Setting up harness for Deep6 bp/w

[Ioncloud9]

When I switched over to a BP/W, I was concerned about ease of getting in and out of it. Specifically, my concerns were that I wanted to be able to easily loosen the straps and also to easily tighten the straps. There are a number of ways to do this, and several dealers offer solutions to this, but after talking to the guys at my LDS, we came up with a solution that worked really well for me (as always, YMMV) on a recent trip.

My solution is not a "DIR" or "Hogarthian" compliant solution. I threaded the webbing through the shoulders at the top of the plate as you would normally, but instead of then going to the openings in the bottom of the plate and out to the waist-band, I added some small side straps with a D-Ring. My main webbing goes through the D-Ring and then it is able to be pulled tight or loosened of easily.

I made the side pieces by taking a 12-18 inch length of webbing and threading it through the lower slots in the plate that the harness would normally go through. I have secured this webbing with a tri-glide. (Yes, I know I have introduced a potential failure point here.) When I threaded this side webbing on, I also threaded weight trim pockets on it as well.

I know that there are some DIR and Hogarthian purists who are lighting torches and gathering their pitchforks and screaming "Burn the witch" at me now, but the bottom line is that it works and is incredibly comfortable.

This is really my biggest issue with the standard bp/w setup. Making even minor adjustments can be a pain, especially the crotch strap.

 

[caffeinedreams]

@Dogbowl - if you get a chance before your trip I'd find a pool you can test your stuff out in. It really helped me start to get used to the BP/W, long hose setup, and make adjustments in a forgiving environment.

I also found the Deep 6 regs heavy on land but didn't notice the weight in-water. The long hose was easier to use, store, and donate than I expected. Most of my trouble was figuring out the best places to put weights and conflict resolving between the weight belt + harness, so I'm ordering a few of those pouches as we speak.

Like you, I found the whole thing pretty intimidating when setting it up but I'm quickly coming around now that I'm mostly finished Looking forward to getting the kinks worked out in Bonaire this January.

 

[caffeinedreams]

Here's some instructions / videos that helped me!

BP/W setup:
Instructions
Hogarthian Harness Assembly Instructions | Dive Gear Express®

Regulator, necklace, boltsnap prep:

 

[tphelps]

I haven't been able to find any videos on how to setup this specific harness. Ultimately I might have to return this backplate for unrelated reasons, but I want to figure out the proper way to setup this system.

Looks like you got quite a few tips and videos on how to string the harness. For their polyurathane coated nylon webbing, it can be tricky to weave, especially the crotch strap! I found spraying it with a little bit of water helps to reduce the friction. Imagine you're looking at the bottom of the back plate, specifically the slits that transition from the shoulder straps to the waist. Traditionally for most harnesses, you string the shoulders entering on the innermost slit, exiting on the outermost slit (or the one directly next to the innermost slit). Weaving a tri-glide between the slits helps the straps from slipping to keep the size fixed.

This is NOT the case I found for the Deep 6 harness. I've always strung from inside to out and even with a tri-glide, I found my shoulder straps slipping through. The solution I found that has worked very well for me is to do the OPPOSITE. Instead run the shoulder straps entering on the middle or outermost slit, pass through the tri-glide, and exit entering the innermost slit. No slippage!

I haven't experienced a deep 6 reg yet but I'd be interested to hear how you experience it underwater.

I like my Deep 6 regulators more than my Apeks regulators. As a technician for both, the numbers are much better for Deep 6. As per the service manual, the cracking effort is set to around 0.9". By comparison, my XTX50s typically seal up around 1.3". As the Frenchmen from Monty Python and the Holy Grail would say, "Oh yes! It's very niceeeee."

 

[Ioncloud9]

Looks like you got quite a few tips and videos on how to string the harness. For their polyurathane coated nylon webbing, it can be tricky to weave, especially the crotch strap! I found spraying it with a little bit of water helps to reduce the friction. Imagine you're looking at the bottom of the back plate, specifically the slits that transition from the shoulder straps to the waist. Traditionally for most harnesses, you string the shoulders entering on the innermost slit, exiting on the outermost slit (or the one directly next to the innermost slit). Weaving a tri-glide between the slits helps the straps from slipping to keep the size fixed.

This is NOT the case I found for the Deep 6 harness. I've always strung from inside to out and even with a tri-glide, I found my shoulder straps slipping through. The solution I found that has worked very well for me is to do the OPPOSITE. Instead run the shoulder straps entering on the middle or outermost slit, pass through the tri-glide, and exit entering the innermost slit. No slippage!



I like my Deep 6 regulators more than my Apeks regulators. As a technician for both, the numbers are much better for Deep 6. As per the service manual, the cracking effort is set to around 0.9". By comparison, my XTX50s typically seal up around 1.3". As the Frenchmen from Monty Python and the Holy Grail would say, "Oh yes! It's very niceeeee."

The crotch strap I found to be incredibly difficult with the coated webbing. Once I got it on I was done with it. Then I had to adjust it which was another level of hell haha.

 

[Hoag]

The crotch strap I found to be incredibly difficult with the coated webbing. Once I got it on I was done with it. Then I had to adjust it which was another level of hell haha.

FWIW, I used a much softer webbing that was 1.5 inches wide for my crotch strap. Even with the softer and narrower webbing, on my recent trip to the Bahamas, after several days of diving in just a swim suit & rash guard, the crotch strap was "chaffing". (I guess that is just a fact of life.)

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Over the last 6 years or so I've built somewhere around 100 (give or take a few) BPW setups for customers. It's to the point now where I can take a person's height, weight, chest, and waist measurements and get the harness really close.

One of the hardest things about setting up a harness for a newer user is doing it with the plate laying flat. I actually built a stand to support the plate while threading the harness because I was doing so many of them. Most can't do that. I work in a machine shop with access to a welder, waterjets, metal band saws, etc..

If you have somewhere to do this, however, you can make it a little easier on yourself. Take a heavy duty hook that screws into the wall and hang the plate on it from the top hole. This will allow you to thread and make adjustments while the plate is not flopping around on the table or bench.

If you hang the hook at the right height you can even slide into it while it's up there to make note of your adjustments.
My stand is designed to allow me to bolt the plate to it by the bottom holes and slide in and out of it.

The harness shoulder straps do not need to be tight. I recommend that you be able to slide three fingers under each side at about where you position the drings and turn them perpendicular to your body. For me this allows me to use my rig with anything from a 3 mil to drysuit and still get in and out of it. The crotch strap can be a pain but it is the critical adjustment device on the rig. The problem that I find with most made from standard weight webbing is the tri-glides. They really are not designed with double thickness standard stiff webbing going through them.

Solved that problem by cutting my own out of .060 stainless that are designed for double thickness webbing. Again, not something the average user can do so, what to do? Well, you can go somewhere like JoAnn fabrics and get lighter 2-inch webbing that is more comfortable and easy to work with. Or you can sit down, relax, take a pair of pliers and slowly work the webbing through the tri-glides. Once you have the end through the slide, it's not as bad to adjust it.

I have an 11-page article on BPW's and there is a section on adjusting it as well as weighting and storage options. With the weights, I would not spend a lot of money on pockets, integrated systems, etc. Until you've actually been in the water and determined what you need. I have pockets on my cam bands and use a weight belt with pockets. You may find that you don't need the amount you think you do and the pockets end up sitting on a shelf or taking up room on the rig that isn't necessary to tie up.

You don't need to be able to ditch all your weight if you are properly weighted. At most 2-4 lbs, even in a 7 mil or drysuit, should be all you need to dump to get and stay positive.

 

[Ioncloud9]

You don't need to be able to ditch all your weight if you are properly weighted. At most 2-4 lbs, even in a 7 mil or drysuit, should be all you need to dump to get and stay positive.

Yeah that was my thought as well. I shouldn't need to dump half of my weight, but I would like to have pouches that have some dumpable weight. The rest I can use wherever I need to trim myself. I've estimated somewhere between 6-10lbs of weight with an aluminum plate and 3mm suit in salt water.

 

[Neilwood]

For anyone struggling to figure out the BP&W threading - I would suggest getting in touch with Jim Lapenta via PM. His guide is a pretty good document and helps a lot with regards to figuring out how tight or loose things need to be.