Between two wings

I know, the subject sounds like a cheesy line in a song...

So I have decided to go with the hammerhead BP's and harness kits. I think I will just get both seeing I can't choose between AL and SS. Plus, AL is lighter to travel with and the majority of traveling I do will be to warmer waters.

Anyways, I was reading forums, reviews etc and the Mach V wing seems VERY popular so I think I will go with that... scubatoys has two of them:

Mach V Extreme - $315, 40 lb lift (30 lb is listed, but no option to buy)
and
Mcch V Signature - $285 30 lb lift

Any suggestions here? I guess I like the extra durable surface of the extreme, and it is only $30 more. Perhaps there is another wing I should consider all together?

Also is there a wing that is excellent for singles and will do doubles in a pinch? I don't see myself doing doubles any time soon, but would like that option.

Thanks,
Sam

I don't have any experience with those wings, so I'll leave that for others, but...

swinchen:

Also is there a wing that is excellent for singles and will do doubles in a pinch? I don't see myself doing doubles any time soon, but would like that option.

Click to expand...

The short answer is "No."

The slightly longer answer is "Any wing that is excellent for singles will be incompatible with doubles. Any wing that is compatible with doubles will necessarily not be excellent for singles. (The best you can likely do in one wing is marginal for doubles and poor for singles.)"

(The other answer is that a second wing for your doubles is just another expense when you go to them. You'll need tanks, bands, a manifold, and so on. Needing a wing is just another part of moving to doubles. You can keep the same backplate and harness, but even that might not be worth the difference, once you consider everything.)

Single wing will not be safe for doubles.

Check out Deep Sea Supply for a really high quality wing.

I would go with HammerHead too just because of the special way they model the SS BP. Why buy both unless they give you some special deal. Start with SS and add Al later if needed.
I have the Oxycheq Mach V Extreme 40lb. The 30lb is actually 32lb. You can talk to owner about differences in width or length, but it has very low profile and is very streamline. Join ST forum for 10% discount and post 10 times tonight for $10 off gift certificate. Shipping is currently free. $315-10% -$10 = $273.50 plus free shipping. Be careful it may end April 1 or they may run out, since it seems they have no more #30 left. Search ST forum for Mach V for more reviews. PM ST or call about the 30lb may still be available. Ask your questions on ST forum there are many Oxycheq users.

For warm waters and with 3mm suits and single tanks, I use an 18 lb Oxycheq wing. For cold waters and single tanks and with a drysuit, I use a 40 lb Oxycheq wing. These wings are shaped like an oval and fit around your tank nicely.

For doubles, the wings are normally U-shaped. My doubles wing is 50 lbs Oxycheq.

It should be clear that water temps and single-doubles configurations will determine your wing size. One size does not fit all.

See, I don't really know where I will be diving with most. I know I live near extremely cold water.... but I plan on doing a fair amount of traveling to go diving. So it makes the initial gear selection rather confusing

The diverite recwing tries to do both and as a result does both fairly poorly.

ok, ok, ok... I listened to the "get two wings" thing here on scubaboard and eventually ended up with a larry green 45 for doubles and a oms 32 for singles. I took both wings down to mexico for my vacation cause I was gonna dive singles on the reefs 1 week and doubles the next week for cave class. The doubles I used were aluminum 80's and the singles I used were all aluminum 80's with a aluminum 40 as a sling tank (reasons are my own). My 32lb oms wing worked perfect in both cases and happened to handle those doubled 80's very well however with lp 105's even the larry green wing was coming up short but it worked ok. On the dives with double aluminum 80's and 1 slung aluminum 80 I chose the larry green wing which seemed perfect until the end of the dive where I needed a bit of extra weight and no air in the wing. My advice would be go with a donut 30-35lb wing for now and dive aluminum 80's weather singled or doubled and if you get into diving heavier steel tanks or use more than 2 tanks you will also be able to afford and justify a heavier capacity wing.

I really like my oms wing btw its very durable.

The Mach V is way to narrow for doubles regardless of the lift you buy. The 40lb is much more narrow than the 30lb wings from other makers I have used such as Golem, Deep Sea Supply etc. The DSS Torus is fairly narrow though as well. I would go with the 40lb over the 30lb in this particular wing. Its about 1" bigger in all directions. My 40lb is so small....It is great for any sized single I have used being Alum or SS. I use it for single tank warm water diving as well as single tank cold water with a 40cf deco bottle slung, can light, argon etc etc.... Awsome wing that is very versatile. I plan on buying a second one for the wife very soon. I also paired it up to a Hammerhead plate. Also dont forget to ask for a scubaboard discount at scubatoys. Should bring that 40 down to about $285 or so.

The only thing with the extreme wings is at the sale price it doesn’t have the roll control tabs, so you will need a sta. If you don’t plan on using a sta get the signature with the roll control tabs.