Sidemount hose routing

[tbone1004]

So. Here's a bit of a rant on sidemount hose routing. Will add some pictures in a couple hours

I've been sidemounting since 2009 and have gone through what I am convinced is basically every hose routing option ever imagined.... Fixed first stages, turret first stages, spg's up, spg's down, inflators on the 5th port, inflators on the swivel, regs straight up, regs hog looped, regs dual crossed, etc.
I have not put the long hose on the left because I think it's dumb, and I haven't done two long hoses because I think it's dumb as well, but I think I have pretty much everything else covered.

I bit the bullet earlier this year because I was sick of @victorzamora nagging me and got a pair of Scubapro MK20's because they were stupid cheap *read like $80 each in DIN with a full rebuild and brand new piston....* so I could have a swivel first stage. I yield that it is much nicer at the surface on the left side with both hoses being able to be rotated down for moving stuff around, and that the swivel is really nice to have for the long hose if you have to donate.
I have long been an opponent of using the bottom ports for inflators in sidemount because I am convinced that if you have your cylinders routed properly, they are pointing in the wrong direction. The Razor-esque crowd has their bottles cheated towards the front of their body as well as fairly high up towards their chest because of the use of the single bungee. This is unavoidable with that bungee configuration, and with the regulators in their preferred orientation, the use of the fifth port is fine and sends the hose in the ideal direction.

I use loop bungees which has the neck of the bottle truly in-line with the center of my body, as well as below my armpits. I have adjusted my tank rigging so the valve knob is facing straight "up-down" with the first stage between my body and the tank and I have my first stages perpendicular to the vertical axis of the tank. Since my trailer was stolen, I will be upgrading to a Perdix AI and will put transmitters on my first stages. I am unsure right now with the valves that I have if I will be able to leave them truly perpendicular, so that will be found out in a month or so, but I think leaving the drysuit hose on the 5th port is ideal because I want the long hose to be able to swivel independently from the drysuit hose *otherwise there is no real point in the swivel to begin with*. I have seen others use a 90* swivel on the 5th port as well, but for this, I don't think it is warranted.
My inflator comes from the left and goes to my right shoulder d-ring and for this, the 5th port really doesn't work well because the inflator is a good 6" above my drysuit inflator port and it is a much more direct route from the swivel. The swivel reg has two advantages for this with the main benefit of moving the hoses close to the front of my chest from the center outlet of the tank. Second advantage being the convenience of hose storage at the surface.

Next step is to get my replacement tanks in, along with the transmitters so I can sort out what angles the regs will be at, and determining at that point if the drysuit inflator can stay on the bottom port for the long hose side.
On my stage bottles, I will be leaving the Poseidon first stages on there so I don't have to worry about leaving the inflator on there during deployment *having both the reg and inflator hoses come out and whichever one is not being used ends up flopping around

 

[divezonescuba]

I have been avoiding swivel port first stages on my primary sidemount tanks. My issue is that with the exception of the bottom port on most swivel first stages, the other ports are radially positioned. In many cases this results in something sticking out at an awkward angle. Swivels great for stage and deco bottles, but cause issues with primaries for me.

With the Tusa 600 diaphragms that I am currently using, all the ports are either straight up or down. Pointing up is the Lp inflator on a nine inch hose along with the hp gauge, and the necklace reg. On the right reg, the gauge is again straight up and the long hose is straight down. I haven't tried it yet, but I suspect that the nine inch redundant bladder inflator hose could also stick straight up. I use a Stealth 2.0 TEC. I haven't tried a drysuit inflator hose yet, but suspect a regular sized hose would be ok for that coming out the bottom.

I find it too inconvenient to position the gauges down.

The new zeagle reg is designed the same way.

On a recent trip, I monkeyed with the long hose going out the bottom of the left reg. It worked fine. With a swivel, I am not sure what would happen with that many hoses.

 

[tbone1004]

Below was previous routing with the Poseidon first stages and is similar to yours @divezonescuba . Obviously would look the same with the SPG's up. No real downside to this for the left side with the short hose other than you have slightly less than perfect routing of the hose in the back. The left side was actually rather uncomfortable because the hoses were pushing against my rib cage. The swivel turret allows these to go into a more comfortable position which is nice.
On the right side, the long hose is fine until you have to make a single file exit. At that point, there have been several reports of the hose kinking if it is pulled on. In doubles you can help prevent this by keeping the hose in your armpit during donation or if using a swivel turret, it will rotate forwards which is ideal. I use a 9' hose since my buddy and I are both quite tall and in a single file exit, we would not have to fully deploy the hose. With the swivel now, the option is to put a 90* swivel on the bottom port to allow both the inflator hose and the long hose to swivel independently, which many CCR divers do for their stage bottles, put the inflator on the bottom port, or accept that it will move around during donation and may cause the regulator to pull funny. Depending on the angle of the first stages, and whether you have swivels or not will determine which is most viable.

If I was in open water, I would use two short hoses routed like my left bottle. With the Poseidon second stages, the hoses are non-directional so I run them mirrored to each other behind my neck.

 

[divezonescuba]

I discovered something a couple of weeks ago for myself. A 36 inch hose was too short for the necklace without a swivel. Without the swivel, the position of the regulator would sometimes get pulled up toward the right. Since I wanted to remove the swivel, I went to a 40 inch. This stopped the pulling, but a couple of times, the hose would come over my neck. After staring at it for a while, I attached the hose to the back of the necklace bungee with some Velcro tape. I think this will stop the over the neck problem while also allowing some freedom of movement.

As my original TEC instructor frequently would say to me "we shall see".

 

[lermontov]

So. Here's a bit of a rant on sidemount hose routing. Will add some pictures in a couple hours

have not put the long hose on the left because I think it's dumb, and I haven't done two long hoses because I think it's dumb as well, but I think I have pretty much everything else covered.

.

because?

your inflator runs from left to top right so do you run your hose from right tank across your waist to the left then back up to the right d clip to connect?
with the set up you are suggesting with valves up and down your long hose be tucked up against your body?
what do you have 2 hose clamp band ? extra security?

 

[tbone1004]

@divezonescuba which swivels are you talking about? All of my discussion was about the rotating swivels on the first stage, but I have ball swivels on all of my second stages for comfort. In sidemount especially I think you really need one on the short hose for the reason you described unless you go to a 40" hose which then starts bowing out quite a bit

 

[tbone1004]

@lermontov my issue with long hose left is that in a single file exit, the long hose is crossing under one of the divers. Even with a swivel on the second stage it can cause the regulator to get twisted and pulled out of the divers mouth as well as increasing the risk of it getting caught on something on the floor of a cave or wreck. In addition, it shortens the effective length of the hose which at 6'4" and my buddy at 6'6" isn't going to work. You can get around this with a left-handed second stage, but then it has to come straight up to the mouth. My issue with this is a comfort thing for my TMJ, but also because it increases the risk of the hose getting ripped out of your mouth if you are in a restriction *has happened to several friends of mine running this type of hose routing*.
Dual long hoses mandates that at least one of the hoses goes straight up to your mouth, typically the right side hose so the left hose can go behind your neck with the downsides of the hose going straight to your mouth listed above.

My drysuit is fed from the right hand bottle and my wing is fed from the left. Drysuit crosses half of my body, and the inflator crosses my entire body. I know it's not entirely clear, but I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow

 

[lermontov]

@lermontov

My drysuit is fed from the right hand bottle and my wing is fed from the left. Drysuit crosses half of my body, and the inflator crosses my entire body. I know it's not entirely clear, but I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow

ok I get it thought you had it around the other way - I have it the same way my dry suit hose is just long enough to give me space if i want to unclip the tank - any excess tucks under my armpit in a nice arc
Ive just rerouted my inflator to bottom left to top right as yours so keen to try that tomorrow

 

[tbone1004]

@lermontov the big downside for me with the 5th ports is when you go to push the bottles forward, the hoses get bent in a 180 which I don't like at all. I may well be putting a 90* swivel on my right side just for that.

 

[divezonescuba]

With respect to the 36 inch hose, I was referring to the swivels between the 2nd stage housing and the hose. I removed all the swivels in a moment of paranoia clarity. I even removed the atomic hoses with the built in swivels.

Everything else was about the swiveling turret on the bottom like with the higher end Atomic first stages. That what I originally started out with and why I went to the Tusa 600s. In fact, I took all the Atomic second stages and put them on the tusa 600s and I took the Atomic first stages with the swiveling turrets and put them on deco regsets.