ways to carry a pony bottle

[Amphibious]

amph I see you believe in the rule you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink ...however you can drown it lol. your point is correct but your delivery could be a little softer just so the experience you have will be received on the other end and you will help a fellow diver. just a thought. have a safe day and hope to see you in the water

always been an issue, why I work in roles/places that involve very little speaking

 

[Dashrynn]

Back to the OP.



It does have a couple of disadvantages you have to work through. It is possible for something to leak and not see it. Rare, but possible. I dive with the hoses charged, but valve off. This eliminates this possibility, but now I must open the valve to use the pony. This dictates the pony be mounted valve down for me (old, don't bend easy) and that I must drill with it to make sure I can open it quickly. The other disadvantage is you have to think about where to mount the 2nd so it is not confusing to other divers if you also have a safe second on you primary regulator. I clip mine with a bungee down near the valve on the pony.

!

dive number 5 solo....leaky hp hose...how it happened? dunno but if it wasn't slung i would have never noticed it (except on the gauge) i came up shallow from 80 ft and did my safety stopbut, even though i had a leak, i would have had enough still with an al40 to get to the surface. Now i know divers who back mount it and never have problems, maybe i bumped it? Dunno but i had complete control over my backup air.

 

[idocsteve]

no point in carrying 3.

if you're solo, sling a bailout, and ditch the spare-air.

That's exactly what I did.

I dived with a Spare Air for a few years, then realized I would be much better off with a larger bailout gas supply, so I got a 19cf which is attached to my main tank with a universal strap that works just like the main BCD strap. A few times I dived with both the Spare Air and the pony bottle then realized it was pointless to do that, and I sold the Spare Air on Ebay and got about $140 bucks for it. It's a bit more work to change over the tanks between dives with this sort of setup.

As others have said, you can't see if your pony bottle leaks (at the O-ring) but I've only got a small hoseless pressure gauge on it so there's very little chance of it leaking there, the only hose is to my secondary reg which is right below my chin on a strap that I slip over my head, and I'd know if that was leaking.

I prefer it tank mounted because it's a solid attachment and it's out of the way. I dive with it valve-on but I see the point in being able to mount it so that you can dive with it valve-off and eliminate the chance of it leaking without you realizing it until you need it.

I use a BCD reg so I've only got two hoses on my first stage so I'm pretty streamlined. My primary reg hose is long so I'd hand that off in the rare event I'd be buddy diving and it was needed by someone else.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

dive number 5 solo....leaky hp hose...how it happened? dunno but if it wasn't slung i would have never noticed it (except on the gauge) i came up shallow from 80 ft and did my safety stopbut, even though i had a leak, i would have had enough still with an al40 to get to the surface. Now i know divers who back mount it and never have problems, maybe i bumped it? Dunno but i had complete control over my backup air.

Your are correct, leak is more likely to be undetected on a back mount pony, but you are advocating gear failures in both your primary and backup systems at the same time, a real stretch.

The trade off is you might be able to see leaks easier, but a slung pony is going to get bounced around and subject to damage before, after and while diving. A back mount is tucked along you main tank and much more protected. In addition, I don't even have a HP hose to fail, just a hard fitted button gauge. Harder to use, but very well protected.

FWIW: If I was using an AL40, I would sling also just because of the size.

 

[idocsteve]

^ Lots of good points in favor of a pony "hard mounted" to your main tank. I've read on this board about divers who do that yet run a long hose with an spg so they can see it during the dive.

It would really suck to lose your main gas supply and then reach for that pony and find it to be empty.

 

[TechBlue]

My choice is always to sling a stage, it is clean and simple, no convoluted hose setups you will not breath of it by accident you can control the valve ie:charge the hose before you hit the water and turn it on when you need it, you would use a 40" reg hose so you could even hand the reg of very easily without having to hand off the bottle (depending on the situation you may want to keep the out of air diver within reach) and at a glance you no how much pressure is in the bottle. More streamlined and a lot less entanglement issues.

 

[pdelannoy]

Hey Ryco, This is late but I only saw your post today. I dive solo at Lake Pleasant and hard mount a 19 cf pony. It has a dedicated SPG that comes around on my right side. I describe the mounting below.

I came up with a way to mount a pony on my tank that is simple and easy and costs about $20. I'll try and explain as best I can. I bought a cargo strap and a 4 inch pipe connector and a chalk bag belt with snap buckle from REI. Two slits are made in the 4 inch rubber connector and the cargo strap is fitted on the inside so that the winch and the free end of the strap are outside the connector. This is fitted on the pony bottle and fixed permanently using the screw brackets that came with the connector. Excess strap is trimmed. The chalk bag belt is also looped under the connector. The belt allows you to connect the pony to the tank that is attached to the BC and hold it conveniently while you don the cargo strap around the tank. The cargo strap is threaded around the tank and the winch is used to tighten the system down. Its easy to remove and remount when changing tanks. I've used the set up on around 100 dives. I keep the little winch mechanism oiled with WD40.

PD

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

My choice is always to sling a stage, it is clean and simple, no convoluted hose setups you will not breath of it by accident you can control the valve ie:charge the hose before you hit the water and turn it on when you need it, you would use a 40" reg hose so you could even hand the reg off very easily without having to hand off the bottle (depending on the situation you may want to keep the out of air diver within reach) and at a glance you no how much pressure is in the bottle. More streamlined and a lot less entanglement issues.

So you are saying a slung stage is more streamlined and has a lot less entanglement issues....than a back mounted pony?

And you are saying you see other divers when you solo dive? The only time I see other divers when I solo dive is in shallow water close to shore; they don't need me, do they?

 

[TechBlue]

So you are saying a slung stage is more streamlined and has a lot less entanglement issues....than a back mounted pony?

And you are saying you see other divers when you solo dive? The only time I see other divers when I solo dive is in shallow water close to shore; they don't need me, do they?

Yes without a doubt, and regarding other divers I was listing the benefits of a slung stage. What are you confused about?

 

[Dashrynn]

Your are correct, leak is more likely to be undetected on a back mount pony, but you are advocating gear failures in both your primary and backup systems at the same time, a real stretch.

The trade off is you might be able to see leaks easier, but a slung pony is going to get bounced around and subject to damage before, after and while diving. A back mount is tucked along you main tank and much more protected. In addition, I don't even have a HP hose to fail, just a hard fitted button gauge. Harder to use, but very well protected.

FWIW: If I was using an AL40, I would sling also just because of the size.

I should have mentioned this before but it was the oring at the 1st stage on the hp hose that was leaking.