what size of pony bottle

[iscuba]

Okay, I've been diving with a 19 cuft pony for about a year now. I've always had it strapped to the right side of my tank and hooked to my upper right chest with a octopus holder. After recently joining this board I see a lot of you set it up as a stage. Can anyone show me pics or explain how I would set up my pony in this manner. Thanks!

 

[Braunbehrens]

iscuba once bubbled...
Okay, I've been diving with a 19 cuft pony for about a year now. I've always had it strapped to the right side of my tank and hooked to my upper right chest with a octopus holder. After recently joining this board I see a lot of you set it up as a stage. Can anyone show me pics or explain how I would set up my pony in this manner. Thanks!

Here are a couple pics showing what's involved. Let me know if you have other questions...

http://www.extreme-exposure.com/acc/halc-hosekits.shtml

 

[Genesis]

here's the URL for it...

Just ask if anything's not obvious from the picture.

 

[iscuba]

Thanks for the pics! I assume I would hook the bottom snap bolt to the d ring at the bottom of my bc, and the one at the valve to my upper left chest.

 

[Braunbehrens]

You got it, iScuba.

Be aware that the way Genesis is doing it is somewhat nonstandard, you may want to try the standard way and his way to see which you like better. The standard way being with the snaps at the front of the bottle. When you want to use the reg simply pull on it and put the hose over your head. You might also want to put a bolt snap on your primary regulator so that you can clip it off when using the stage.

If you do go with this kind of config I recommend testing it often. You don't want to try it for the first time in an emergency. I used to dive like this and I would routinely switch to it at the safety stop.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I originally dove with a 15 cu ft low pressure pony strapped to the side of my tank. However a 15 cu ft pony really is not adequate for deep diving situations and brings about a false sense of security at best. The one and only time I had to use it, I spent the whole deco stop wondering if I'd have enough air to finish the stop. I had a 30 cu ft tank with a separate SPG by the end of the week.

Then after using my 30 cu ft ponies for years, I figured out that adding another steel 72 in place of a 30 cu ft auminum pony allowed some lead to be left in the boat with the result that a separate 72 in a set of travel bands only added about 10-15 more pounds to the system weight. I used a mini SPG with the the pony anyway. Scubapro makes a great all brass mini SPG that works well for this purpose. The separate 72's allow more flexibility in air management and offer a higher level of redundancy than did a pony bottle and the wieght penalty when all is said and done is pretty minimal at least for boat diving.

I still use my pony bottles but they normally get slung as a stage bottle for accelerated decompression or for more mundane uses like filling lift bags on larger lifts. For the few shore dives I do where a single tank and a pony can be preferable for weight reasons, I use a reg with an SPG on a 7" hose and sling the pony bottle as a stage bottle as the hardware is already in place.