Breaking in a new BC

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Tyler2142

Registered
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Location
Panama City Beach, Florida
# of dives
25 - 49
I just bought a new Scubapro Seahawk with the air2 and i was told to make sure i properly "break it in." They said that a BC thats never been wet before the tank strap will loosen up some when i get in the water for the first time which could cause the tank to slide down some? Is this true?


If so, what method(s) would yall suggest to break it in properly? Thanks.
 
just get the cam band wet before tightening it for the first time, & that ought to take care of it.
Rick
 
Soak the bands in water before you dive.
 
It's no substitute for the soaking, but a no slip rubber pad insert may also help.

bccam.jpg
 
Like everyone else said - wet the strap before cinching in your tank.

I can't tell from the website if the BC has one or two tank straps. Hopefully it is two.

That is a rear-inflate model. I much prefer to have a lift wing at my back only as opposed to the jacket style which partially surrounds you.
 
Slick, hard, flat, luggage shoulder strap "pads" provide no real benefit on a scuba tank camstrap.

Tobin
I have no idea if the one on the image is hard plastic or soft "grabby" rubber. I just googled the image to illustrate what these may look like. Obviously grabby rubber will work better. I have personally verified that they do work in real life situations after my really old and broken-in camband sans rubber insert was a little bit higher on the tank after a dive. I do not have that problem when I use the rubber insert.
 
I have no idea if the one on the image is hard plastic or soft "grabby" rubber. I just googled the image to illustrate what these may look like. Obviously grabby rubber will work better. I have personally verified that they do work in real life situations after my really old and broken-in camband sans rubber insert was a little bit higher on the tank after a dive. I do not have that problem when I use the rubber insert.

The problem is they aren't really rubber, but PVC, and there is nothing to compress. Thin flat "pads" with a lot of surface area just don't do much.

Believe whatever you please, but I've studied this problem pretty thoroughly, and objectively. There are effective solutions, but shoulder pads borrowed from the luggage trade isn't one of them.

Tobin
 
Mine is stretchy, grabby rubber and it works. It was not poached out of luggage. It came with a BCD.
 
Mine is stretchy, grabby rubber and it works. It was not poached out of luggage. It came with a BCD.

You may not have "poached it" but it was originally made for luggage. BC makers have been poaching them for a long time.

All that aside the reason why these don't work very well is their shape. Way too many square inches of thin pad.

Imagine a trucker needs to secure a 4' x 10' piece of 1" steel plate to a flat bed trailer using nylon cargo straps.

If they just lay the plate on the trailer and pass the cargo straps over the plate they won't be able to generate very much down force on the plate.

What's the solution? They will place a 6" x 6" block on the middle of the plate. Their straps now have to go *over* the block and this can generate a lot of down force on the plate, in a fairly small area. Think vector analysis.

Wide flat, thin pads would be the equivalent of placing a sheet of 1/4" plywood over the steel plate. That does almost nothing to alter the "vectors" and whatever small down force is generated in the plywood is spread out over such a large area as to have almost no effect.

Next time you are driving down the freeway look around at how loads are actually rigged.

Tobin
 

Back
Top Bottom