I currently dive:
7mm full suit (hood/gloves/booties)
Ranger BCD
Steel hp100 (1 PST and 1XS)
24Lbs weight integrated - 16 in waist pockets and 8 in tank trim pockets
Frog Fins
6'0 Tall
245-250 lbs
Thinking about a dry suit, but that is down the road at some point??
If I need additional weight on the plate is the only option your bolt on plates?
Would the rig be able to be used in warm water vacation diving? (3 mil shorty and AL 80).
Do you have ditchable weight pockets that go on the webbing? Or do you recommend staying with a weight belt?
Thanks
Bryan
Hi Bryan,
Your wing has to be sized for your most buoyant exposure suit. Often this same wing can be used in warm water, but some divers will elect for a smaller warm water wing.
Currently it appears you are using about 28 lbs of ballast, lead, reg, empty steel tank.
Of this I'd guess ~4 lbs are required to overcome the inherent buoyancy of your current BC. That leaves 24 lbs to sink your 7mm wetsuit. That's a bit more than I would expect, but still within reason. You might be just a bit overweighted.
Any BC needs to meet two criteria:
1) Offer enough lift to float your rig at the surface with a full tank if you ditch it
&
2) Offer enough lift to compensate for the maximum possible change in buoyancy of your exposure suit.
A large SS plate and harness is about -7 lbs, your reg is -2 and a full hp 100 is about -10 lbs. Total -19 lbs. With an empty tank your rig will provide about 11 lbs of ballast.
If you add our weight plates your rig will be ~-27lbs with a full tank and provide ~19 lbs of ballast with an empty tank. That leaves ~4 lbs on a belt.
A LCD 30 wing is enough to float this rig.
Your suit Cannot loose more buoyancy than it starts with, i.e. an estimated 24 lbs. so a 30 lbs wing is enough here too.
The wildcard here is your future drysuit. How buoyant will it be? It's unlike to be more than 30 lbs buoyant, but that is possible with heavy undies.
What about warm water? Most WW divers are using a 3 mm suit and al 80's. That means they need about 8-10 lbs of total ballast.
A ss plate and harness provides 7 lbs and your reg is about -2 lbs. Many WW divers use just their plate, harness and reg as ballast.
With a rig that's only about -11 with a full tank, and wetsuit that's only 4-5 lbs positive one could use a very small wing. That's why we make 17 lbs wing, but many of our customers use their cold eater wing when they travel.
We don not offer weight pockets. With the right combination of plate type, cylinder type and or weight plates most divers weight belt requirements are between 4-8 lbs and this is easily tolerated by most.
Recap:
Large SS Plate
Hogarthian Harness
LCD 30 Wing
(cambands and wwedge blocks included)
Optional weight plates
If you have other questions let me know or call 626-799-5078
Tobin