johndiver999
Contributor
if you back mount the pony, you can use any BC.
Recommendations for pony bottle/regulator set up for solo diving
- Thread starter Tigerpaw
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Extra air is good buy a 13 or 19 cf bottle, sling it and always have it with you so you are used to it.
before you thing of deep wrecks with penetration get a 40cf.
use whatever good regulator you have or can find cheap (ish) all the better if it’s the same as your main reg.
if you really want to have extra usable air look at side mount, those divers have the danglies all figured out, you have two full size tanks that you can actually see and operate without a lot of contortions, I don’t sidemount but I can see some advantages in many situations.
before you thing of deep wrecks with penetration get a 40cf.
use whatever good regulator you have or can find cheap (ish) all the better if it’s the same as your main reg.
if you really want to have extra usable air look at side mount, those divers have the danglies all figured out, you have two full size tanks that you can actually see and operate without a lot of contortions, I don’t sidemount but I can see some advantages in many situations.
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Hi @Tigerpaw
To be able to sling a pony, you will need a left hip D-ring and an appropriately placed left chest D-ring. Do you have the Cressi Lightwing or the Travelight? Looking at photos, I'm not sure either has a typical left hip D-ring. I would probably try to take the BC into shop that has a rigged pony to check to make sure you will be able to successfully mount your pony. Perhaps your solo instructor could help you with this. I have been slinging a 19 cu ft pony on my Scubapro Knighthawk for 10 years, works perfectly.
Regarding size, using your RMV you can calculate the amount of gas you would need to ascend from the deepest depth you will be diving with your pony. Using 130 feet covers all usual recreational diving. A common calculation uses a minute at depth to work things out, a normal ascent, and a 3 min safety stop, all at twice your average RMV. This is pretty conservative. If push came to shove on a no stop dive, you could ascend a bit faster and could skip the safety stop.
My average RMV is 0.36 cu ft/min, I use 0.72 cu ft/min
1 minute at depth = 3.6 cu ft
Normal ascent from 130 ft = 9.3 cu ft
3 min safety stop = 3.1 cu ft
So, I need 16 cu ft of gas and use a 19 cu ft pony. This leaves me with about 3 cu ft of gas/a little under 500 psi. I rarely ever dive to 130 feet, usually much shallower, 60-100 ft. I have a transfill whip and keep my pony full.
Best of luck in your solo diving
I would love to say its easy to just give tips, but its much more difficult than that. I'm far from an instructor or expert. I've just been cave and technical diving for 15 years and have played with optimizing my setup. It took me having a much smarter instructor than me to show me some tiny little things. Its really a personal thing based on your size and setup. I will say besides my early instruction I did a lot of reading on dir stage setup. That obviously is just the basics. Then its stuff like adjusting harness tightness, moving drings, ensuring proper length of bottom clip leash, length of clip, heighth of bottom band. One of the things that I never even considered was where the top clip sits in relation to the crown of the tank. Its fairly standardized, but small adjustments there combined with other adjustments elsewhere add up. My wife and I could grab a regular dir rigged stage and dive easily. But we're two completely different body types, so a few minute adjustemnts to her may vary from what I need. Basically again, it's all personal fine tuning. Harness adjustment I think was also a very major factor. I thought I knew how to setup webbing perfectly. I learned there was more to it than I was taught, including after being fine tuned some in fundies (after 12 years technical experience).
BHB, no redundant air for me, if I have a failure or run out, I will just stand up and walk in.
Do not get a 13 cf tank if it is intended to sling the bottle. They are, IMO, too short to sling and tend to wobble about because the end bungee has to reach down to my hip D-ring. A 19 and a 30 will sling much better and be more stable.
I am using an old Mk 5 two port first stage with A-clamp but a Mk 2 Evo with DIN (or clamp) would be a grande outfit. I will say this, from my having drowned two summers ago, and I mean that, it is nice to have a second stage that can actually support life. Something like a R195, R190, G250/G260 or a AL Core/Titan/Helix or similar or Deep Six.
Do not get a 13 cf tank if it is intended to sling the bottle. They are, IMO, too short to sling and tend to wobble about because the end bungee has to reach down to my hip D-ring. A 19 and a 30 will sling much better and be more stable.
I am using an old Mk 5 two port first stage with A-clamp but a Mk 2 Evo with DIN (or clamp) would be a grande outfit. I will say this, from my having drowned two summers ago, and I mean that, it is nice to have a second stage that can actually support life. Something like a R195, R190, G250/G260 or a AL Core/Titan/Helix or similar or Deep Six.
Get a BP&W and start diving LP50 doubles. Problem solved.....
What’s a poodle jacket?
I’m trying to work out if I should take offence at that remark…
A back inflate BCD is not a BP/W or a Poodle Jacket...
I use a XXL Zeagle Ranger with a 44lb lift capacity back inflate bladder. IMHO, it's basically as streamlined and "free" as as a BP/W with plenty of D-Rings, attachment options, ditchable weight and some storage pockets for the extra crap I carry as a Solo diver. For my fully redundant Pony I prefer a back-mounted 19cf on a Quickdraw bracket. Side-mount or slung just doesn't work for me if hunting or shooting video. I also have some extra storage pockets on both thighs of my drysuit. For tropics, I use a Zeagle Stiletto which is basically just a lighter Ranger...also backmount. I bring my 13cf pony if flying and use the same Quickdraw bracket for backmount. Also for tropics I use a Dive Right thigh pocket for my spare mask and a few other Solo necessities.
A slung 19 cf. I have since this photo shortened the bungee on the neck and located the bottom bungee to a D ring at the (backside) harness/plate penetration rather than the hip D ring. That moves the buddy bottle much closer and up under my arm:
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