Whats your choice?

[Quarrior]

Hello All,

I Am Looking At Getting A Bcd And I Am Looking At

Dive Rite...trans Pac Ii, Steel Bp W/ Trans Delux Harness And Rec Wing

Hacylon...bp/w ?

Seaquest...black Diamond Or Raider

Zeagle...ranger Or Ranger Ltd

Bfenne

Speaking as a pretty new diver myself, here is my experience.

Conventional jacket BC: inflate it and you get crushed.

Ranger: Awesome setup. Back inflate, can handle heavy lift for recreational diving. One drawback is the weight ditching system. Many boats want you to take out the weights and hand them up, then hand up the BC next. Ranger's weight pockets are a real pain to do this with. Don't worry about the LTD, my understanding is the basic Ranger now has the same features.

BP/W: Best deal going. Basically, build to suit. Pick the parts you like from various manufacturers and put it together to your liking. Adjustment is infinite. Mine is made from Oxycheq for the singles wing and Dive Riter for the SS plate and Transplate harness. I also have the Dive Rite 32 weight pockets. Superb pockets. Only ones I've seen you can load the weights after you have the rig on, instead of having to do so before hand.

Brian

 

[love2godeep]

If you ever plan to go DIR, they'll want you in a Halcyon BP/W. I discovered too late that I can't use my back-inflate for the DIR-F course.

But guess what! I love my back-inflate LadyHawk anyway!

If you've got any interest in DIR, you might want to check out their specs first.

As for me, at least for now, I'll stick with striving to be a DIS diver.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

If you ever plan to go DIR, they'll want you in a Halcyon BP/W.

No ... they'll want you in a rigid backplate with a single-piece harness. Whether or not you choose Halcyon is strictly up to you.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[H2Andy]

Why does Cornfed show ESP and answer the question before being asked?

Because we merged two threads into one and there is a hiccup on how this
works being currently worked out.

 

[Boogie711]

Naw - Cornfed just has a magical, mysterious gift that he acquired after drinking that radioactive milk...

 

[OE2X]

If you ever plan to go DIR, they'll want you in a Halcyon BP/W. I discovered too late that I can't use my back-inflate for the DIR-F course.

But guess what! I love my back-inflate LadyHawk anyway!

If you've got any interest in DIR, you might want to check out their specs first.

As for me, at least for now, I'll stick with striving to be a DIS diver.

I didn't have any problems with my Oxycheq Signature Wing with Brando in last weekends DIRf class.

 

[OE2X]

Do I see a Ranger in my near future? Talk to me overexposed2x!!

I guess this also tells you were I put my vote. I see a purpose for the BP/W but not with me.

PM me. It's a large with less than 16 dives on it - Nearly new.

 

[OE2X]

Why is the Ranger so much different, based on the wing concept right????

The following is based on limited experience owning both a Ranger and a BPW. My opinion is very subjective and reflects what works and feels best for me.

For one thing the Ranger is a wing whereas the Oycheq that I'm now using is more of donut shape.This offers different bouyancy characteristics that I can feel right away. All the weight is in the back plate thus making it a far more stable and evenly weighted platform. I don't turtle with the BPW where as I did with the Ranger. I can also say that I dropped nearly 10# of weight by switching. I now use an HID can light that is very easy to put on the waist strap. I could not do this with the Ranger. Everything about the BPW setup is cleaner and easier to use. I could also blather on about less failure points etc... but what is most important to me is that it works better underwater for the way I dive. Lastly I bought the BPW before I even thought of signing up for the DIRf course, so that wasn't the incentive.