wings for doubles and wrecks?

[reefvagabond]

I'm looking to get into a bit of wreck diving and doubles diving and wondering what wing people prefer. I'd like to get a donut wing like the Light Monkey 45 lbs doubles wing or the Halcyon 40 lbs evolve wing.

I'm wondering if 40 lbs is enough lift for double steel tanks and a steel backplate.

I'm also wondering about puncture resistance from the inner bladder. For example the inner bladder from Halcyon is made of 400 denier nylon where as the Light Monkey inner bladder is 15mil polyether material inner bladder. Which is better?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Before we can answer this well a little more info would be nice. What kind of doubles? Al or Steel? And what size? Al 80's, 100's, LP 72's, 95's, or larger? Diving wet or dry?
40lbs in enough for me when diving LP 72's doubled up or al 80's and a steel plate. For my lp85's or larger I use a HOG 58 lb horseshoe or 50lb donut. How much other stuff will you be carrying? Can light, tools, etc.

I know from experience that polyethylene type bladders are more susceptible to pinch flats. I had two of them on my old wings with poly bladders and didn't know how I got them as I try to be very careful. Now that I use wings with the ballistic bladders I have never had one. But even if I did, the new HOG donut wings with the ballistic bladder have a ten year warranty against pinch flats.

 

[reefvagabond]

I plan to dive steel doubles, from LP 72s to HP 100s; it'd be nice if the wing could also handle up to HP 120s but I doubt I would dive those often if at all. I will be diving dry. I'm not so concerned about the lift if I'm in the rig, I'm pretty sure it will float with me in it. I'm more concerned about the rig being able to float itself.

I'll probably be carrying a few cuttings dives and a few lights as well, maybe an argon bottle in the future. It seems that with HP 100s and a steel plate I'm starting to push the 40# lift limit.

So I take it a nylon internal bladder is superior to polyethylene and what I should be looking for. Thanks for the tip on Hog wings but my local dive shop does not carry Hog. Are there any other internal bladder materials I should look for? Or are internal bladders a bad thing because they can get pinch flats?

 

[mathauck0814]

a 40lb wing would not be appropriate for HP100s twinned up in most cases. The lift calculator in the sticky is a good resource to double check. For durability, I don't think I've heard of anyone having too much trouble with any of the wings commonly used. That doesn't mean you shouldn't plan redundant buoyancy and dive with a dual bladdered wing or a dry suit.

Lift calculator sticky: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bu...ems/158370-ultimate-wing-lift-calculator.html

 

[eelnoraa]

. I'm more concerned about the rig being able to float itself.

This has a lot to do with how much weight are you putting on your rig and how much you are willing to put on your belt. With double HP100, you are carrying 16lb of gas. If you are weighted properly, you should be over weighted by this much at the beginning of the dive. If you put 24lb or more on your rig, while letting yourself be 24lb positive, then 40lb lift isn't enough. But let's say your put 10lb on yourself, so you ar 14lb+, while your rig is -14lb, then you rig + full tank is only -30lb. A 40lb wing is good enough.

Now, I use 24lb for example here, because if your suit is more than 24lb+, then 40lb wing isn't big enough. You need to consider what happen when your suit is flooded 100%.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

It depends on whether you're diving much additional lead over and above negative effect of the (empty) tanks, bands, plate, manifold, valves, regs, can light, etc. If you're not, then 40-45lbs will work just fine with double steel 130s and your double 100s will have no problems.

If you are, be mindful of the need to float both the rig by itself and you+rig at the start of the dive when there's a whole lot of extra negative effect from the full steel tanks. And the issue of a flooded drysuit shouldn't be neglected.

For double steel tanks and wrecks, even when you're diving dry you will need more air in the wing at depth early in the dive than is ideal, so my advice is to get the narrowest wing that has the lift you need. When you don't have to yaw 90 degrees over just to fit through hatches, you'll be glad you did.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I'm looking to get into a bit of wreck diving and doubles diving and wondering what wing people prefer. I'd like to get a donut wing like the Light Monkey 45 lbs doubles wing or the Halcyon 40 lbs evolve wing.

I'm wondering if 40 lbs is enough lift for double steel tanks and a steel backplate.

I'm also wondering about puncture resistance from the inner bladder. For example the inner bladder from Halcyon is made of 400 denier nylon where as the Light Monkey inner bladder is 15mil polyether material inner bladder. Which is better?

Buying a wing before you know what you will be using for tanks and exposure protection is getting the cart before the horse.

Start by determining how buoyant your exposure will be. Remember that deeper / longer with mandatory deco will often dictate more exposure protection than you currently use with singles.

Once you know how buoyant your suit is *and* you know what you will be using for cylinders you can determine if you need a Stainless Steel or Lightweight plate. This choice is based on required ballast, and required ballast is based on the buoyancy of your suit.

Once you know suit buoyancy, and gas volume of your tanks picking the right wing capacity is pretty straight forward.

Remember the solution to being overweighted is not a larger wing, the correct solution is to select your rig components, i.e. back plate material (SS vs Lightweight) and cylinders (buoyancy characteristics) so you aren't over weighted.

Tobin