Transpac and sidemounts

[TTPaws]

Kathleen,

What about the transplate? Will the Nomad butt plate attach to the bottom of the plate? the bungee wraps on the wing seem to keep it from folding up, but not sure if it is enough.

thanks

[saxplayer1004]

you shouldn't be diving sidemount with hard backplates. It's a bad idea. The nomad butt plate will bolt to the bottom of some plates *not sure about all of them* but that is for sidemounting stage/deco/bailout bottles, not for sidemounting backgas. The nomad wing will NOT work underneath a standard backplate and the wing itself needs to be captured under the shoulder straps to prevent it from wrapping up. That being entirely irrelevant, you shouldn't be sidemounting with a hard plate in the first place. Any true sidemount diving will result in the plate becoming a ratchet which will get you killed, and in non squeeze situations, you're creating more problems than you're helping with additional drag and restricted motion of the bottles and what not. Everyone has used soft plates for sidemount for a reason. Read around here and you'll find tons of people that want to do it, but it just doesn't make sense. Especially with the killer sales on the full nomads right now. It's what an extra $50 to get the transpac on top of the wing and buttplate cost?

[TTPaws]

saxplayer:

I'm not sure why other then in a purist sense why retrofitting my transplate is a bad idea.

Everyone that is pushing a NEW SM system and only a SM system would go without the plates. however I wanted to know if the buttplate would work as a retrofit, because I have a fully operational transplate set up now. I am not planning on moving to SM exclusively, but only when I would have used doubles, which is a minority of the diving I do.

Again I am not looking at putting a Nomad UNDER a plate, but just use the buttplate instead of my waist D-Rings to hook bottles to. The wing is already bungeed to prevent wrapping.

not sure what you mean by "becoming a ratchet"? Lots of things will get me killed, however the rest of the sentence only makes some sense if you comparing a nomad with a plate on top of it (?) but I am not going to be using the nomad. As far as cost go, why would i want to spend in excess of $500 for a new set up when the one I have works well and for $109 I can (maybe) add the buttplate. Even the OP already owned a transpac is just looking at retrofitting it.

[CWSWine]

There is a commercially available sidemount system that use a backplate just check out UTD site. The wing covers the entire plate and goes on top of the plate not underneath the plate. WE played around with one in the pool but I didn't like how stiff it was, I prefer the flexibility of the razor style harness or the soft backplate.

[skankpile]

Why not use what you have...

-get the nomad wing, you will appreciate the shape and it works well with the transpac as it is the base of nomad anyways
-butt plate, if you like.. I use one and like it
-**ring bungees**

IMO.. don't do the continuous bungee thing that seems so popular now. The ring bungees work great (really great) and keep everything tucked up in the pits without worrying about them falling out, sliding & side-side swinging.. they regs are always in the same spot etc. The continuous may work great in the videos with 80s, but try steel, boat diving, jumping off a dock with a continuous bungee.... give me the DR ring bungees. You can also use the ring-bungees (dare I say) with a plate which I do on my Meg... awesome piece of kit.

[saxplayer1004]

what wing are you using that won't wrap up? I don't care what wing it is, but without some stability from the waist strap and the shoulder, no backmount wing is going to really work without giving you angel wings. I understand not wanting to buy a transpac to do it. Yes you can just put a nomad buttplate on a hard plate, but you still shouldn't be sidemounting with it.
What UTD system uses a backplate? Their whole Z-line uses a soft plate design. They have the SS mini plates in there, but with the webbing back it's still a soft design

[CWSWine]

Here you go and it is gaining popularity......

UTD Video Blog: Z-Side-Mounting with your Backplate - Unified Team Diving

They have been using backplates with the Z-Systems since the 20 lbs wing was first released, it's nothing new they just started. Works with all three of their sidemouniting wings (20lbs, 37lbs and 50 lbs wings)

[Dive Rite]

Kathleen,

What about the transplate? Will the Nomad butt plate attach to the bottom of the plate? the bungee wraps on the wing seem to keep it from folding up, but not sure if it is enough.

thanks

Absolutely. If you're wanting to try out some sidemounting in open water conditions and simply see if you like it, the Nomad buttplate and bungees are ideal. We use the set up on our rebreathers for slinging bailout in sidemount configuration, for example. If you decide you like sidemounting, for streamlining and safety purposes you'll probably want to go with a true sidemount rig, especially if you decide to dive in locations that are only sidemount accessible.

However, for carrying tanks sidemount style in open water or slinging deco or stage bottles in sidemount a buttplate and metal plate work terrific.

CHeers,
Kathleen

[saxplayer1004]

that's not what he was referring to. He's taking about using a backmount full plate for that, not the mini plates. The wing wrap up is still going to be problematic for you though unless you get creative with a sewing machine. The price difference between the full nomad system from cave adventurers and the "nomad kit" without the transpac is essentially negligibly though and you can resell the nomad pretty easily