For all of you out there like me, the air hog, I have finally worked out a way to get more out of diving when traveling. I often go to the caribbean, and always have to cut my dives short because I can suck an 80AL dry in about 20min. So with the help of my machinest friend and a dive master we created a way to travel with double tanks.
The BCD I have is a Seaquest Pro QD+, which is not meant for a double set-up without a manifold, but we made it work. The first thing we did was to get the OMS travel bands, they come as a pair. The I made 420 Stainless plugs that fit into the plugs on the back of my BCD to distribute the weight of the tanks and to screw the bands into. Then my machinest friend made spaces that are curved to fit the curve of the of an 80AL tank so that the doubles rest snug against the back plate of the BCD.
To use the rig all I did was rent two tanks from the dive shop, they thought I was crazy at first until they saw the rig and then they thought it was creative. Then I used my regular first stage on one tank, and my pony tank first stage on the second tank. It was like having a regular tank with a HUGE pony tank, maybe it was a horse tank lol. Anyways the only tricky part was switch regs often enough to keep balanced, I found that about every 500psi was enough.
Well the trip I went on to Jamaica was much better when I could stay under as long as my buddy, who I think actually puts air into his tank not sucking it out considering he can get an hour+ out of an 80AL.
Well I just wanted to let people know how this larger diver has overcome his air consumption problems.
The BCD I have is a Seaquest Pro QD+, which is not meant for a double set-up without a manifold, but we made it work. The first thing we did was to get the OMS travel bands, they come as a pair. The I made 420 Stainless plugs that fit into the plugs on the back of my BCD to distribute the weight of the tanks and to screw the bands into. Then my machinest friend made spaces that are curved to fit the curve of the of an 80AL tank so that the doubles rest snug against the back plate of the BCD.
To use the rig all I did was rent two tanks from the dive shop, they thought I was crazy at first until they saw the rig and then they thought it was creative. Then I used my regular first stage on one tank, and my pony tank first stage on the second tank. It was like having a regular tank with a HUGE pony tank, maybe it was a horse tank lol. Anyways the only tricky part was switch regs often enough to keep balanced, I found that about every 500psi was enough.
Well the trip I went on to Jamaica was much better when I could stay under as long as my buddy, who I think actually puts air into his tank not sucking it out considering he can get an hour+ out of an 80AL.
Well I just wanted to let people know how this larger diver has overcome his air consumption problems.
