First pool dive with hp steel 100's horizontal trim issues

Well dove my brand new steel 100's today in a pool to work on buoyancy and trim. They were a lot different than the aluminums I am used to diving. Had a really hard time getting my head down. In the end I had only a 3 pound weight by my neck and still really never got completely horizontal. We tried moving the tanks as far forward as possible but couldn't seem to get it quite right. With the aluminums I was using a 3 pounder on each tank. I was really thinking the steels were going to be perfect for trim as they are shorter and heavier, pushing the weight forward. Any ideas. I am going back to the pool next week to try reconfiguring it again. I am also diving the Hollis Batwing fins so they are likely heavier than my old fins.

Stano

The sidemount rig you are using, the length of the bungees (if you are using any), the positioning of the cam straps on the tanks and the length of the cord you are using on the tie off clips to the waist or butt plate all play into the correct positioning to get you horizontal.

Diving the nomad jt, cam bands at bottom of tank, upper clips at front of shoulder. Bungees per Edd's (cave adventurers) setup. All the pieces are there for a good setup...

What brand cylinders are you using? Where do you have the cam straps or hose clamps positioned? Are you using any trim weight?

Dive-aholic:

What brand cylinders are you using? Where do you have the cam straps or hose clamps positioned? Are you using any trim weight?

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I was hoping you might be able to help me with this one, it is appreciated.

The cylinders are Worthington X7 100's. Thermo valves. They are nice and short which I really hoped would work to allow me to push the weight forward.

I have the 2" cam strap at the top of the boot (which are still on, so far). I have a short lanyard with a butterfly clip to attach to my offset D ring on the butt plate. No trim weights on the tanks or my person except for a 3 pound i was trying in the neck of my shirt to get it as close to the front as possible. I have a really nice weight pouch we made for the JT that allows up to 20lbs directly on my shoulders should I need it. Currently it is empty however.

I was in the pool with only a 3mm farmer john as that is typically what I wear in the ocean with a rash shirt. This setup work I am doing now is preparation for a trip end of march to the dominican rep.

I found that if I add enough weight to get me horizontal I end up overweighted with too much air in my bc. I did not seem to have too much trouble with the aluminums I used before and you were the one that had me add the trim weights to the tanks which solved that issue. This problem seems trickier as I am pretty heavy before I add any trim weight.

Its almost like the butt plate is too low for me. I am pretty short at 5'-9", and about 220 lbs. A lot of my "buoyancy" is in my upper body. lol.

I have another pool session scheduled for Sunday and am hoping I can implement any suggestions.

Stano

I haven't seen this with the Worthington 100s but it could be a new thing. I had a student a couple years ago that had bought new ASAHI 100s. They looked like Worthingtons and weighed about the same. Except most of the weight was at the bottom of the cylinder. This isn't the case for all ASAHI cylinders, just the newer ones, as far as I can tell. My guess is that your trim issues are specific to the cylinders you bought and there's not much you're going to be able to do with them other than add a bunch of trim weight near your shoulders. I ended up adding 12 pounds of trim weight to my student and he was still slightly feet down. I put him in a different set of cylinders and all but 4 pounds of the trim weight was taken off. He uses his ASAHIs for single tank diving on the rare occasion he does that and has been looking for someone to buy them. They make great backmount cylinders since you want the weight on the bottom to counteract the tendency of backmounted doubles to make you head heavy, but they are horrible sidemount cylinders. Sorry I can't give you better news. Hopefully I'm wrong on this and the issue has to do with the way you're rigging things up, but without photos I can't comment on that. Sounds like the cam strap is where it needs to be and you already have 3 pounds at your neck for trim. We did end up taking the boots off my student's ASAHIs so we could get the cam straps all the way down to the lowest point possible, but he still required 12 pounds trim weight and wasn't in perfect trim.

Try a lighter fin, I had the same problem with X7-100 and found that the Hollis F1 were just to negative. I ended up switching to the Mares Quattro and 2lbs of trim weight.

While the Hollis fins are heavy fins stano says he didn't have an issue with AL cylinders so the fins shouldn't be too much of an issue with steel cylinders.

Dive-aholic:

While the Hollis fins are heavy fins stano says he didn't have an issue with AL cylinders so the fins shouldn't be too much of an issue with steel cylinders.

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Just takes a second to verify it that is the problem. Either try to the his old fins or while in the shallow end just check trim without any fins. You will at least eliminate the fins as being part of the problem.

Fins are new too... I should have mentioned that. I will try my old fins Sunday and post back.