Good design idea gone wrong

OK - I picked up a new wing for my new BP & Wing combo... now, before anyone has a fit or anything, I'll grant you that if I were to do it over again, or ever upgrade, yeah, it will probably be Halcyon. ANYWAY...

So I pick up a Deep Outdoors wing from a guy off E-Bay. It's a 40 pounder - just a touch too big, but certainly not a balloon on my back. I hear good things about Deep Outdoors, and besides, you can't beat the price - I bought the thing for $90. Brand spanking new.

So I strap er all in and discover a cute little feature which I feel may translate into a small design flaw. Not a big deal, but they feature (and advertise) a nylon cordura cover for the inflator hose (see rather blurry pic I've attached.)

Well - here's my point - I have to screw in the LP hose to the Regulator, so would it not make sense to have the LP hose attached to the reg? I mean, after all, isn't that what the QD on the inflator is for? The way it is now, I either have to screw in the LP hose every time, or I have to peel back the nylon, thread the hose through the nylon every time, re-attach the bungee that holds everything together and then connect the hose to the inflator.

I think the nylon sleeve may be sitting in a closet before too long.

of those guys who put the chrome accents on their hoses under the hood. They look great, but are a real PIB when you have to work on the car.

I would lose it too.

I vote for losing it. I'd probably put a bungee or two along the length of the inflator to keep the hose next to it, though.

I attached (sewed) an 8 inch velcro strip to my left shoulder strap just below the collar bone to put a little control on the LP and inflator hose.

But maybe it's starting to warm on me.

I've been poking around with it, and the sleeve is loose enough that it's really not a pain to thread it through each time. And it sure keeps everything together... the only thing is that my bungie would go over the whole sleeve, instead of just over the corrugated hose...

Then again, has anyone ever had a problem with damage to their hoses? Is this correcting a problem that doesn't exist? Or is the only real purpose to keep everything in one place?

Is the rear pull dump really on the outside of the wing? (as in facing the tanks and not facing the diver)..

Nope. It's too blurry to see, but that's it on the bottom left of the rig. It faces me, not the tanks.

(edited to say - bottom right in the picture, bottom left of the diver.)

Boogie711 once bubbled...
Nope. It's too blurry to see, but that's it on the bottom left of the rig. It faces me, not the tanks.

(edited to say - bottom right in the picture, bottom left of the diver.)

Click to expand...

I remember having a discussion many moons ago and we thought the dump was on the tank side.

Thanks for squaring me away..

I just got the DO Matrix last week. I dove with it this past weekend. I wasn't sure of the inflator hose sleeve either, but I believe it's more for management than protection and it does keep every together. The other thing I had to get used to was the two waistbands. I don't know why they need two of them?
As far as the rig itself goes, I like it so far...