Zeagle Ranger w/o a RipCord system?

[Crowell]

I dove a friend of mine's Zeagle ranger the other day and it was the first time I'd ever seen that ripcord system.

My fiance was home playing with it while I was at work and inadvertantly pulled the ripcord while "testing" out the weight dump, and at this point I've still not laid eyes on the BC yet.

I get home and this thing has wires sticking all out the bottom of it laying around, and I was thinking something to the effect of "what have I gotten myself into"...

I look at it for a few minutes, and it seemed pretty intuitive to re-thread it, so no worries there, but I was still VERY concerned about this thing coming unthreaded in the water, so I put my hands inside the weight pockets and was trying to (vigorously) shake the weight compartments apart for a while - but (to my surprise), it held, so I dove with it.

The only problem I had on the dive was it seemed very difficult to get the BC to release air - either by the bottom exhaust dump, or the inflator hose dump. I had a devil of a time with that and ended up having to work very hard to stay at depth and was still somewhat positive.

I'm not sure if it was the Ranger or just that particular model. My friend said he'd dove with it once in 2003, and none in 2004, and I have no idea what care it's received, so I'm not about to claim this is "what Zeagles are"... and after reading everything here, I can see a TON of advantages to the rip-cord, even though I didn't like it to start with.

For starters, to dump weights, you've got one thing to grab instead of 2. One quick yank and you're done. I'm still somewhat concerned about it accidently coming unthreaded though, since the ends of cord just seem to stop without any fastener or knot or anything on the ends.

 

[ScottZeagle]

Thanks for the reply,

So if I chose to purchase this BC w/o a ripcord system, could I add the ripcord if I chose to, or is that something that must be built in during the manufacture process?

Thanks,
Ron

The weight system has to be put on when the vest section is first made. You cannot add one or the other after the fact.

Scott

 

[northcoast_diver]

...The only problem I had on the dive was it seemed very difficult to get the BC to release air - either by the bottom exhaust dump, or the inflator hose dump. I had a devil of a time with that and ended up having to work very hard to stay at depth and was still somewhat positive.

I'm not sure if it was the Ranger or just that particular model. My friend said he'd dove with it once in 2003, and none in 2004, and I have no idea what care it's received, so I'm not about to claim this is "what Zeagles are"... and after reading everything here, I can see a TON of advantages to the rip-cord, even though I didn't like it to start with.
...

Sounds like a maintenance issue to me.

With my Zeagle Tech, the easiest way to dump air is one quick tug on the deflator hose itself. This dumps a squirt of air from the connection of the valve, at the top of the wing, and normally turns out to be a perfect buoyancy adjustment, during an ascent, assuming your buoyancy was good to begin with.

If I need to dump air faster than that, for whatever reason, then raising the deflator hose and pressing the deflator button releases a lot of air fast. Normally that would not be necessary, however, unless for example the purge valve in my drysuit got stuck, or something else unusual like that.

The Tech is a variation of the Ranger but without the cumberbun. Instead, the Tech has double belts at the waistline. I like it better than my backplate rig. It works perfectly for warm tropical diving, dive travel, cold thermally insulated diving, and for shipwrecks. It is the only B/C-wing that adapts to every kind of diving. There is nothing that it cannot do. It can even do sidemounts.

However, for teaching new open water students, the Ranger is still a better choice than the Tech, since students normally have B/Cs with cumberbuns, and therefore it is better to demo to them with a B/C that has a cumberbun as well, or else they get confused easily.

 

[RonFrank]

Of course Velcro only lasts a couple of years before it has to be replaced.

I have a pair of rollerblades that are over 10 years old, velcro going strong. Used likely 30 times a year.

My sandals are a couple years old, and the velcro has about had it. Of course I wear them non stop in the summer, so they get pulled every day I wear them often multiple times, and if they get loose on a hike, I adjust them, so that velcro is used, and used a lot.

So IMO velcro in this BCD is certainly going to last the lifetime of a BC IF you don't pull it apart much. This Ranger's release was a pull tab on each side that open the bottom of the pouch (I should have looked a bit closer). The top is loaded via a zipper. Seems like a reasonable design that should last unless one is constantly pulling the tabs.

For me, I doubt living in CO I'll get more than a dozen dives in a year unless I move, so I don't think that this is such an issue.

Velcro certainly has it's uses, even if I think it's getting rather overused in some area's. I certainly would not mind owning that Patent!!

Ron

 

[crpntr133]

Is velcro on the cumberbun part of the life time warranty for Zeagle, Scott?

 

[ScottZeagle]

If there is a defect in the material or workmanship, then yes.

Normal wear and tear is not covered under warranty, nor is leaving it in your garage since last summer and having rats chew it up...(actual phone call I had a couple of months back - "but it has a LIFETIME WARRANTY, you guys should cover it!!")


Scott

 

[mleong]

Well, I guess each weight design has it pros and cons. I personally like the velcro system (other than the durability of the velcro), easier to 'rearm' if the weight is dropped compared to the ripcord and no risk of loosing the weight pocket (the kind which use weight pockets).
A buddy friend instructor has a ranger, but he prefer to use the weight belt, in his opinion, is more reliable.

 

[vjongene]

Velcro certainly has it's uses, even if I think it's getting rather overused in some area's. I certainly would not mind owning that Patent!!

A Swiss invention... http://www.velcro.com/ABOUT/history.html

 

[RonFrank]

Normal wear and tear is not covered under warranty, nor is leaving it in your garage since last summer and having rats chew it up...(actual phone call I had a couple of months back - "but it has a LIFETIME WARRANTY, you guys should cover it!!")
Scott

Unheard of!!! I suspect that you don't cover Knife fights, or acid spills either!!

That's it, we need to find a company foolish enough to warranty EVERYTHING against ANYTHING!! :cwmddd:

Actually Salomon Ski bindings USED to offer an unconditional lifetime warranty on their product. I skied for 15 years on four sets of new top of the line pairs for the price of ONE before they got wise, and realized they were having to replace worn out bindings.

Ron

 

[Crowell]

we need to find a company foolish enough to warranty EVERYTHING against ANYTHING!!
Ron

Well, they're not a scuba company, but Dillon(http://dillonprecision.com/default.cfm? ) has exactly that warranty on anything you buy - even if you got your Dillon reloader as a hand-me-down reloader that your ex-wife's uncle's brother-in-law left to him in a will. If you can read the serial # on it, it's under warranty. Then again, reloaders and such are basically billeted steel through and through and folks normally like to keep their powder (and reloading gear) dry and clean, not in 200' of seawater.

To do that with SCUBA gear, I have no idea what a company would have to charge the end-user, and as competitive as the various scuba companies are already forced to be, they'd probably price themselves out of business fast if they tried.

I know if I took great care of my gear, and cleaned it and maintained it properly - I wouldn't want my cost to include factory replacements on some doofus I've never met's gear that just throws it in the bed of his pickup for months on end next to his spare tire and gas can.