pony vs doubles

[Jim Lapenta]

Yeah, well it ain't sending them on UPS, I thought I was smart using UPS to ship my gear to and from Florida last month (shipped on 8-24-05). The 'insured' gear is still missing in New Orleans and UPS says my insurance is invalid because it was lost in a natural disaster. Looks like the only disaster is me having to repurchase gear less than a month old.

Stan

Have had numerous experiences with ups. I would not ship a bowling ball in a pelican case inside a steel drum packed in an abrams tank with ups. Their gorillas on the loading dock would probably break the ball in half! Having sent several years ago a handmade whaling ship model that I built and sold for over 600 dollars by ups and having it returned almost unrecognizable even though the crate was intact convinced me that they have a giant paint shaker that they put every package through. I had sent approximately 6 or 7 others packed the same way by usps with no damage whatsoever. The only reason this went ups was that it was too large for the post office and the customer wanted delivery faster than what the post office could have done if it had been able to take it. So DHL and FEDEX ok. but ups runs the roughest ship in the shipping business IMO. Only good thing is their insurance pays quick. Guess they have to or no one would use them.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Independent doubles is touted by a number of solo divers as the best way to dive solo with redundancy. I can see that, and the way to dive them would be to have SPGs on each tank, and use say half the gas out of one (down to 1500 psi in a 3000 psi tank), then switch and use that one down to 1/3 it's fill (1000 psi for a 3000 psi system), before ending the dive. That way, you always have a lot of air in both tanks. The first tank (which remains half full) would be the one with the long hose, or the "octopus" setup.

My doubles are set up for vintage diving, and have Sherwood manifold with two posts. I use my double hose regulator on the center post, and a single hose on the other post. Both can be turned off independently, but both tanks cross-feed, so if there were a tank O-ring that went south, you'd loose your whole gas supply (so this is a non-DIR-compliant system). But I don't dive caves, ice or wrecks, and usually pretty shallow, so that is not a concern for my solo diving.

SeaRat

 

[Amphibious]

I AL40 slung like a stage bottle is king in my world of solo diving. less cumbersome as doubles, lighter, and perfectly fine for an independent air source. if you're doing recreational (non-deco) solo dives what more do you need?

works for me. 100's of solo dives and counting....

 

[Skeeter1097]

I was thinking of trying dubbles, But. I have desited on worthington steel LP120"s. I also have a poney 19.

 

[Mandy3206]

I would vote that a local dive would be easier with the 19 pony.
For traveling, independent doubles would be easier since a couple of extra regs on the gear shouldn't make a diference in packing and TSA checks.