School Me On Wing Taco

[RobPNW]

When looking at different wings, I see a lot of chatter about the taco effect. Is it really that big a deal? If I'm properly weighted, my wing is completely empty to descend. And even at maximum depth, I barely have any air in the wing. This is essentially true in warm water with a thin suit or no suit. The only time I have a non significant about of air in the wing is on the surface when not horizontal. Am I missing something or is that effect trivial?

 

[steinbil]

I've never dived oversized wings, so I can only speculate, but I imagine that it's harder to get the last bit of air out or move it around to hit the dump valve if the wing is too big and tacoes your tank a lot. If the long sides of the bc-tube are much higher (on the side of the tank) than the short side (top/bottom) it would be harder to transfer air from one side to the other, and some might get stuck on the opposite side of your dump valve. Again, pure speculation, so it would be interesting to hear from divers who have tried it.

 

[VikingDives]

Years ago, I tried to dive a Dive Rite Rec Wing with a single tank adapter. It was annoying. More so because it was a horseshoe-shaped wing. It's easier to manage a bubble with a donut. I still wouldn't want to dive a giant donut with a single tank, but if you're looking at something in the recreational range, I'd suggest that it won't be too much of a problem if you stick with a donut design.

 

[rongoodman]

If you’re properly weighted your wing will have enough air in it at the start of the dive to account for the weight of the gas in your tanks, even with little or no exposure protection. Otherwise, you’ll end up being too light by that amount after you’ve used up the gas during the dive. If that air is trapped in the corners of a wing wrapped around your tank, it's going to be harder to vent as the dive progresses.

 

[ams511]

Am I missing something or is that effect trivial?

On most modern single-tank wings you really don't have much of a taco effect, especially on the narrow wings such as DGX, Mares, Apeks, Oxycheq, DSS and others.

For doubles wings, it gets more complicated. Around 20 years ago, there were these high lift (70 to 80+lbs) horseshoe wings that would taco on doubles even worse when try to use the wing with a single tank adaptor. They trap gas and are PITA to vent. Fortunately, these wings fell out of favor and are not as common now.

How old were the threads you are looking at?

 

[rjack321]

Back in the day there were all kinds of "wings for everything". If you have pretty much any legit single tank wing from post-2010 its not going to be mega tacoed. A giant doubles wing on a STA plus a single 72 is another story.

 

[stretchthepenn]

As other posters have noted, if your wing tacos, you'll have trouble venting it, and taco-ing is a rare problem to encounter with more modern wings and proper wing-to-tank matching.

Another problem that nobody's mentioned yet is that a taco-ed wing will also throw you off balance.

Just for kicks, I tried diving a Halcyon 60# donut wing with a set of HP100 doubles. It suuuucked. The bubble wouldn't distribute evenly, and I spent the entire dive listing either to the left or the right. I could feel the wing lifting away from my body and wrapping around the tanks. And the damn thing gurgled like mad when I shifted the bubble around.

That wing would pair beautifully with a doubled 8" diameter tanks, though, and I'm positive that's what the wing's current owner is using it for.

 

[RobPNW]

I have a DGX wing and it hugs the tank nicely.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

When looking at different wings, I see a lot of chatter about the taco effect. Is it really that big a deal? If I'm properly weighted, my wing is completely empty to descend. And even at maximum depth, I barely have any air in the wing. This is essentially true in warm water with a thin suit or no suit. The only time I have a non significant about of air in the wing is on the surface when not horizontal. Am I missing something or is that effect trivial?

I've never dived a wing that tacos excessively. I'd imagine if I used my doubles wing with a single tank, getting to the dump valve may become more difficult.

I'm not so interested in science to go out and try myself!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I have a DGX wing and it hugs the tank nicely.

If you’re using a narrow wing like the DGX then there is no taco-ing and you have no worries. Oxycheq was the very first to come up with that micro thin design BTW. I used to order direct from Oxycheq and was on the phone with Patrick when he was telling me about this new super thin cutting edge design that nobody else had that he was going to call the “Mach 5”. Prior to the Mach 5, Oxy had their line of Razor and signature single tank wings that were about like Halcyon pioneer except better. All the other companies still have versions of that slightly wider and shorter style wing for single tank diving and some taco a little, but nothing like when we were using small doubles wings for single tank diving with STA’s. This was before any single tank wings were common knowledge or readily available. I remember using an OMS 35 lb. small doubles wing back in ‘99 or 2000 and it was terrible.
I believe Halcyon was the first company to develop a single tank wing but I don’t know the year that happened. They’re the ones who really pushed BP/W into the recreational mainstream early on.