Mares MRS Plus Weight Pouch Dropping Root Cause

[andydavyWesti]

Does anyone have a photo of the cable tie fix?/ andydavy@hotmail.co.uk

 

[Don Quixote]

PDF of the images:

 

[jwiz]

Following up on related threads (Uncontrolled ascent!! - Loss of a Weight Insert for Mares Prestige BCD pocket & Dragon MRS plus dropping pocket), I had to buy two replacement pockets: both are brand new, they even had 'Made in Bulgaria' stickers on it.

Both had only 2 out of 3 straps inserted correctly: one short strap (#1 in picture above), one long strap (#3 in picture above). Both were as easy (very easy) to pull out from the BCD as the original one I still have.

Since I was about to leave for a 3 week trip to Indonesia, I did not want to risk losing another pocket + risk an uncontrolled ascent, I looked into the tie wrap idea described by Don Quixote.

Tying strap #1 and #2 through their loops was not possible with the tie wraps I had, which were too wide to fit into the loops. I tried tying the two below the loops but that did not have enough grip to hold them together.

I ended up tying all 3 together. Getting strap #3 in was the toughest part - there was not much length to play with.

I did a dry test and this tie wrap fix solves the problem! It definitely makes it harder to pull the weight pocket out of the BCD. You have to give it a good tug, as opposed to a gentle tug for the unmodified pocket. This also limits the range the weight pockets can travel, which reduces the tugging force on the clip when weights move.

I also used the whole set in Indonesia and it worked great: weight pockets are easy to put in, require a good tug to pull out but most importantly I did not lose any!

Thanks to Don Quixote for looking into this and suggesting the tie-wrap fix.

 

[jwiz]

can you email me a picture of what you did to resolve this