What are Your Favorite Side Mount Tanks?

[The Chairman]

For most of my Side Mounting I have dove PST E8-130s. I don't think I realized just how heavy these pigs are until I was with Lamar at 40 fathom grotto for a meeting about NASE tech diving and he brought a couple of AL80s with choker setups. DANG! That was an eye opener. Now, I want to try a bunch of different tanks like steel 72S and AL63s. I really want to try a couple of Faber 108s as these are more than one Sidemounter's favorite tank.

So tell me what you dive with and why! What do you use for OW and what do you use for caves?

I just got through doing a week's worth of diving with two AL80s and was pretty impressed with them. I added a weight pocket (with five pounds of lead) to each tank to keep the bottoms from becoming floaty. I am hoping that with two steel 72s I won't need any weight at all (I had another 8 pounds on me).

 

[DA Aquamaster]

For shallow OW use, Marci and I both prefer steel 72s. I brought 6 of them out of retirement last year for side mount purposes and wished I had not sold 4 of them off a couple years before we switched to side mount. They are delightfully light and the small 6.9" diameter is great to dive. They are also not overly negative so they are very thin wet suit friendly. They are about neutral when empty so they get a little light in the tail around 500 psi, without the severe floatiness of an AL 80 or AL72, but that makes them idiot proof as you can't help but notice the low tank pressure, so monitoring the SPG is just gravy on the taters. And managing gas to 500 psi per side, rather than thirds, means that 2 tanks are usually adequate for 2 long no deco dives, especially as I normally pump them to 3,000 psi (86 cu ft).

A 3000 psi fill makes the steel 72 into a poor man's LP85, although an LP 85 holds a lot more gas (111 cu ft) with a 3600 psi cave fill. Faber LP 85s are also high on my list and if I was starting from scratch for tanks, LP 85s would be a strong contender as a do everything tank.

For deeper OW dives, we use X7-100s. The 7.25" diameter is a noticeable improvement over 8 inch tanks and at about 33 pounds each, they are about 5 pounds lighter per tank than our Faber LP 95s (and about 10 pounds lighter per tank than Worthington LP 95s or X8-1300s). The extra 46 cu ft compared to AL 80s and 23 cu ft compared to pumped steel 72s is also welcome at the deeper depths involved.

For cave diving we still prefer Faber LP 95s which are effectively 130s in cave country. I'd prefer X7-100s or steel 72s but with a mix of small and large passages on each cave trip and limited space to haul a number of tanks, we lose more with smaller tanks than we gain, and if we can only have one tank type cave diving, we'll opt for LP 95s. We are considering storing our LP 95s and a couple stages in N FL as we never dive the LP 95s anywhere else and have extra stages, so that would allow more tank variety in future trips.

When traveling by air, we end up with AL 80s by default. They are light and easy to dive to thirds, especially if you add a 2 pound weight to the cam band holding the lower bolt snap (5 pounds is overkill unless you are sucking the tank down to 500 psi, then 4 pounds is adequate). However my preference is AL72s as they are again a 6.9" tank and like the steel 72, the smaller diameter is very nice in tighter spaces and is generally cleaner in the water. We use AL 72s as our preferred stage tanks.

 

[Colliam7]

So tell me what you dive with and why!

I suspect individual answers will depend in part on what people own, and / or what they have easy access to through buddies. For OW. I use either PST HP100s, or Luxfer AL80s. The 100s are my standard, because of buoyancy characteristics. I also use them because I happened to have a couple of 100s with doubles valves (R and L) when I started, and it made sense to use them - I like them. When I dive the 80s, I use a weight pocket on each cam band, with 2-4 lbs in each pocket. The amount depends in part on what exposure suit I am diving (wet vs dry), and what SM BCD I am using (e.g. Nomad, vs a SS BP with an OMS Profile attached). I prefer the 80s for wetsuit SM, and that is what I dive in the Caribbean, since 80s are what is usually available.

Two other points. 1) I have used AL40s as an introductory rig for divers who want to try out SM. Diving a couple of 40s is actually fun, for shallow inland / quarry excursions, but it is not something I use regularly. 2) I recently broke down a set of double PST HP120s and tried them SM. I thought they would be a bear - something like your 130s - and I worried that trim would be an issue. I found I actually liked them, with a drysuit, and will probably take them off the coast to see how they do.

 

[drbill]

Holy mackerel, Pete... double water heaters! You're the man.

I haven't tried sidemount yet, but feel pretty certain I'll be using Al 80s for their buoyancy characteristics. I want to bottoms to rise above the sediment so they don't stir it up or get in the way when I'm filming.

 

[decompression]

It's interesting to see a lot of commonalities, OW drysuit diving I use HP 120's for there super capacity and neg weight. Shallow water/wrecks/caves I use AL 80's with a 4lb weight on each, very easy to manage and neutral with the added weight. I've recently broke up my steel 72's double set and will be using them for SM, I predict good things. For students I use AL80's but like the idea of AL40's in some cases......there goes more deco bottles.

 

[Wookie]

The ones you leave one of at home.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Holy mackerel, Pete... double water heaters! You're the man.

I haven't tried sidemount yet, but feel pretty certain I'll be using Al 80s for their buoyancy characteristics. I want to bottoms to rise above the sediment so they don't stir it up or get in the way when I'm filming.

Bill, I think it's common for many side mount divers to have the tanks carried too low - almost dual stages rather than true side mount, but with proper tail lengths and correct bungee arrangement the tanks should not be the low point in your overall profile. At worst, with an 8" diameter tank the tanks or regs do not have to be more than an inch below the rest of you.

I've noted that it also gets easier and the tails can be shorter once you get comfortable in sidemount.

In any event I would not limit myself to AL 80s, when steel 72s and LP 85s are smaller in diameter and neutral when empty and when X7-100s are only a pound or so negative when empty, are the same diameter as an AL80 and trim much better (staying level in the water).

 

[Colliam7]

. . .feel pretty certain I'll be using Al 80s for their buoyancy characteristics. I want to bottoms to rise above the sediment so they don't stir it up or get in the way when I'm filming.

Believe me, they will rise above it, if properly configured. DA makes a really good point about rigging. Although, you could nominally dive 'sidmount' by clippiing on a couple of deco bottles, that is really not ideal, the tanks are lower (and 'looser') than they should be, and with steels, they hang down and could stir some silt if you are not paying attention.

At least some of us who put a bit of weight toward the bottom of AL80s do so because they tend to get somewhat 'bottom floaty' toward the end of a dive, so keeping the bottoms 'above the sediment' isn't an issue.

Go to Steve Bogaert's website and look in the video gallery for one of his early videos, 'Demo in the Razor Harness' (Go Side Mount - Steve Bogaerts & HP Hartmann). It is one of my favorite dive videos, for lots of reasons (music, cinematography, technique demo, etc., etc.) But, it points out where the tank bottoms rest.

 

[jacksatlanta]

Faber LP85's for me, or 95's if doing a little more aggressive dive or need the extra air to gas match a bigger buddy.

 

[FoxHound]

Like a few others are using, im rocking E7 HP100s.....great tank, great buoyancy characteristics and plenty of gas for the bottom portion of the deco dives I do, and they are nice with a DS on.

I do like to use alu80s sometimes. For single tank sidemount I use alu80s and alu63s.