Rigging -- Almost Done

[JeffAustin]

Make sure that the D rings and tri glides on the shoulder straps are up near your clavicle bone. If you put your elbow at your side, and put your hand on your shoulder strap, where your fingers hit, is where you want the D ring, that way, when you're not looking, you know where the D ring is. Be prepared to re adjust after the harness gets wet a couple of times, you might need to retighten the shoulder straps.
Bon Voyage!

 

[SM Diver]

She's rigged and fully ready (after I had removed 50% of the rigging to put the bands in the correct place). Got d-rings in place, webbing cut and burned, and walked around my house for 15 minutes with a steel 120 on my back. The suspense on the issue of weight is killing me; gonna have to climb into the pool tonight with everything. If you guys have ever seen a FredT with STAs, you know that is some serious hardware we're talking about. The STAs alone may account for 4 or 5 pounds.

The only issue I am a little uneasy about is the weight belt. I've always viewed a weight belt as a hazard that could slip off the waste, or unbuckle and come off. I'm thinking of running a grommet through the webbing of the belt with a clip from the belt to a lower d-ring, as a safety. Anyone ever done that, or come up with another safety mechanism?

 

[Dryglove]

tampascott once bubbled...
The only issue I am a little uneasy about is the weight belt. I've always viewed a weight belt as a hazard that could slip off the waste, or unbuckle and come off. I'm thinking of running a grommet through the webbing of the belt with a clip from the belt to a lower d-ring, as a safety. Anyone ever done that, or come up with another safety mechanism?

You could always wear your belt under the crotch strap.Thats how i wear mine but i also use a drysuit.I dont think it would be a good idea to hook your belt to anything that would prevent you from ditching it.It would kinda suck to ditch your weight belt then have to fumble around to find and undo the clip holding it to the d ring.

 

[large_diver]

Scott -- a simpler solution may be to simply wear your weight belt under your harness. While it does not guarantee that your weight belt won't come off, having the crotch strap "in the way" may give you a few few extra seconds to catch it if it does manage to come undone.

As a fellow FredT/Pioneer owner...welcome to the club! ;-)

 

[Northeastwrecks]

One other suggestion would be to switch to a weight harness.

The weight fits in pockets with hook & loop fastener.

That's what I use.

 

[Cave Diver]

Scubaroo once bubbled...
Did you put two sections of inner tube on each shoulder/chest strap? The idea here is if one breaks, you have a spare to use without having to rethread the entire harness.

tampascott once bubbled...
She's rigged and fully ready (after I had removed 50% of the rigging to put the bands in the correct place).

I learned (after a bit of trial and error) that you can add the innertube to the webbing WITHOUT having to rethread everything.

I used the triglides on the lower slots of my BP, so all I do is slide push the webbing through the back of the plate some. The triglides keep the actual adjustment from slipping. Then I put the innertube on the webbing, right up to the backplate. Then I slide more webbing through till the tube passes through the slots. You can do this and work it up to the shoulder straps in a matter of minutes without disturbing the rest of your rigging at all.

I will enclose a few pics to illustrate the process in a minute.

 

[Cave Diver]

Threading the innertube onto the waist strap up to the slots.

 

[Cave Diver]

Sliding strap with innertube through the back of the plate

 

[Cave Diver]

Innertube on the shoulder strap side, ready to be adjusted.

 

[SM Diver]

Doh!

Thanks for those photos. I was wondering if I had to take everything apart everytime bands needed to be replaced. At least in the future I won't make the same mistake.

Thanks for the ideas on the weight issue. For now, I just cut some webbing and threw a buckle on it to use as a belt. I'll try it under the crotch strap. When the water starts warming up, I am 90% sure I'll be diving with no weight in this rig anyway....maybe as early as the 3 mil, but definitely by the time it's diveskin weather.