What kind of wing with Freedom plate?

[Akimbo]

Akimbo,

I do not have one right now, and could not leave Eric a PM because his inbox is full, he is busy with a yacht project right now so do not know when I could get ahold of one. I read in another post where you put the bolts and that seems like a very good idea, would you be just as happy with one where the channel is welded to to the plate?...

Personally, I would still bolt the wing to the plate. This can be done even if the channel is welded. Nothing says it must be sandwiched between the channel and plate. You can always drill holes where you want them.

You could ask Eric not to weld it, or lightly tack weld so you have the option to grind off the welds later if he hasn’t built it yet. He’s a very reasonable guy and open to ideas.

I also considered discarding the channel and replacing it with two different thicknesses of Delran or UHMWPE — keeping the same angle produced by the channel. That is the nice thing about stainless, it is easy to modify to get exactly what you want. I can’t think of a closer starting point than the Freedom Plate.

Keep in mind that I am an incurable tinkerer and rarely use anything out of the box. Try it as delivered and modify if you feel the need. Even if not exactly to your liking, it is far better than anything else out there.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I should add that I also have an early aluminum prototype with no channel either. I prefer that anyway.

 

[Peter_C]

A regular Mach V wing will hold up just fine to being used clamped between the tank and the backplate. It is webbing in the part that gets clamped after all. I see no need buy an extreme wing for single tank diving, as they are a tough wing to begin with. Doubles diving in ship wrecks the extreme version makes sense. Of course the extreme series does have a cool factor.

 

[Akimbo]

I should add that I also have an early aluminum prototype with no channel either. I prefer that anyway.

To help others understand, the channel’s prime purpose is to set the angle between the tank and plate. Roll prevention is minor. The front-back depth of the bottom of the channel on mine is about 1" and the top is 3/8". That pushes the cylinder away from your butt like the hollow blow-molded plastic packs the Freedom Plate was influenced by. It is also a place some people add lead.

I’m happy with the angle but body-type and gear configuration can make the angle between unnecessary and too small. The angle is less than the old “snug-pack” type injection molded units that pre-dated the blow molded packs.

The main thing I don’t like about the blow-molded packs is they only support one cam band, unless you space them about 2” apart. The weight of the Freedom plate is useful in cold water but I would probably use my blow-molded pack for tropical travel. I do miss the integrated handles near where the belly-band slides.

---------- Post Merged at 10:34 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:02 AM ----------

… Doubles diving in ship wrecks the extreme version makes sense…

I dive wrecks all the time on a single — just don’t penetrate very far unless I’m on an umbilical. Other places that benefit from high abrasion/puncture resistance are bug diving, boat and dock maintenance, and rocky splash-zones doing photography or critter-counting. As far as that goes, I’ve seen more gear damage in bouncing inflatables than on normal sport dives.

All that said, the non-extreme wing is at least as tough as all the others. Each person must evaluate what is good enough for their type of diving and conditions. I don’t understand the cool factor though since the extreme looks like all the other black wings???

 

[GillScales]

I use either an old sea quest horse collar,or an older style oxy 18# wing.that and an old DA aquamaster,that I'm hoping to have converted to a Phoenix later this year,Xmas maybe(fingers crossed)

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Fisheater directed me to this thread so here I am.

What wings work with the Freedom Plate?

Originally, the newest plate was designed around the Oxycheq Mach V.
But now I find that any wing that has slots that will line up with the slots on the plate will work fine, which is just about all of them.
I lengthened the slots on the plate so they are 3.5" long each so they have a lot of adjustment to fit as many wings as possible.
I did that partially because I found out a lot of people got turned off by Oxycheq customer service and wouldn't buy their wings. It was also a thing of a happy accident that many other worked fine. I guess it boils down to what kind of deal you can get on what wing and what brand you like.
Also a lot of people already had other wings that they wanted to use.


The rail thing:
Some plates have welded on rails and some bolted on and some none at all. There's a lot of different FP's out there that were never intended to be used by the public, but I ended up selling every single prototype I ever made except for numero uno. The reason I started welding the rails on was because I was being driven nuts by people constantly asking if the rail was a STA and if the wing went underneath or on top?, are there different sizes, heights, etc. It was starting to get away from simple. I figured if I welded the sucker on that would end the discussion. All the rail is is a spacer to set the tank in the optimal position in relation to a persons curvature of their lower back, however I'm now beginning to wonder if the rail is even needed at all?
I've cam banded a tank right to the plate with no rail and dove it many times and I like it. I may just rethink the whole rail idea and do away with it. It would be one less step and I could sell the plate cheaper and pass the savings on to you guys. Maybe the next run will just be straight plates with no rail, super simple, no more rail questions, stay with the KISS approach which is what the entire original intention was. But, being the nature of manufacturing it's really easy to try and get fancy with stuff and easy to lose sight of what it was that I was trying to achieve in the first place which was to bring back the ultimate old school design of the back pack and modernize it to be the ultimate modern day minimalist single tank backplate.

When are there going to be more?
I don't know yet.
I'm getting close to completion on the yacht, but if you know anything about plywood boats wrapped in fiberglass you know they rot. I have to get this guy done so he can be off running charters in Mexico. It's a hell of a nice boat though.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I like my prototype without the rail, and I'd vote "not necessary".

 

[Diver0001]

Well.... for the freedom plate you obviously have to go with the Tampax wing

Sorry... it had to be said.

R..

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Well.... for the freedom plate you obviously have to go with the Tampax wing

Sorry... it had to be said.

R..

Are you DIR?

 

[Diver0001]

Well... it is pretty minimal and apparently you become sexy, carefree and in a good mood when wearing it.