2 Sets of Halcyon ACB at once?

[VsubT]

Hi, has anyone tried two sets of Halcyon ACB (vertical) weight pockets at once?

Background: Diving single Al 80 with carbon backplate (not wanting an ss plate) and drysuit (Waterproof D10) in quite cold water (~4⁰C). I have 4kg in trim weight pockets on the camband, 6kg in the Halcyon ACB pockets. 10kg in total are not enough. I need 2 to 8kg more lead...

Alternatives: Soft weight belt (works already); additional camband with more trim pockets low on the tank; 4kg p-weight (in combination with an ss plate sufficient, but as said, I don't want another backplate)

The DUI weight harness interfers to much with the waist belt (tried it).

As others mentioned above, this seems like an over-complication. Not sure why the SS plate is an issue, sure would make life a lot easier for your needs. You might consider rigging 2 plates as swappable for conditions. Steel tanks are a good idea too for cold water. Weighted STA and/or weight harness would be the next step if the pouches are still overloaded.

Re: the DUI harness, try lengthening the suspenders a bit to get the pouches under your BPW harness' waist belt and lower (toward your knees). This works well for most body geometry, but maybe not if you're proportioned differently.

Recommend trying a few of these in a pool or similar location to see what combo works best for you, since you'll also want to figure out what each option does to your trim. Good luck with it,

Lance

 

[smdives]

Agree with previous posts about saving the CF for warm water. Cold water = Steel. Steel plate, steel STA, steel tanks, steel cam buckles, steel everything. Reduce the lead you need by replacing light plastic bits with nice shiny stainless.

Add a 5kg (10 pound) weight belt and dump some of the lead off the back of your rig.

Re: the DUI harness, try lengthening the suspenders a bit to get the pouches under your BPW harness' waist belt and lower (toward your knees). This works well for most body geometry, but maybe not if you're proportioned differently.

We typically put on a 10-ish pound weightbelt up nice and high on the waist, then cinch up the BC (hogarthian style) waist strap below it. You have to pull two releases to dump a weight belt, which adds some extra safety.

 

[Andre171]

Weightbeld above (cranial) the waistbelt does not work for me - bad trim due to long legs - short back. Weightbelt sub-waistbelt works best so far.

SS-BP/STA gonne add 6lbs, which is itself not sufficient enough. Additional weight is still necessary.

Waiting for some Halcyon ACB AliExpress copy (29€ incl. shipping). Just courious about them... the original ACBs are from China aswell.


My point is, that I want to remove the hole weight for long surface walks an keep the rig itself light.

 

[xan]

SS-BP/STA gonne add 6lbs

Just for accuracy's sake, the SS BP is 4.9 lbs, and the weighted STA is 7.55 lbs. Compared to the CF BP, that's an extra 11.25 lbs.

That said, of course, if your motivation is to be able to remove the weight a bit easier, maybe the two extra pockets will work. Certainly report back when you get to try things out.

 

[davecampbell]

Weightbeld above (cranial) the waistbelt does not work for me - bad trim due to long legs - short back. Weightbelt sub-waistbelt works best so far.

SS-BP/STA gonne add 6lbs, which is itself not sufficient enough. Additional weight is still necessary.

Waiting for some Halcyon ACB AliExpress copy (29€ incl. shipping). Just courious about them... the original ACBs are from China aswell.
View attachment 829009

My point is, that I want to remove the hole weight for long surface walks an keep the rig itself light.

they're a pretty good "replica". They're slightly different material, but still good. We use them on our travel rigs, and they've been exactly the same in use. I did have to fabricate the plastic stiffeners that the Halcyon pockets come with, but that was fairly straightforward.... and the price is attractive, especially as I was setting up (and paying for...lol) three single tank setups. We have 2 sets of the Halcyon ACBs, and 3 sets of thr Aliexpress version, and they all work well.

 

[Andre171]

Pockets arrived:
Compared to the orignal: same weight, same size, equal fabric, equal sewing quality, plastic sheets are included aswell. ...saved 150 bucks!


Now I install them as second ACB System... I think I gonna remove the D-Ring from the China ACB to keep the rig DIR.

 

[Andre171]

the idea seems to work... in water test soon....

Extra D-ring removed:


Two pockets in a row are just 2 inch wider than big horizontal pockets. Should also work for medium sized divers. The even smaller divers won't need that much weight either

 

[Andre171]

Here the hole rig. Weight 4,8 kg (10 1/2 lbs) and capable of 16kg (35lbs) lead.

 

[Badger7]

Do you want to consider flip flopping the pocket orientation? If you're at the surface with a bcd failure and you need to ditch weights, having them open down instead of up might make them a little easier to dump in a pinch. Also, that would bring your d-ring a few inches higher, I think your spg might be a bit of a stretch to clip with a 24-26" hp hose and the dring actually lower than the waist belt.

Personally, I like to distribute some of the lead closer to my shoulders when diving a lightweight rig, gets me in much better trim, but youre already set up and can sort that once you get it wet.

 

[Andre171]

The top-loading orientation is (for me) easier to handle. So I can load and unload the weights after donning the rig with ease. Weight dropping works aswell - as you said important at the surface: unbuckle, grab the handle and pull the inner pocket out. The SPG is also no problem - I didn't noticed a change.