Cylinder Trim - Help?

[Sidemount_Stu]

I'm looking for some help from anyone that has some experience in Sidemounting....

I dive with an Xdeep Stealth system, and 2 x 12L Euro cylinders (Steel). (Cold Water, Drysuit Diving)

I'm trying to get my cylinders trimmed so they sit just up behind my armpits and along the mid-line of my body.

I'm close... but no cigar currently, the valves are in, not behind, my armpits and the cylinders are along my body, but the bottom of them, is running an inch or two below my body. (by bottom, I mean the entire length of the cylinder, the lowest point as I am in flat trim)

I'm clipping the bolt snaps onto the square D rings, which are as close to the spine as they can go, and i've reduced the tail on the boltsnaps to zero, so the base Ring of the boltsnap is almost touching the jubilee clip.

I clearly have no further adjustment in those two points to raise the base of the cylinder, so am wondering what else I can adjust to help me?

My current thoughts are:

1) Jubilee band up or down (i'm not sure which) - This to help raise the bottom of the cylinder
2) Move my Loop Bungee a little lower - Hopefully this will pull the valves behind my armpit and raise the front a little?

Do I sound like i'm thinking along the right lines, or can someone offer any alternatives etc?

Thanks

 

[seedy]

What about a buttplate...?

 

[rongoodman]

What about a buttplate...?

This. You can get one here.

 

[Sidemount_Stu]

What about a buttplate...?

So are The butt plate rails closer to the line of the spine than the Square D rings then?

I thought (probably incorrectly) that the purpose of the butt plate was for the addition of rails which some people find easier to locate than a D ring....

 

[Razorista]

This sounds like the cylinders are still hanging on the bungee and boltsnap at the moment.

I do not use the square d-rings myself anymore (other things clipped there on the Razor) but the normal low-profile ones just behind the hip and can use 12liters just fine.

In my opinion the best tank position can be achieved when all attachments on the tank try to pull in opposite directions forward and backwards on it and everything is under tension, always trying to do the impossible of compressing the cylinder to a shorter length.

You can try moving down the boltsnap on the tank a bit.
I assume you are already using bungee and valves with extensions to rotate the tanks outward and have the lower boltsnap attachment in line below the first-sage and valve outlet.

If you move down the boltsnap, the tank is pressed forward. To get it backwards from your armpits you now have to shorten the bungee(s) just a little, centimeters only (or move down the attachment on your back, but the effect will be different and not as satisfactory).
That way the tank should ride up on the boltsnap with the boltsnap lying parallel to it, bringing almost any cylinder in line with your body and making buttplate and square D-rings obsolete.

That way nothing is hanging on the attachments but riding up on it.
This also enables you to turn on your side and back without the tanks moving to much with gravity or dangling to freely.

With the buttplate you would go the other way by moving the attachment point towards your feet and as far up on the back of your body as possible - pulling the tank up and backwards. This can have the same effect when in horizontal position, but does not work as well when not (with loop bungees at least) and can also be more problematic with long tanks on short people (btw. in this case the tank is not compressed but pulled apart on each end, same effect, but less stable when looking at the whole system from outside).

 

[MSargeant]

Give Mr Dallas a shout and go spend a day/couple of days with him, he'll sort you out.

 

[Sidemount_Stu]

Give Mr Dallas a shout and go spend a day/couple of days with him, he'll sort you out.

I'd love to... truly i would.... but it's £150 for a coaching day, that I just don't have spare at the moment.... I DEFINITELY want to, and will do at some point... but just can't make it right now!

 

[victorzamora]

You must be using huge bolt snaps if they're practically touching the jubilee clips and the tanks are still hanging low. To the point where I believe you might be mistaking what's going on I'm surely not saying you're wrong....I'm just saying what's actually going on and what one thinks is going on do differ. Could you post some video or pictures of your tank configuration? What you look like in the water would be much more helpful than postulating.

 

[Sidemount_Stu]

This sounds like the cylinders are still hanging on the bungee and boltsnap at the moment.

Yes, it feels like this is the case at the moment still

In my opinion the best tank position can be achieved when all attachments on the tank try to pull in opposite directions forward and backwards on it and everything is under tension, always trying to do the impossible of compressing the cylinder to a shorter length.

So i'm clear, you mean that the Bungee pulls back from the Armpit and the boltsnap pulls the cylinder back toward the bungee? (that is to say, both ends are pulling toward the centre of the cylinder?)

You can try moving down the boltsnap on the tank a bit.
I assume you are already using bungee and valves with extensions to rotate the tanks outward and have the lower boltsnap attachment in line below the first-sage and valve outlet.

Yes, I use the loop bungee system, my cylinders have the manifold extensions, but my Bolt snaps are attached inline with the the manifold extension, not inline with the valve outlet?

That way the tank should ride up on the boltsnap with the boltsnap lying parallel to it, bringing almost any cylinder in line with your body and making buttplate and square D-rings obsolete.

This is definitely what i'm trying to achieve!

This also enables you to turn on your side and back without the tanks moving to much with gravity or dangling to freely.

Ahhhhh that makes a lot of sense, when i roll over at the moment, there is LOTS of movement in my cylinders!



Thank you, some very useful stuff in there for me to try out!!!

---------- Post added July 29th, 2014 at 03:24 PM ----------

You must be using huge bolt snaps if they're practically touching the jubilee clips and the tanks are still hanging low. To the point where I believe you might be mistaking what's going on I'm surely not saying you're wrong....I'm just saying what's actually going on and what one thinks is going on do differ. Could you post some video or pictures of your tank configuration? What you look like in the water would be much more helpful than postulating.

This is also possible.... the only video I have is not so clear around the bolt snaps..... but it's all i have at the moment.... the first minute gives the best part of the picture.

[video=youtube;4xQSOYgIlhE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xQSOYgIlhE[/video]

 

[beanojones]

In my opinion the best tank position can be achieved when all attachments on the tank try to pull in opposite directions forward and backwards on it and everything is under tension, always trying to do the impossible of compressing the cylinder to a shorter length.

Pushing shorted, rather than pulling the cylinder to be longer?

When you get it tensioned for two does it mess things up when it is four, tension wise?