Dragon weight pouch failures

[harlyn]

I am very unhappy w/ the weight pouch system on my mares dragon. I am a dry suit diver so I started out w/ the max weight of 13#/pouch allowed and would regularly have a pouch release. Thankfully I always had a buddy to recover the pouch. Then i noticed that 1 pouch would fail w/ very little effort. I then replaced both pouches last fall and reduced the weight on the advice of my LDS to 10 pounds/pouch. I had a failure in January and i did not recover the pouch. I bought another pouch! This weekend again i had a failure. These last 2 pouches have less than 40 dives on them! This is getting costly as I have to keep buying replacement pouches, weight, not too mention I have lost dives on expensive dive trips. I am not alone. This weekend I saw a dragon and the diver had modified it by sewing on a weight belt/buckle back up system. I need a solution?
Frustrated and not adding any water!
Harvey Schneider

 

[Jim Lapenta]

How much total weight are you using? I had similar issues with an integrated BC I was playing around with. I tell my DS students no more than 2-4 lbs in each integrated pocket as that is really all you need to get started positive if properly weighted. The rest is distributed between the tank, trim pockets if it has them, and weight belt or harness. I advise divers to never load the dump-able pockets to their rated capacity for the reasons you are finding out. Start redistributing your lead in whatever way you can. Adding buckles, clips, etc to the pockets is not the solution. Just a good way to make sure something nasty can happen when you do need to use them.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I agree with Jim. I have a Mares Dragonfly that had weight pockets, I never put any more than 4 or 5 lb. in each one. They were the old velcro ones and never lost one. Most weight pocket losses are either from over weighting or user error.

 

[harlyn]

I am a dry suit diver so please don't be shocked by the weight I carry. I have 2 x 10# in the pouches. 2 x 5# in the trim pockets and 2 x 2# for ankle weights. A total of 34#. I also use a steel 100.
Dragon pouches have 2 sizes: 1 that is rated for 5# and the ones that I use are rated for 13# It looks like the 13# rating is highly exaggerated, which means I am back to using a weight belt. Still a bit choked. If it says 13# Why am I restricted to 4-5 #s as you and other recommends? I am new to posting. I do appreciate your thought, but I thought I was going to have a Mares rep respond.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I don't know what suit you have but I think you may be way over weighted. I have a 4mm neoprene drysuit and use a 108 steel tank and I only wear 20 lb.'s. Have you done a weighting check fully geared up with an empty tank?

 

[harlyn]

7 mm. My weight is ok. Judging by your location, you are also a freshwater diver. That makes a difference. My problem is being happy with putting 5# in a 13# pouch. My old BCD could handle the weight, too bad it is no longer made. I am going to a weight belt. If I lose a pouch with 5#'s in it, It will be in the local Buy/Sell paper

 

[OrnithO]

I am a bit concerned too. I wanted to buy a dragon but the problem with Mares MRS plus system worries me. I don't want to spend money on BC like the dragon and then have to take a weight belt...
Is this isolated to a few divers, or the cause of improper use (to much weight, pouches not clipped correctly, or the velcro inside the pouch not in place allowing the weight to move inside the pouch and release it., ..) Or almost everyone with a Mares weight integrated BCD had this problem?

 

[rafal1676]

Hi I have dragon at mrs+ and i have 20lb in my pockets, never had any problems.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

We had problems with ours when loaded to max capacity. Some of it may have been user error, regardless when you are talking about serious weight it behooves one to use a system that is foolproof (in the figurative and literal meanings).

So we now use the MRS for 5-6lbs max. If we are diving s/w with 7MM, that means a weight belt or harness :-(

 

[emoreira]

Though this is a Mares BCD problem, I had a similar problem with my SEAELITE BCD (made by EDGE Gear for Divers-Supply).
I've solved the problem with two 6 pounds (~ 2,5 kgs) custom home made weights. The weights fit tight inside the pouches, so the pouch cannot move inside the BCD pocket.
The pouch has a hard plate inside. It´s not hard enough to avoid it bending and sliding when the diver is swimming face down.
Please, see my closure comment at the end of the thread.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bu...72-weight-integrated-bcd-pouches-falling.html