How to improve position of tanks SM

[tbone1004]

Great thanks for the advice, I will make a photo on the next dive, hopefully end of this month and get some extra D Rings before that to try out. I guess I might as well take the buttplate off while I am diving ALU.
Curious also about your recommendation on the inflator hoses as you mentioned something about it. I was not too happy with the positioning myself, thought about clipping both on the right side of the shoulder d-ring instead of 1 right 1 left, instructor adviced against it, mentioned that could be confusing as too which is primary but its a bit in the way now also for the dump valve cord that is basically at the left shoulder. Not too many people seem to be diving with dual bladders..

Butt plate is a perfectly good place to store stuff, leave it on.

Left side inflator should be your primary bladder and IMO should be clipped off to your right shoulder d-ring. The aux inflator should not have an inflator hose connected to it and can just stay clipped off to the right side out of the way. There will be no confusion. With 2x al80's you don't need a dual bladder IMO but since you have it, best to use it properly.

 

[jawaputih]

Butt plate is a perfectly good place to store stuff, leave it on.

Left side inflator should be your primary bladder and IMO should be clipped off to your right shoulder d-ring. The aux inflator should not have an inflator hose connected to it and can just stay clipped off to the right side out of the way. There will be no confusion. With 2x al80's you don't need a dual bladder IMO but since you have it, best to use it properly.

Great thank you very much for your input, I will keep it disconnected and see if I can clip it somewhere on the right side out of the way. Ordered 2 sliding D-Rings, will update this thread after my next dive.

 

[mdwalter]

Yes I do, should I change these sliding D Rings more down?

probably, but also you may want to tighten up the bungees. It looks from the pictures that not only is the bottom of the tank too high but the top of the tank is too low, which contributes to the bad angle of the tank with respect to your body. If you are using loop bungees, make them shorter. If you are using ring bungies, use neck choker on the tank, and/or shorten the bungee. This will pull the top of the tank higher in line with your arm pit, and since the pivot point is the lower clip, as the tank rotates up into your arm pit the bottom will rotate down a bit and the whole tank will be parallel to your body. If this does not fix it completely, then you move the sliding D ring further toward the belt buckle.

 

[mdwalter]

I do indeed use Diverite Ring Bungee, I found it much easier to clip in the tanks that way. The standard bungees that came with the Nomad are very tough, I had a hard time getting them around the tanks until I changed it to the ring bungees that where also included in the package. I will be happy to try other configurations in the future thou.

Before giving up on the ring bungees and losing the benefits of being able to transition in and out of the water without a lot of moving things around, make sure the bungee is short enough (remember, you only need enough stretch to reach the top clip on the tank, not so much to wrap all around the valve) and that you have the top clip on the tank choked in tight to the valve. Otherwise the the tank will hang down like a stage and as the tank gets lighter the bottom will pivot around the bottom clip and throw the whole tank diagonal sooner than if your bungee were tight enough.
Likewise, if you do switch to another bungee system, make sure the bungee is not too long, since valve end hanging too low can contribute to bottom high sooner than it otherwise would be. If the bungee is too long, even when you move the bottom clip / sliding D ring forward, the tank will get level but the whole tank may be hanging low beneath your body.

 

[mdwalter]

Thank you so much for all the information.

Does this picture help to show my rigging? Unfortunately my next dives wont be until end of september. I am using dive rite travel stage straps on the tanks and I am basically using what is described by Tody Style SM setup or ISE. 1 100cm reg hose, 1 80cm reg hose.

View attachment 742046

Judging from this picture, a couple more things you may want to consider are tighten up the waist belt, tighten up the crotch strap, take the long hose around the back of your neck instead of tucking the slack in your waist belt, and remove that chest strap.

 

[jawaputih]

Before giving up on the ring bungees and losing the benefits of being able to transition in and out of the water without a lot of moving things around, make sure the bungee is short enough (remember, you only need enough stretch to reach the top clip on the tank, not so much to wrap all around the valve) and that you have the top clip on the tank choked in tight to the valve. Otherwise the the tank will hang down like a stage and as the tank gets lighter the bottom will pivot around the bottom clip and throw the whole tank diagonal sooner than if your bungee were tight enough.
Likewise, if you do switch to another bungee system, make sure the bungee is not too long, since valve end hanging too low can contribute to bottom high sooner than it otherwise would be. If the bungee is too long, even when you move the bottom clip / sliding D ring forward, the tank will get level but the whole tank may be hanging low beneath your body.

The ring bungees are as tight/far back as possible, it is already difficult to reach that far back to pull on the rings.

Judging from this picture, a couple more things you may want to consider are tighten up the waist belt, tighten up the crotch strap, take the long hose around the back of your neck instead of tucking the slack in your waist belt, and remove that chest strap.

Tighten up sure, tucking the slack in the waist belt is part of the Toddy Style / ISE configuration. There is no real long hose or a real short one.

 

[grantctobin]

The ring bungees are as tight/far back as possible, it is already difficult to reach that far back to pull on the rings.

Prime time to get rid of them

 

[lermontov]

The ring bungees are as tight/far back as possible, it is already difficult to reach that far back to pull on the rings.

I think youll find this is just a matter of muscle memory - you will find it more difficult in cold water gear as everything is bulkier so as an interim measure you can put on zip tie on the ring so you can reach out better to pull out forward - once youve got it sussed remove the zip tie.

Steels are easier to trim out as they hang down but if im in the tropics and using a 3 or 5mm wetty i use an old weight belt ( no weights ) with d rings on and put it around my hips as the butt rail is too high on the nomad. You can slide the d ring back and forth to get it sitting right
I have my tank bands lower than the average diver as I see that the higher the tank bands are the more they pivot from the fulcrum point and lift the tails of the ali tanks. I prefer the tank to be tucked under my armpits more.

The bungie cords are great but you will find that once you start carrying multiple tanks its easier to start clipping the 3rd or 4th bottle on the d rings on the shoulder straps. I use the standard rigging but have a cord wrapped around the valve 2-3 times as a choker, that allows me to swap between bungie ring fastening or shoulder d ring fastening if i want to move tanks around by just un hooking the cord

good luck and have fun

edit- in addition i use the almost excactly the same system on ccr for my Bail out bottles - so i already have the muscle memory in place ad don need to change much on the rigging

 

[Stefan Liden]

I use the standard rigging but have a cord wrapped around the valve 2-3 times as a choker, that allows me to swap between bungie ring fastening or shoulder d ring fastening if i want to move tanks around by just un hooking the cord

Would love to see a picture of this if possible. Not sure I understand how you use a cord and standard rigging with ring bungees.

 

[SlugLife]

The ring bungees are as tight/far back as possible, it is already difficult to reach that far back to pull on the rings.


Tighten up sure, tucking the slack in the waist belt is part of the Toddy Style / ISE configuration. There is no real long hose or a real short one.

Create a short handle out of some paracord, bungie, or webbing. Similar to how tank-bungies for securing hoses, often have a "tab" sticking out, to make it easier to lift up the bungies.