Ranger LTD discomfort

[ghanu]

After 15 dives in a Knighthawk, I sold it and purchased a Ranger LTD. The first thing I noticed about the Ranger is that there is no backplate like the Knighthawk has. I thought nothing of it until my first dive with the Ranger today and felt that the cylinder rode on the middle of my spine. I actually have a backache from diving today for the first time. I never had any back discomfort with the Knighthawk. I am thinking of adding some kind of backplate to lift the cylinder off of my spine. Does this make any sense? Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

[Scared Silly]

I never had any problems BITD with a Ranger - it fit like a glove in and out of the water. Of course I am me and you are you so that fact does not help much. I would not add a back plate but instead work on the fit - have you worked with the dealer you bought it from? May some thing is not quite adjusted right. That is one of the beauties of Zeagle as they are very adjustable.

If you do not get some help - ping ScottZeagle who is the rep for the company on the board. Also there is a Zeagle forum which he does regularly read and respond to.

[princessaprilia]

A bunch of the guys I dive with have the padded back support installed on their Rangers - they like it alot... and an easy fix. I haven't yet, but I'm thinking of changing to the Ranger-W, for the girly fit.

[DiveMaven]

The Ranger LTD should come standard with the lumbar support pad. Honestly, IMO if you're feeling the tank there's something not right with the fit. Are you wearing it low on your body? Zeagle BCs are meant to be worn far lower on the body than other BCs with the weights being on your hips, not waist. I'd seriously check the fit if I were you, then if that doesn't help, it's quite possible the Ranger isn't the right BC for you.

[ghanu]

That might be it, I don't think I had the weight riding on my hips and come to think of it the cylinder was a little high and touching the back of my head when I looked up. I will do some fine tuning. I was wondering if anyone has put some kind of a plate - alum or plastic in their Ranger and what the results were. Although it seems like it would create a lot of bulk as compared to a bp/w.

[diversteve]

Zeagle sells a backplate as an option for the Ranger. You can get a sense of what it looks like in this video:

http://www.zeaglehelp.com/Videos/Doubles-464.wmv

The backplate install starts at 3:53.

[ScottZeagle]

You shouldn't NEED to add a backplate to the LTD.

Where on your spine is the BC hitting? Try wearing the BC lower on your body, and see if that helps...otherwise, try to post some pictures so i can get an idea of how you're wearing it.

Thanks,

Scott

[ghanu]

The tank was putting pressure on my spine about half way down my back. Two things that I thought of after re-reading the instruction manual were that I wasn't wearing the weights on my hips (not low enough) and I didn't have the cumber-bun tight enough. I will try that on my next dive and see how that feels. I guess I didn't realize how critical the basic adjustments are for proper operation.