Hollis SMS 100 buttplate

[diverlee]

The 1st picture is where my valves ride but my tank doesn't ride that high. It's perfectly parallel. That's what my cave diving buddy said. I asked him to check out my trim. The 2nd picture is how my tanks rode in my Nomad.
I guess it's personal choice and who u listen to. I've been told in side mount they should be at ur sides not hanging down. I see both. I personally wanted something "tighter" as I'm starting to go through tighter places. My tanks were dragging and my wing was rubbing. In open water it probably doesn't matter a whole lot.
Good luck. I hope you work things out. I mean that sincerely

 

[Akroedge540]

The trim looks good for the diver (I imagine it is you AK) with the Edd modded handles. The other diver (yellow hose) using stock "towel racks" does have the tanks slanting down towards the valves - not the same trim as your's.

My rear leashes are 4 1/2 " long and I could get my tanks more parallel (to the body) with a longer leash, but that is just more slop to deal with light tailed tanks (when breathed down) and when going inverted. If your tanks are not tail light and you don't go upside down you should be all set as your trim looks good.

Yes the front diver is me. I did not know the guy with the yellow longhose. When I took my sidemount class with CA I was taught for the rig im diving that a 6inch leash is a good starting point. Rarely is more than six required. If you want some more measurements pm me and ill provide them for ya.

 

[MSargeant]

I learned on an sms100 which had a few mods done to it (UK based so do not have easy access to Florida sadly.) Instead of using the buttplate we used sliding D rings (i've mentioned before on previous thread) on the waist band. The buttplate is nice for sticking reels and useful things onto, and easy to find with drygloves and thick liners. Certainly reccomend the sliding d rings for AL80s, no weight on the cylinder needed to keep it trimmed nicely.

 

[beanojones]

I learned on an sms100 which had a few mods done to it (UK based so do not have easy access to Florida sadly.) Instead of using the buttplate we used sliding D rings (i've mentioned before on previous thread) on the waist band. The buttplate is nice for sticking reels and useful things onto, and easy to find with drygloves and thick liners. Certainly reccomend the sliding d rings for AL80s, no weight on the cylinder needed to keep it trimmed nicely.

Where did you get/How did you set up your sliding D-rings?

 

[rongoodman]

Where did you get/How did you set up your sliding D-rings?

Here is a source for the heavy rubber D-rings.

 

[MSargeant]

Where did you get/How did you set up your sliding D-rings?

My instructor is a pretty good fabricator and made them himself, they're not rubber.

I have them placed on the middle of my hips when the tanks are full and usually adjust them when i swap regs a few times. Handy if i'm getting a second dive out of the cylinders without filling because its just clip to where the d rings were last .

Sidemount diving variable sliding D-ring - YouTube

When i finally manage to get in the water again i'll get some footage.

 

[pholife]

I am using big 4 rigid d-rings, 2 as far back as I can get them on each side and 2 placed around 4 in' inwards. Problem I am seeing is yes they need to be adjusted (the inner 2) they seem to have a bit of play... I have seen some with d-drings welded up to weight belt releases, seems like a nice option (as I have 2 spare Hollis releases from an extra set of tank bands) but also seems cumbersome and an unessesary task to open and close the release (not to mention a failure point) the rubber ones look nice but don't like the idea of rubber (failure point) and HATE the idea of putting 2 more rigid d-rings on the waist.... I think today I will bend the second set of (inward) rigid d-rings, I think this might give them some easier play and still lock.

The sms100 is great, but I am a bit set back at Hollis not covering this and having to spend all the extra $$$ for weighting. As I am diving in a neoprene drysuit at the moment, mounting 10 kilos is awkward. Having only access to a back weight system w/ four pockets I am at the moment mounting 4, 2k weights in the pockets and 2, 1k on my hips... Problem here is that getting the tanks to hug nicely in the first 50 bar is tough as those 1k weights are taking up some of that real estate on the hips.... debating weather to either do the following:
1. cram them in two of the upper weight pockets and flip the pocket over (keep them from coming out)
2. mount them on the shoulders (pain in the a$$ if I want to undo it/travel/ switch over to wetsuit)

sorry weighting is a bit off topic from the OP but figured I'd ask?

 

[victorzamora]

vicp, I know this is old and I'm kind of necroing it....but I thought I'd throw this in here:

AkroEdge and I went diving together. We had the same instructor for Cavern/Intro (and he did my Full Cave as well). Edd did my Apprentice. All of it was in an SMS100. Cavern/Intro was done stock. I did a weekend diving with homebrewed Edd mods. Then I bought a real Edd-mod rig and did Apprentice/Full. The last round is what most fully sold me on going to Edd and diving steel tanks as doing it right. With Worthington LP85's or X7-100's, the Edd-mod rig with tanks clipped to the DR handles on the buttplate is perfect through the range of pressures. I was able to sit at the top of the chimney in JB and let the flow push me all the way to the Grim Reaper sign without moving a muscle. The only reason I had to move then was my instructor decided it would be "fun" to do some lost line drills.

This weekend, I tried diving Al80s. I've done that before and I thought I had had decent success with a 2# weight on the camband towards the bottom of each tank. I don't know why, but one of my tanks felt "off" but I couldn't explain how or why. It just felt off. That was my first day with my new GoPro, and the video evidence showed it. My left tank looked "okay"~ish while my right tank was AWFUL. My left tank was slightly tail up, it looked like it needed another pound on the tail. My right tank was up several more degrees. I felt it during the dive. They were twisting me. One thing is I know they were different tanks. They were different brands and different ages, but I figured it was close enough. I'm going to Mexico to dive with Jason Renoux in about a month and will be asking for some advice on setting up my rig for alu tanks. If I can find time to hop in the pool, I'll be doing that as well...but between the wedding and wedding planning and how annoying I find paying for air just to mess with tank setup, I'm not sure I'll be able to get in the pool before Mexico.

Since my harness is modified into the "H-harness" setup, a sliding D-ring won't work for me. So now I'm looking at placing a couple of d-rings on my waist strap just for ally diving, and I'm looking at switching to different sized leashes. I'll be the first to admit that my current setup is lacking when it comes to ally tanks, but I think I can dial it in (too cheap/stubborn to buy another system). My main cave buddy has an Edd-modded SMS100 and a Razor, he uses the SMS100 for steels in FL and the Razor for ally tanks in MX.

Anyway, if I can make any headway on mounting ally tanks I'll let you know. My current plan is REALLY short leashes clipped to my waist.

---------- Post added August 27th, 2013 at 03:18 PM ----------

pholife: one solution I saw was to use two tri-slides per shoulder and mount a separate "accessory" piece of webbing between them. When you travel, you can pull that webbing out, place a weight on it, and then re-thread the webbing through the other tri-slide. This is for a travel-friendly trim weight. If you put weight on your shoulders, it WILL trim you further head down. If you're diving a stock SMS100, you're probably trimmed heavily feet-down so this might help. Just be aware that adding weight anywhere other than near your belly button/ribcage will change your trim as much as it will your buoyancy.

 

[taras8109]

vicp, " Edd-mod rig with tanks clipped to the DR handles on the buttplate is perfect through the range of pressures.

Is DR Handles off a Tech Buttplate or Nomad? they compatible with SMS 100 Buttplate?

 

[ffdiver]

I don't know if you ever fixed your tank trim problem, but another thing you can try is changing how your valves are connected. Using Loop bungees rather than the stock Hollis bungees will get the valves up behind your armpits. Once you got those squared away, adding a tiny bit of length to your leashes should put your tanks in the right spot.