyssey is a great reg for suit inflation (since that is what I use it for), the model I have is always on, which is convenient for a non-life-support function such as suit inflation but not so good for a life-support deal like you are looking for. The always-on feature means that the seat is always in contact with the piston's knife edge and will wear relatively fast compared to a std regulator.

If you are looking for a regulator for a "buddy bottle" you should look for something that breathes just a well as your primary regulator; if you are in need of a "buddy bottle" for whatever reason, you are going to be under a bit of stress and work of breathing from an unbalanced regulator (such as a MK2) at depth may not be your best choice for dealing with stress.

Additionally, I would go as far as recommending that you use a 40 cf cylinder and carry it as a stage, where you know that you have plenty of gas to make your ascent and a safety stop, all in a controlled manner and w/o too much stress involved. All this assuming that you are within NDL...

My 2 cents, YMMV.

Dive safe,

Celia

 

[NAM001]

every one has an opinion and heres mine. on topic and some off topic

100 ft get a 19 the 13 is pussing it.
i use a regular valve and a din reg like i use on the back tank. (spare regulator) i just change the lp hose and second stage.

the ebay pic shows a fill yolk. is that needed to refil the tank???? if so change to a regular valve. my reg has a lp port on the bottom or top depending how youmount the first stage. u can use that for a bottom drop if i understand your use of botom drop reg. i have scubapro mk 20 and 25 and atomic. both the 20 and 25 use the same reg kit for rebuild and are basically the same reg. i have converted all regs to din's and take the yolk plugs for the valves with me if needed for filling.

now for controversy. if you can get a lp steel tank for the pony get it. if you happen to be nitrox certed fill it with 32/36/40. when you need it you wont be at 100 ft long you will be at 40 ft in a minute with plenty of nitrox to speed up the safety stop time if you have to surface earlier than ideal. with that a 13 may be ok. the advantages of lp steel are well known by the cavers.