New BPW setup - worry about lift capacity?

[jellycatsdad]

Well, if you are getting that from comparing to my numbers, there's a grain of salt there. Because our bodies aren't the same, and I don't dive a 2-piece wetsuit, I either dive a one-piece 8mm wetsuit, or a drysuit. I guess my wetsuit would be the closest thing to your wetsuit... for that I use 16 pounds lead, 5 pounds from the steel backplate, and 1 pound from an empty steel tank. So call it 22 pounds total ballast.

One thing I will point out with your numbers is that a 9-pound gap between HP80 and AL80 doesn't quite add up. An HP80 is about 6 pounds more negative than an AL80, so when you have your weight dialed in, I would expect a 6-pound gap between the two setups. Have a look at the tables in this thread for more info; the relevant quantity here is the buoyancy when empty.

I dive a 7mm fullsuit with a 7/5mm hooded vest on top of that - so there’s 12mm of neoprene on my core and 7mm on my legs/arms/head. The 26lb figure I got from my first dive with a Al80 and I had drama trying to decend at the end of the Breakwater wall, my buddy gave me some of her weight to add to my 20lbs, she gave me 6lbs. This was with a Scubapro Hydros Pro. The next dive, I dropped down to 24lbs with no issues.

I’m 5’9”, 180lbs. I’ve been doing a buoyancy check when I remember to do it at the end of the dive.

 

[jellycatsdad]

As others have said, if you have sufficient lead to drop, the wing should be OK. I personally would want around 35 lbs for that type of setup, but I prefer to have excess capacity for emergencies (assisting buddy) or bringing up something heavy from the bottom.

Try it out and see how you like it. If it is full and spitting air out the over pressure valve at 100 feet, then you might have to change something.

That’s what I will do I took the shop owner’s one for a dive, I liked it better than the fancy pants one I rented.

I’m not diving down to 100ft just yet - and those are also considerations if I plan on getting my AOW or rescue certs. The good thing about my new setup - it’s a BPW, so I can swap out the wing and backplate if I wanted to, instead of buying a new BC altogether.

 

[lexvil]

I dive a 7mm fullsuit with a 7/5mm hooded vest on top of that - so there’s 12mm of neoprene on my core and 7mm on my legs/arms/head. The 26lb figure I got from my first dive with a Al80 and I had drama trying to decend at the end of the Breakwater wall, my buddy gave me some of her weight to add to my 20lbs, she gave me 6lbs. This was with a Scubapro Hydros Pro. The next dive, I dropped down to 24lbs with no issues.

I’m 5’9”, 180lbs.

Are you renting gear or is this your stuff?

 

[jellycatsdad]

Are you renting gear or is this your stuff?

renting. I own my regs. I’ll be owning a wetsuit soon. I try to rent HP80s, but ended up with Al80s once. The weight drama happened with the Hydros.

 

[rongoodman]

Why HP80s? They’re going to be quite difficult to trim out at your height. HP100s or LP85s should work out better for you.

 

[NorCalDM]

You may want to go with a steel plate instead of aluminum for Monterey. The lift of the wing is fine as I'm 6' 185 and use a 30# wing with a steel plate in cold water with an 8mm wetsuit. I switch to an aluminum plate for warm water with a thinner suit.

 

[jellycatsdad]

Why HP80s? They’re going to be quite difficult to trim out at your height. HP100s or LP85s should work out better for you.

It was between that or Al80s when I rent tanks. Is there really a difference when height is in play between Al80s, HP80s, LP85s and HP100s?

 

[jellycatsdad]

You may want to go with a steel plate instead of aluminum for Monterey. The lift of the wing is fine as I'm 6' 185 and use a 30# wing with a steel plate in cold water with an 8mm wetsuit. I switch to an aluminum plate for warm water with a thinner suit.

I’ll dive this - and see how things work out in the pool vs. at Breakwater. Then I’ll tweak if need be.

 

[lexvil]

I’ll dive this - and see how things work out in the pool vs. at Breakwater. Then I’ll tweak if need be.

I have a steel Zeagle backplate you can use if you like, if you dive much in Monterey you’ll end up diving dry eventually.

aquarius has HP 100’s for rent which dive much better than the HP 80’s.

 

[2airishuman]

My concern is the wing being undercapacity.

The wing will be fine if you are weighted exactly right. The problem you have is that there is very little reserve buoyancy beyond what you actually need for compensation for wetsuit compression, so that if you are overweighted even a little, you may not be able to reach neutral buoyancy at depth.