Pony bottle mounting options?

[Dtaine]

Do you want to use your ponny tank as sommething like the spare air system?

Sorry - been involved in some of those threads.

I mount a 40cuft pony against my main tank using a couple of cam straps, basically set up as asymmetric independent doubles. I don't notice it affecting my trim or balance and it doesn't interfere with the wing inflating.

Once the bp/w comes in I'll sling an al40 for the reason below.

Slinging does have advantages; could hand it off to another diver if needed and can use a button SPG instead of a regular SPG with hose. Try slinging, try back mount and see which works for YOU.

I’d prefer not to carry a pony, but the only buddy I trust not to swim away with my alternate air source isn’t diving at the moment.

Insta-buddies aren't working out so well for me either.

Back to the OP, as Aardvark said find what works for you and go with what's comfortable. If you're doing more diving where entanglement could be an issue I'd recommend the sling as it's easier to ditch if it gets caught for some reason. If it's just backup gas and you don't see having to hand it off or remove it during the dive the back-mount might be a better option for you.

Also, you probably already know this, but remember to check your weighting with the setup you choose. Since you're using an Aluminum tank your rig will be slightly more negative with the full pony and possibly (depending on the manufacturer) positive should you breathe it out on a dive.

 

[SDAnderson]

You'll get a lot of advice, but the smart money, and the experience, will be on slinging it.

Yup..

 

[Randy43068]

Sling it!

 

[DryGear]

Thanks for all the replies and info guys!
...Dale; thanks for the photos, seems nice and easy to put together.
...Dtaine; thanks for the reminder, I hadn't given a lot of thought to weight yet. I will research my bottle, you probably just saved me a long walk back to the truck in all my gear, LoL.

I will play with a sling for a while and see how that goes. Is there a reason why the Left side is considered proper mounting? Those of you that have this setup; do you find it interferes a lot with getting at your BC intake/exhaust and gauges? ...my drysuit exhaust is of course on the left side as well.

...and yes the bottle is being used for redundant air.

 

[String]

Id go for sidemount (not front mount). Left or right side depending on whichever you find easier.

Side mount means you can keep it off until needed, if it leaks you can see it, no danger of breathing off wrong reg in stressful situation and you just clip it on prior to rolling in. It also wont unbalance you like back mount will.

I don't go with the "hand off to a buddy" thing. My pony is for me, nobody else. If a buddy is OOA then i want them sharing my larger reserve tank so it doesn't happen again. Im not going to remove a stage, clip it onto someone else who potentially has never worn one before who is also out of air who cant inflate a suit of jacket as a result and say "here, use this".

Only thing i will say is that sidemount isnt easy on some BCs due to the lack of or position of d-rings.

 

[Blackwood]

I use double ender snaplinks because my shoulder D ring lies flat on land and is a b_tch to clip into.

have you tried flipping them around? Shoulder D-rings are often of the bent variety, and are best set up bent out, not in (for exactly that reason).

I can't tell from the picture whether you have a the levity to change that around, but if you can, give it a try. Clipping things off is like night and day.

 

[Aardvark]

Id go for sidemount (not front mount). Left or right side depending on whichever you find easier.

Side mount means you can keep it off until needed, if it leaks you can see it, no danger of breathing off wrong reg in stressful situation and you just clip it on prior to rolling in. It also wont unbalance you like back mount will.

I don't go with the "hand off to a buddy" thing. My pony is for me, nobody else. If a buddy is OOA then i want them sharing my larger reserve tank so it doesn't happen again. Im not going to remove a stage, clip it onto someone else who potentially has never worn one before who is also out of air who cant inflate a suit of jacket as a result and say "here, use this".

Only thing i will say is that sidemount isnt easy on some BCs due to the lack of or position of d-rings.

Actually, now that I think about it further, I can't think of any reason why I'd want to hand off my alternate air source. If I need it, or my buddy needs it, dive is over and we're heading up together - one less reason for me to sling it

I'm not trying to be provocative here. I realise that this is a compromise. Ideally I'd be diving a single tank hog rig with a buddy I trust. If I need to carry more gas with a trusted buddy then it's not an alternate source, it's a stage, or deco gas, and different considerations apply.

With insta-buddy I take a pony and rig it so that it's not in my way, always on and the second stage for my alternate air source is in the same place as for a single tank.

Honestly, though, I don't know what I don't know. Feel free to give me reasons why back mounting is bad for me [flame suit on] you might bring up something that makes me change the way I do things - it's called learning. I might not agree with you but I promise to at least think about why I disagree

 

[String]

OK. Reasons i dont like back mounting:

(i) Some people find it hard or impossible to reach the valve (its harder than a twinset)
(ii) If it leaks you maybe completely unaware. Or if it freeflows unable to stop it
(iii) the balance issue
(iv) If you dont have a proper SPG you will be unable to see it on a dive
(v) Hose chaos - people have died getting hoses confused and incidents are fairly common every year. In a stressed situation its not always easy to work out what hose comes from where.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Back mounting is more likley to get tangled, can more easily leak out if you leave it on, is harder to turn on if you leave it off (since it is behind you) and makes the rig heavier when exiting the water (a slung bottle can generally be passed up before exit) and lastly, if your scuba unit gets very tangled in a net or something, you won't generally be able to easily remove the pony bottle and swim up with it if it is back mounted.


String beat me to it, the possibility of confusing the pony and primary reg, when back mounted, is significant and HAS killed people.

A slung bottle is safer.

I use a back mounted pony because it is out of the way, but it does have some disadvantages.

 

[IceBergSlim]

Do not be surprised if/ when the D-Rings on that Zeagle tear off under the strain of the 30. Those BC's are not really designed for that type of thing on a daily basis and if they were the webbing would not be so soft. Get a BP/W as soon as you are able and avoid all the silly stuff Z adds for "coolness factor" (RED rip cords: the first color to vanish underwater, accessory pocket zippers that parallel the weight pouches, wings that require massive retrofit if you want to use them with other gear..the list is long..)