Slinging a Tank
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Slinging a tank requires a bit of finesses and the right gear. You can jury rig most any BC with even crappy d ring placement. But why? My advice is to find a mentor or instructor who teaches stage bottle use in their AOW class like I do. I cover the various sizes, methods of attachment , regulator choice, and proper use. An intro to tech course will also allow you to properly sling one. I tried attaching one to my tank. Once. That was enough. I like to see the 1st stage, spg, and valve. And slinging one stage bottle style is easier, more efficient, and can be easily attached and detached. In my opinion.
Dr. Lecter
Contributor
What are you slinging, and why? Regardless, I can't see any reason to mount to your tank rather than slinging off the shoulder/hip rings.
MalibuJerry
Contributor
need more information. What are you trying to do? and why? What part of slinging a tank are you asking for recommendations on?
MKrauter
Contributor
I too have some questions. I slung the 40ft3 according to the steps on this site: http://dir-diver.com/en/equipment/stagebottle_rigging.html however it does not show how much slack the bottle should have. Just testing it in the pool I felt it hung a little low. How low (or tight to the diver) should these be?
To date I haven't slung anything, I am looking into getting a 30ft3 to sling. I mainly do deeper dives and would like to have one in the event of any emergency. I suppose having one slung to your bc, as opposed to your tank, is easier to pass off to someone else.
I do quite a bit of wreck diving.
Dr. Lecter
Contributor
More importantly, having one slung where you can see and work with it makes it much less of an entanglement hazard inside wrecks. It also simplifies squeezing through small openings, as opposed to having it sticking off your tank on a hard mount.
I don't know what you consider deeper dives or "wreck diving", but if you're slinging a 30 for redundancy/emergency purposes, it better not be overly deep, pushing NDLs, or very far inside a wreck. I'd look at manifolded doubles, sidemount, or just slinging an 80. Yes, a whole 80. It's a bit of a bitch to wrangle on a small boat relative to a 30, but it's not any more of an issue underwater once slung than a 30. 30s and 40s are deco gas tanks for short deco dives, not redundant air sources.
That said, more gas is better, and a 30 should work fine if slung in the standard hogarthian/DIR manner. It will probably alter your trim a little, but not much... best way to figure that out is to rig it, sling it, and dive it. If you're not diving a BP/W rig, good luck figuring out the best d-rings...though a Zeagle does reasonably well at it too.
I don't know what you consider deeper dives or "wreck diving", but if you're slinging a 30 for redundancy/emergency purposes, it better not be overly deep, pushing NDLs, or very far inside a wreck. I'd look at manifolded doubles, sidemount, or just slinging an 80. Yes, a whole 80. It's a bit of a bitch to wrangle on a small boat relative to a 30, but it's not any more of an issue underwater once slung than a 30. 30s and 40s are deco gas tanks for short deco dives, not redundant air sources.
That said, more gas is better, and a 30 should work fine if slung in the standard hogarthian/DIR manner. It will probably alter your trim a little, but not much... best way to figure that out is to rig it, sling it, and dive it. If you're not diving a BP/W rig, good luck figuring out the best d-rings...though a Zeagle does reasonably well at it too.
the tank will be used as emergency supply - I currently dive a zeagle stiletto, and looking into manifolded doubles.
I personally would sidemount it, if you're using a bp/w it would be easy.
je76
Registered
If this is simply a pony bottle being used for emergency you probably don't need a 30 cf bottle and could get away with 19 cf bottle. That being said a 30 or 40 cf becomes valuable if you ever plan on moving into more advanced diving.
As for the packaging and use of the pony I suggest going to your LDS and have them giving you a little instruction on its use or a course. My LDS gave these instructions with a Deep Diver course that I took years ago when I started diving. While the use of the pony seems relatively basic the fact is many of us have seen parties incorrectly deploying, using and handling pony and stage packages because they never received proper instruction or didn't have a mentor to help them. Its not rocket science and having a redundancy is a great idea (you are thinking the right way) just look for a little guidance from someone other than the people on this board.
As for the packaging and use of the pony I suggest going to your LDS and have them giving you a little instruction on its use or a course. My LDS gave these instructions with a Deep Diver course that I took years ago when I started diving. While the use of the pony seems relatively basic the fact is many of us have seen parties incorrectly deploying, using and handling pony and stage packages because they never received proper instruction or didn't have a mentor to help them. Its not rocket science and having a redundancy is a great idea (you are thinking the right way) just look for a little guidance from someone other than the people on this board.
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