Who's your Favorite BP/W Manufacturer

[cool_hardware52]

Jarrett:

Just buy one and end your pain. There's not enough difference in them to make a hill-of-beans.

There are a lot of good Back Plates and Wings sold today, very few "bad" choices.

Most are similar, and as a category almost any BP&W will offer advantages over a typical jacket BC.

That does not mean that all back plates or wings are the same.

Backplates differ in:

Material; Stainless, Aluminum, ABS, Kydex Hybrid

Weight; From ~.6 lbs negative to 20+ for some designs.

Size; Some are offered in various sizes

Shape; Square lower corners vs rounded corners, "dogbone" travel plates etc.

Over all bend of the backplate; varies from steep to almost flat

Finish; From "As cut" to fully beburred

Center channel depth; shallow, deep etc.

Additional lower corner bends; some with, some without

Harness slot position; angled vs not angled, position of the slots vs the outline of the plate etc.

Camband Slots; some plates have camband slots for "STA-Less" tank mounting, some do not. The location and spacing of these slots varies. Some plates offer additional slots for mounting independent Twins.

Location size and number of perimeter holes; Varies from a few to many

Available accessories; plate pads, bolt on weights, smb pockets, etc.

Additonal features; overmolded harness slot protection etc.


Wings differ in:

Materials; shell materials, bladder materials, etc.

Construction; single bladder, double bladder, zippered, no zipper, bungees, no bungees etc.

Shape; narrow center panel, wide center panel, short and wide, long and narrow etc.

Lift capacity; ranges from small singles of ~17-18 lbs to ~45 lbs and doubles from ~35 to 94

Position of filll hose and OPV; varies

Fittings; simple elbow or pull dump, varies inflator assemblies

Misc; Position, size etc. of logo's Availability of "debaged" and custom colors.


Other than that all Backplates and Wings are the same


Tobin

 

[djanni]

If your senses are blunt enough.

top bias
center bias
bottom bias
single tank
double tank
side mount
horse shoe
torus
not much difference..........?

Not the beans I was thinking of nor the analogy but they are different so you're both right.

 

[Jarrett]

Thanks for all the info so far, keep it coming if there are more. I'm slightly surprised by the way the poll is going. I thought Dive Rite would have more fans in the poll, but assumed that DSS or Halcyon would win out.

 

[CIBDiving]

Thanks for all the info so far, keep it coming if there are more. I'm slightly surprised by the way the poll is going. I thought Dive Rite would have more fans in the poll, but assumed that DSS or Halcyon would win out.

I'm curious Why you assumed DSS or Halcyon would win out??

 

[kidspot]

I've dove both Halcyon and DiveRite - much prefer the Halcyon ... next rig will be DSS though due to the design of their plate and Taurus wing and Tobin's presence here on the board.

I've seen Oxycheq plates and wings - they appear quite nice also - never seen an OMS rig in person, so can't comment...

 

[Jarrett]

I'm curious Why you assumed DSS or Halcyon would win out??

Because of the amount of people that talk about each of those companies on this board.

 

[bcsean]

oxycheq wings
fred-t plates.

 

[UFScubaDiver]

Oxycheq.
1) Its local and I can visit the facility
2) Patricks customer service and attention to detail in his products is outstanding
3) Mach V Extreme wow

-Tom

 

[David Watson]

DSS no question about it.

How many leather makers do you know that listen to heavy metal and can still go down over 200 feet?

 

[divad]

DSS no question about it.

How many leather makers do you know that listen to heavy metal and can still go down over 200 feet?

What's a "leather maker?"