Test Driving a TPII

Well the opportunity finally came and I test drove a TPII at my LDS. alls I can say (right now) is Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I was disappointed in some areas while pleased in others.

either someone configured up the rig WRONG or I was doing something wrong. (probably was me, but I'll never admitt it)

I fiddled and fiddled with the air release. sometimes it dumped whilst others it did not... I quickly discovered that if I were NOT in an upright position, I had a hard time releasing air watching it gurgle up to the surface from the inflator hose. And sometimes even when I was in that upright position, it would not dump. I actually thought the bladder was defective or pinched under the tank thus creating a air bubble.

Adjusting for neutral bouyance was a bit tricky. either I was sinking like a rock or I was shooting up like a rocket (I wore no wetsuit). I wore two wieght pockets ( 12.5 pounds each) instead of a belt and had a steel tank on. I'll have to admitt I loved the freedom it gave me. Arms not binding up and arm pits not being CUT OFF. Certainly felt like a hang-glider once I got it adjusted right.

then the infamious "face-down in the water when surfacing" came into play... I quickly learned also, that it was no biggie... either remove air from WING and/or flip over and float on my back and kick...

one thing I found was... since I had 12.5 pounds in each quick ditch side pocket(s) .... I felt like an jumbo jet coming in for a landing with its landing gear down.. I had two big lead filled pockets pulling me down... when reaching the pool bottom these pockets literally touched while the rest of me hoovered as I slowly made my way to the JET HANGER near the pool drain.

Hmmmmmm is there any way to further disperse this weight or am I stuck with the all the wieght in the pockets?

over all score of TPII test drive... 7 outta 10

any comments on how to make this a perfect 10?

I have no opinion on a transpak having never dived one.
So this is just and observation,

You were wearing 25lbs with no exposure suit in a pool?

That would put you WAY overweight, which would explain your bouyancy control issues, especially in the confines of a pool.

If you were wearing 25lbs of weights plus a steel tank in a pool you were way overweighted. You need to get weighted properly so better buoyancy will come into play.

Bump, you were way overweighted

You can move some weight up to the top tank band. Just thread a pair of 2 pound or 3 pound weights up there. A more elegant solution would be trim pockets. Also, Diverite makes trim weights that attach to the back of the harness. I did mention that sometimes getting the last little bit of air out of a wing can be tricky. Remember there are 3 ways to get air out of a Diverite wing: inflator valve, shoulder pull dump and back dump. When you want to vent air the valve should be at the hightest point on the wing.

The total weighting sounds a bit high for the pool, even for a big guy. Try some of the standard bouyancy checks, like floating at eye level in the water with 500 psi in the tank, breathing normally, no swimming and BC empty. Or take a bouyancy specialty course. It would be money and time well spent.

Getting weighting, bouyancy and trim just right is not a trivial exercise. It took me a long time.

i have just bought a TPII as well, and spent my last trip trying to get the weight placement sorted. I am not sure whether you will be diving with heavy exposure suit or not and tank type, that does seem to make a lot of difference. I dive in a 0.5mm or no suit and carry aroung 3-4kg (6-8lb).

So far i have I experimented with 2 kg on the top tank band and 2 or 4 kg (and none on the top band), on the main belt as close to the wing as possible. I use single Al tanks so the additonal weight at the back seems to make a big difference, plus the fact i have a heavy camera housing which pulls me forward at the surface. Early days still.

As you have been told before way too much weight with no suit you must have looked like a yoyo

I have a travel wing and a rec wing. I find it quite easy to dump air out of the back dump on the travel wing, but almost impossible to dump from the back dump on the rec wing. The rec wing's back dump faces my body, instead of facing up. I really don't understand this design. It makes no sense to me.

I concur with everyone else. You need to take a look at the weight you are wearing. I'm a slightly chubby female and In a pool with no weight and a steel tank I'm a slight bit over-weighted. If you're a really big guy I could see you wearing some weight in a pool but 25 lbs PLUS a steel tank seems a bit excessive to me.

I tried using the dive rite weight pockets for a while but I've since gone go a weight belt, with trim weights on my back. It's comfy, streamlined and easy to ditch, plus I don't have to worry about the wieghts knocking into my sling bottle.

DADDY BIG-GULP once bubbled...
I fiddled and fiddled with the air release. sometimes it dumped whilst others it did not... I quickly discovered that if I were NOT in an upright position, I had a hard time releasing air watching it gurgle up to the surface from the inflator hose. And sometimes even when I was in that upright position, it would not dump. I actually thought the bladder was defective or pinched under the tank thus creating a air bubble.

Click to expand...

You didnt mention which wing you were wearing. I can tell from experience that Dive Rite changed some of their wing designs and I like some less than others.

The older style Rec Wings had a smaller cross section behind your head. The new Rec Wings have a larger section. To me, the newer style seems more prone to getting pinched and keeping air from transferring side to side.

You may try putting all the gear together on a tank, then inflating it to see if any of the hoses, etc. interfere there.

I also found that the classic wings seem to distrubute and dump air better because they are more horseshoe shaped (smoother bends) and the inflator dump is more centered rather than off to one side. The classic wings seem to have a very similar shape/design to my Halcyon's

OTOH, a lot of people say that the larger wings cause a lot of problems with air trapping, wrapping around the tank, etc. I've personally dove both my older style Rec Wings and my Halcyon with everything ranging from single steel 72' up to double 125's and never had this problem. YMMV

Final note on the TPII harness. It has an almost infinite amount of adjustment. When I dove one, it took me forever to get everything just where I liked it.

One of the things that made the biggest difference to me was moving the metal slides on the waist strap that the shoulder harness attached to as far around my back (close to my kidneys) as I could. If you leave them too far forward or straight down your side it always felt like the harness was too loose.

The only comment I have about the weight, is that if you truly need that much weight in a pool, I would suggest putting about half of that in the weight pockets and distritubting the other half some how else, like weight belt, etc. The Dive Rite weight pockets can be a pain to deal with when they hold that much weight.

Hope this helps.