Twelve Pound Single Tank Adaptor!?

Reg Braithwaite · Nov 22, 2008

I purchased a used single-tank setup recently. It came with a SS BP and HOG harness, two three pound weights threaded onto the waist band, STA, tank bands, and even a small knife. The owner had an extra setup just for singles, and he is now strictly a doubles guy, so he sold everything except his wing as-is, just as he had it set up and waiting for the day he would dive a single.

The whole rig was tremendously heavy, so I broke it down and weighed things separately. The SS BP, harness, and knife came in at seven pounds, pretty much as I'd expect. There was six pounds on the waist belt that I removed. But the Single Tank Adaptor! It's a steel block that somebody seems to have filled with lead. It comes to twelve and a half pounds with tank bands.

This is now too much weight for me, so I'm getting another STA. But I wondered... Any reason why a single tank would be set up to weigh 24 pounds (6 for the SS BP, 6 on the harness, and 12 for the STA)?

texdiveguy · Nov 22, 2008

Thick wet suit or a dry suit and diving an al. tank.

Reg Braithwaite · Nov 22, 2008

texdiveguy:
Thick wet suit and assc. or a dry suit--alm. tank.

I wondered about that, but I dive dry and used to wear either 12 or 16 pounds. Maybe wet... I guess if you wear a seven mil and a hooded vest on top of that you have a lot of neoprene to overcome, then you're really heavy at depth (as has been discussed to death on other threads).

I'm in the pool until the season starts again up here, so I guess I will leave the STA at home and try it when I'm wearing my thickest undergarments in the Spring. It just seemed like a huge amount of weight, twice as much a the keel weights and STA weights I've seen advertised... I wondered if maybe he set his single up to dive just like his double steelies or something...

texdiveguy · Nov 22, 2008

I don't think it is an excessive amount of wt. for either a full 7mil suit/hood/gloves or a dry suit with undergarment and a single al. cylinder. I persl. would not require quit that much (or lets say when I used to dive that type set-up), but everyone varies to their indv. needs in terms of wt. and gear configuration. I can't comment on the DIY STA.

Reg Braithwaite · Nov 22, 2008

texdiveguy:
I don't think it is an excessive amount of wt. for either a full 7mil suit/hood/gloves or a dry suit with undergarment and a single al. cylinder. I persl. would not require quit that much (or lets say when I used to dive that type set-up), but everyone varies to their indv. needs in terms of wt. and gear configuration. I can't comment on the DIY STA.

Ok, I guess I just dive a little lighter than some.

I don't dive AL80s in Ontario, so I guess that's some of the difference. But with my old (soft) BP+wing, I wore 12-16 pounds when diving a steel 95 with dry suit, two layers of underwear, and a 4th Element Arctic top. I figured that as a fairly new diver that I was probably over-weighting and that I should work on getting rid of some of the weight, not adding to it...

In the pool and wearing a 3 mil, I can't keep this rig from sinking at 10' with an empty AL80, which suggests it is heavy. I may take my dry suit to the pool one night to see how it compares.

Thanks for the perspective.

(edited)

texdiveguy · Nov 22, 2008

Keep up your aggressive learning and research curve....it will take you along way as you are finding out. Try....vary....try.....tune.....dive! Have fun and enjoy!!

rstofer · Nov 22, 2008

If none of it was ditchable, that would be odd. The total weight isn't strange for a 7mm wetsuit and some kind of tank. In fact, it could be light for a diver using the wetsuit with an aluminum 80.

Then too, it could be too heavy if the rig was to use a steel tank with an 30# wing.

But, you're right, we have beat that topic to death.

Richard

Reg Braithwaite · Nov 22, 2008

rstofer:
If none of it was ditchable, that would be odd.

No, none of it ditchable. The six pounds on the waist straps were threaded on, and kept in place behind D rings, so removing them would involve an impressive piece of underwater harness re-configuration. This may have made sense with a wet suit, but I can't imagine any diver in Ontario with the $$$ to own both a doubles and single setup (which implies either H valve complexities or a second set of regs for the single) diving wet.

And I didn't want to bring any three letter acronyms into this, but let's just say that the harness was set up very consistently with a certain minimalist philosophy that recommends the use of an exposure suit with any rig that isn't balanced.

So I'm thinking that either the original owner was very buoyant in his dry suit or that he just wanted it to dive he same as his doubles. No big deal, I was just curious about whether it was reasonable for someone to need that much weight...

texdiveguy · Nov 22, 2008

rstofer:
If none of it was ditchable, that would be odd. The total weight isn't strange for a 7mm wetsuit and some kind of tank. In fact, it could be light for a diver using the wetsuit with an aluminum 80.

Richard

It does not seem odd to many of us that dive kits with no ditchable wt., none of my typical configurations have ditchable wt., though I do own a wt. belt and have used added wt. at times for on the fly gear changes in the field.

String · Nov 22, 2008

Divers here generally carry between 12 and 14kg (26-30lbs) and if i could get all of that integrated i'd be happy. Ditchable weight is something i try to avoid.

Twelve Pound Single Tank Adaptor!?

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