Pony Bottle Support

[Web Monkey]

You are an inexperienced diver. And by fully weighted I presume you mean you use lots of weights. Are you heavy or are you still not comfortable with water.

You reason for pony bottle is not for redundency purposes, but seems more like you expect that you may run out of air at 75-80 feet.

First, that's a cheap shot. Before rattling off another one, you should note that google caches this stuff pretty much forever, and unkind words will tend to come back later.

That said, I couldn't resist posting even though this is a pretty old thread.

A pony bottle is a great idea because you never know when you're going to have a failure. Even well-maintained regulators built by good manufacturers can freeflow under the right conditions, and it's astonishing how quickly a freeflowing second stage can empty a tank.

Having a pony bottle is the difference between a potential disaster (your buddy wandered off, his octo wasn't rinsed after his last saltwater dive and has been corroded shut since 1975, etc.) and a minor annoyance (you pull your pony bottle reg out from it's clip and do a normal, controlled ascent).

If you're single, and go on dive trips that don't include your normal buddies, you'll almost always end up with a dive buddy you've never met before. You'll know very little about him or his equipment or how/if it's been maintained.

If you have a pony bottle, you'll know one thing. If you need air, a tank full of nice, clean air is right behind you and a well-maintained regulator is clipped to your BC right next to your mouth.

As for mounting brackets, Tiger Gear (www.tigergear.com) makes a nice one. It's machined out of a block of aluminum and is very solid. The only downside is that you can't easily remove it while diving to hand it to your buddy (it's retained by a hitch pin clip). I'm still trying to come up with a work-around for this, but it's only a minor annoyance.

A 19 cu ft aluminum pony bottle will make you about a pound heavier on the side it's mounted on. You can compensate for this by using an extra pound of weight on your weightbelt/BC on the other side.

Terry

 

[Scubatooth]

Terry

the link you provided is un useable as there are many ded links and little information.

When i was a new diver i did to consider the pony bottle as a way to bail my self out if something was to happen, but discounted it as i was always diving with a buddy and if something were to happen there is my bail out.

As i have advanced i my diving im considering more and more complex dives or in situations were a stage(not a pony as its a misnomer) is becoming a reality as in the next year or so i will take a advanced nitorx and deco procedures were the stage will be needed, but also at the same time i will still be assisting and or teaching classes and that i will want to have a secondary tank for a student to use if something were to happen(anything murphy can do). at the time i considered all of this there were no brackets that i like or could accept to use, (so i drew up plans of my own, that would incorperate stage and backmount, with a very minimal profile ) as i like the way tech divers have there stages rigged , but i also wanted the flexability to mount it to my cam straps on my wing, and today someone mentioned the quick draw, and this is something similar to what i came up with except for i would have added a who for putting a clip so that it would be stage mounted when not on the locked to the cam band to release in a emergancy there would be a rip cord for the pins so that i could swing it forward and hand it off. it was just a idea for duel use.


but the important thing to remeber is that in any planning you need a get a bottle that will provide what you need to bail out plus 15%. so take the deepest depth you plan to dive to write that number down , then take your average SAC rate and add 50% or double it , then use a 30Ft a minute ascent rate to 15 feet for a saftey stop, but as a saftey factor add 2 minutes at depth to recognize, sort out and bail out.

heres a example
Depth 130 Feet
SAC .6 FT3 /min (this is the high end of m average)


The math (this is rough and will vary based on the diver)

Sac = .6 in a emeragancy with the adrenalin factor make it 1.0 ft3
2 minutes @ 130 = 5ft3 a min = 10ft3
130-15 feet is 115 feet or ascent time of almost 4 minutes or average depth of 73 feet
which is 3.25 atm so 3.25*1*4= 13 ft
3 mins at 15 feet = 1.5Ft3 a min = 4.
15-0 roughly a minute because of the gas volume consumed at depth ~1ft3


rough total =29 ft3 So for me from that depth a 40 ft3 would be good, but this is only a contingency if my buddy doesnt have the gas to help me out, which with good gas management wont happen, but you have to cover your bases when teaching or doing more advanced dive, but never depend on that gas to bail out, because that will bite you right when you need it.

FWIW

Tooth

 

[ScubaJewel]

You can't beat this. Its the best. Check out the link

http://quickdrawbracket.com/

Julie

 

[MikeS]

You can't beat this. Its the best. Check out the link
Julie

If you have doubles with an isolation manifold, why would you need/carry a pony?

Is that you in the picture? You're kind of cute!

 

[Web Monkey]

You can't beat this. Its the best. Check out the link

http://quickdrawbracket.com/

Julie

That's a lot like the bracket I have, with the same problem. It's very sturdy, but I don't think you can unhook the pony withot taking off your BC or having help.

I'd like to be able to hand it to someone if necessary.

Some kind of remote release would be nice, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly what.

Terry

 

[RiverRat]

As an alternative to a pony I was thinking of getting a PST E7 100 cu ft. tank with an H valve and dual regs. This would give me the second reg just like on a pony in case of free flow etc. Of course one would be tempted to breathe down the tank if one wanted more bottom time so that might defeat the purpose of the extra gas. I suppose if I managed it as if it were an 80 cu ft. tank it would work. Any thoughts?

 

[doole]

Well, I'll say one thing: it's a damn good thing the DIR guys have their own sandbox now, or this would be a firepit.

 

[RiverRat]

Well, I'll say one thing: it's a damn good thing the DIR guys have their own sandbox now, or this would be a firepit.

Well, heck, I've been on Scubaboard quite awhile now and haven't started any wars yet, at least that I'm aware of
Gotta start somewhere..........

 

[doole]

So what's holding you back?

 

[Snowbear]

As an alternative to a pony I was thinking of getting a PST E7 100 cu ft. tank
...
Any thoughts?

Check this out:
Pony Thread
*Ducking and Running now*