Nomad JT aluminum backplate added for weighting

To all Nomad JT divers looking to add weight to the the Nomad JT I have another option. The design is based on adding an aluminum backplate to the interior of the harness. The plate is added to the JT without wrecking it or drilling any holes in it. The plate is solid and cannot be felt while wearing. Anyway give it a look and feel free to comment. This is not expected to be interesting for cavers. I am Great Lakes wreck diver and weight is a requirement for me.

Stano

stano:

To all Nomad JT divers looking to add weight to the the Nomad JT I have another option. The design is based on adding an aluminum backplate to the interior of the harness. The plate is added to the JT without wrecking it or drilling any holes in it. The plate is solid and cannot be felt while wearing. Anyway give it a look and feel free to comment. This is not expected to be interesting for cavers. I am Great Lakes wreck diver and weight is a requirement for me.

Stano

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out of curiosity, why Al instead of steel? Seems like steel would be a better choice for adding weight since it's much more negative and stronger and you could use a smaller amount for the same effect?

I went aluminum for now for a couple reasons.

First is this is a prototype and the machining is easy. This was the main reason.

Second is when I dive in cold water wet or even dry I need about 26 lbs of lead. If I put 16 on my back I can keep 10 as ditchable on the belt. I will possibly go to a stainless plate in the future. The biggest issue is stainless is very difficult to machine. The weight added is probably only 2-3 pounds in any case. Plus if I warm water dive the travel weight is reduced.

why would you even buy a nomad jt if you were just going to add a backplate to it?

Why not? The JT is not the same as the other offerings. The addition of the plate gives me everything the JT offers but now I can add weight. That is basically like saying why would Dive Rite even bother to make a JT when they already have the XT?

well if you were going to just add a backplate you could have made a poor mans sidemount out of a backplate and buttplate and wing for cheaper. adding a ridgid backplate to any sidemount setup takes away one of the big benefits to me, the ability to bend your spine and be in a more comfortable position.

I did convert my Halcyon Eclipse into a sm rig first as that was what I had. I dove it three times. It worked alright. The problem was it was not really setup right for side mount. I had no butt plate, the wing taco issue, the inflator was top mounted, and the bungees were not easily positioned.

I solved the wing taco issue with a very cheap solution, the others were not as easy. I gave up and bought the JT. I have heard quite a few people have been looking to add weight to the JT, so I am not alone. If you look for a place to add any significant amount of weight you will quickly find out that it is not easy to do. And now here we are...

stano, why did you choose the JT over the XT? i'm not trying to start a flame war, just curious.

as a fellow cold-water diver, i chose the XT largely because of the ability to add the optional weight plate.

Spatman no problem, fair question.

I chose the JT over the XT for a number of reasons. The JT has a 360 wing, three dumps, smooth back, it is fully committed to sm in that it is not a cross over combination bc. I found the XT (a very nice bc as well) to be more of a transitional bc from Dive Rite. Kind of a all things to all people kind of bc. The parts bolt on, the ability to add a back plate to use for bm diving. The XT seemed more to me like the half way point between sm and bm. I also don't like the weights and straps being on the back of the bc, this is a very nice feature of the JT. If you are going under something there is nothing worse that getting caught on the back of your bc, this is one major advancement for sm especially for cavers and wreck divers. I do not nor will i likely ever cave dive, but I do wreck dive. I was on the Eber Ward in the straights of Mackinaw this past weekend and it dove great. I wanted a bc that was built only for sm diving. I already have a Halcyon Eclispe which is a very nice and functional bp for bm diving, although I may never bm dive again.

The other thing I read a lot about was all the modifications that people make to their XT's. There are quite a few threads on this forum about modifying the XT. The JT is almost perfect out of the box. The only thing I added based on Caveadventurers advice was the Edd bungees and changed the D rings on the butt plate.

I believe that there will likely be a weighting option for the JT in the near future based on some emails with Lamar of Dive Rite. We will have to see.

So for me the JT was the right choice. To be perfectly honest the weighting I thought would be easier than it turned out to be. I have a really good system now that works very well. I may experiment with a soft weight plate of a similar design to my aluminum plate as I like the fact I retained the smooth back.

Stano

I was checking out a JT a few days ago..From what I can see, as a dedicated sidemount rig it has a lot going for it:

*Looks a lot more streamlined.
*Not having to sacrifice the lower dump for the inflator switch is handy.
*It's supposed to be more abrasion resistant.
*Bungee mounts are definitely better.
*Most likely no air-trapping issues.
*Don't have to re-tighten the sexbolts every now and then.

But I use my Nomad to backmount as well, so it's not really an option for me. Even if it were, Razor 2 would be more up my alley since I don't need that much lift.