Pony Tips

[happy-diver]

Your'e holding yourself back from all sorts of magnificent adventures with a slung auxilliary, clunking around

Where is it, there it is the yellow 3litre steel that you can cave fill not obtrusive like a 40 and holds more

 

[Cthippo]

AL40 slun giagonally across my chest, reg necklaced, bottle on while diving. The only time it gets annowing is when you need to get right into the mud to see something.

 

[MarkA]

Although not a pony cylinder. What about a small twinset, say 2x8.5l.

 

[thomschoon]

I prefer an AL19 back mounted and reg on a necklace. I also have a 30&40 which I have tried slung but preferred the back mount as I mainly am in open water around 60 feet so a 19 fits my need to get safely to the surface.

 

[MikeHoncho]

I removed the line sling/snap ring from the pony harness and placed it on my BC. I added a large D-ring to the lower clamp on the pony. This allows me to clip the pony to my BC easier when wearing dry suit and dry gloves. Made attaching and detaching easier. I haven't notices any buoyance changes with my alum 30. I don't mount it cross chest. Long line, octo on necklace and completely independent pony with regs.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

As a solo photographer and hunter / gatherer......I prefer a back-mount 19cf AL pony with my pony 2nd on a neckless.

 

[chrisch]

If you are diving solo then your bailout tank should be where you can reach it easily and easily gain access to the 2nd stage. An alu 40 is ideal for most diving and clipping it off on the BC harness is also a good idea and gives access to the tank valve as well. You do not need an octopus or long hose as you are on your own and so do not need to consider your buddy.

Whatever you choose it is important that you can get at a redundant gas source adequate to get you to the surface.

In my opinion if you solo dive and buddy dive as well the most simple and effective option is to use your normal buddy gear and clip a bailout to the BC rings for solo. When you have a buddy dive leave the bailout at home and when solo dive just clip it onto your normal set up. Nothing else changes.

I would also suggest you add an inflator hose to the bailout 1st stage so you have gas for the BC and or drysuit if you have a total gas loss. Also a pressure gauge for the bailout so you can see that it has enough gas left for the ascent and a safety stop if you need it.

Your bailout is a handy storage place for a (small) dSMB and a (small) knife too. This also makes it a useful drop tank for emergencies, ice diving and other suitable deployments. A small strobe will finish the job off. I have this set up on a 7 litre ali which is pretty much neutral bouyancy. You can also get a push button air nozzle that fits the inflator hose which is ideal for a dSMB. Mine is in the inflator at all times so it is for dSMB when using the tank as a deco gas mix and quickly unclips when diving solo using the same tank. Just make sure the gas in it is OK for the target depth. I mostly run EAN50 as a deco mix and this will bail out at 21m or a bit more if you really really have to. 21m is plenty for solo IMHO.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

If you are diving solo then your bailout tank should be where you can reach it easily and easily gain access to the 2nd stage. An alu 40 is ideal for most diving and clipping it off on the BC harness is also a good idea and gives access to the tank valve as well. You do not need an octopus or long hose as you are on your own and so do not need to consider your buddy.

Whatever you choose it is important that you can get at a redundant gas source adequate to get you to the surface.

In my opinion if you solo dive and buddy dive as well the most simple and effective option is to use your normal buddy gear and clip a bailout to the BC rings for solo. When you have a buddy dive leave the bailout at home and when solo dive just clip it onto your normal set up. Nothing else changes.

I would also suggest you add an inflator hose to the bailout 1st stage so you have gas for the BC and or drysuit if you have a total gas loss. Also a pressure gauge for the bailout so you can see that it has enough gas left for the ascent and a safety stop if you need it.

Your bailout is a handy storage place for a (small) dSMB and a (small) knife too. This also makes it a useful drop tank for emergencies, ice diving and other suitable deployments. A small strobe will finish the job off. I have this set up on a 7 litre ali which is pretty much neutral bouyancy. You can also get a push button air nozzle that fits the inflator hose which is ideal for a dSMB. Mine is in the inflator at all times so it is for dSMB when using the tank as a deco gas mix and quickly unclips when diving solo using the same tank. Just make sure the gas in it is OK for the target depth. I mostly run EAN50 as a deco mix and this will bail out at 21m or a bit more if you really really have to. 21m is plenty for solo IMHO.

+1 to all of this. This summarizes pretty much 100% how I use my pony/AAS/bailout (whatever you want to call it).

The inflator hose on your pony is also great for DSMB inflation. That is my primary use as diving in a drift environment almost 100%, I am shooting a DSMB quite frequently. It is so quick and easy! I have a 15" inflator hose on mine that easily tucks underneat the two elastic bands that also secure the LP hose.

As to the SPG, I have an MH8A transmitter on mine. I can monitor the pressure on my SW Perdix 2 (as T2).

 

[Bowers]

just learn sidemount
if you are diving single tank back mount then my personal preference is to leave my rig alone and simply add the slung 40 on my left side like a sidemount tank but with the second stage bungeed nicely. This makes it simple to add or remove it from the rig without changing hoses, keeps it streamlined yet accessible, and makes for far less of an entanglement hazard than many other configurations. Also if a buddy is in need of my supply I can get him onto my pony and then just pass him the bottle rather than being leashed together with a hose (although in some cases you may still need to keep them close and assist or calm them).
Pictured is a student of mine using an aluminum 30 as described above. al 19 is as small as I would go and may be too small for some environments. AL 40 is a great choice for buoyancy characteristics as well as it's usefulness later on if you ever decide to get into Technical diving
.

 

[johndiver999]

just learn sidemount
if you are diving single tank back mount then my personal preference is to leave my rig alone and simply add the slung 40 on my left side like a sidemount tank but with the second stage bungeed nicely. This makes it simple to add or remove it from the rig without changing hoses, keeps it streamlined yet accessible, and makes for far less of an entanglement hazard than many other configurations. Also if a buddy is in need of my supply I can get him onto my pony and then just pass him the bottle rather than being leashed together with a hose (although in some cases you may still need to keep them close and assist or calm them).
Pictured is a student of mine using an aluminum 30 as described above. al 19 is as small as I would go and may be too small for some environments. AL 40 is a great choice for buoyancy characteristics as well as it's usefulness later on if you ever decide to get into Technical diving
.View attachment 871339

You are also missing something important in the advice above. With a back mounted pony, you can not see a leak, you may not be able to monitor pressure and you can not feather the valve on and off during a free flow failure. In addition, a back mounted pony regulator can be confused with the primary tank second stage which, can and has, resulted in fatalities. This type of confusion is almost impossible with a slung bottle.

Also should the diver develop a leak or failure of hose etc. they may not be able to easily discern the source of the failure- primary or pony bottle, when back mounted.

There are significant safety sacrifices one makes for the convenience of back mounting a pony bottle.

The first decision a diver needs to make is how they are going to mount the pony and then choose a size and then figure out rigging and hoses etc. in that order.