Lifting Doubles

[BluewaterSail]

The topic of the challenge of lifting heavy equipment came up on another thread. I thought that I would break this particular question out on its own.

What tricks have you found useful to deal with lifting and moving doubles around, when you don't have a buddy conveniently placed to assist?

From the floor to a table
From the ground into a car
From the car back to the ground
up stairs
down stairs
etc

[elan]

no tricks just following common recommendations for weight lifting, back straight, stable legs position, lifting with the legs.
That applies to lifting from the floor to the table table and to the car.
I use a cart to haul them around if the surface allows it, otherwise I put the back plate on them and carry on the back, and again - the back is always straight

[Rainer]

Pretty much what elan said.

They're much easier to carry long distances on your back, so if possible, put a plate on them and walk them around. Having a truck has made loading and unloading a lot easier than when we just had the car.

[aquaregia]

I'm a fat dude. Doubles are a pretty small percentage of my body weight.

Bend at the knees, straight back, jdi.

[DevonDiver]

Umm... sidemount

[AfterDark]

This is one of the reasons I use doubles without connecting manifolds. Until I mount them on the B/P they are single tanks.

[Kevrumbo]

Option 1:
Grab valves (not isolator crossbar!), one for each hand --perform partial/modified Hang Clean lift and load into truck. (Best lift technique if the liftover distance from the ground to the bed of your truck is not more than 20 inches.)

Option 2:
Tilt doubles, grab neck of one tank with right hand and hold bottom end of other tank with left hand --perform partial/modified Front Squat lift technique and load into truck.

With either option, recommend first starting off in the weightroom of a gym/health club for a couple of months. . .

[KD8NPB]

Lift by valves onto a chair
Sit on chair
Don harness
Walk to destination

I carry them on the passenger seat of my car and do the same thing in it. If I'm gear up at the water, I'll try to find a pier or something I can put them on, so all I have to do is put my back to the pier.

[ajduplessis]

Elan nailed it.

[kathydee]

Agreed, using a backplate saves lots of strain!

Also, just buy one of these tables from Home Depot: Garage Workbench from Husky | The Home Depot - Model 17185155

store the tanks flat on it in your garage, take it to the dive site for set up. Between the table and BP you should never have to lift again except on/off the back when getting fills .