What if---?

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Nemrod

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Recently seeing several divers in side mount rigs and reading all the threads, I think I will pass on side mount myself but------. One of the things that turns people off potentially, including me is all the rigging and all the bits and pieces. Instead of all the rigging, which needs to be removed each time you swap tanks and then reinstalled and adjusted, what if there was a metal rod or plate, something like a STA, which held two standard cam straps. The plate or in this case the SMA (side mount adapter) would have the needed hardware and rigging (semi)permanently attached. So now, instead of swapping individual pieces to a fresh tank, you simply release the cam bands, as on a standard scuba rig, and install the fresh tank(s) and away you go. You would not even need to break the SMA from the harness and BC. Again, the SMA would be similar to a STA but longer such that it could present the clips and loops at the correct positions for clipping into the side mount harness.

N
 
My honest opinion is it's a solution looking for a problem.

In reality, SM divers know what height their cam band or Jubilee clip needs to be, so a new setup takes a few seconds, a minute or two at most.
 
My honest opinion is it's a solution looking for a problem.

In reality, SM divers know what height their cam band or Jubilee clip needs to be, so a new setup takes a few seconds, a minute or two at most.

Agree, it's not rocket surgery. I have a note on my iPhone to to remind me of the distance from the camband to the base of the tank, easy to consult when I need it.
 
On my own tanks they all have their own set ups on them. Four tanks right now - Lp75.5's and Lp 85's. Each with their own hardware. In anticipation of traveling and not being able to get steel tanks I'll be setting up a set of al80's and making note of where things need to be. That will be my travel hardware/bands for when I can get 80's. If other tanks are available and I know this before hand I'll set up some tanks here at home for that size. Lucky enough to have or have access to lots of tanks from 72's - 120's. AL and steel. Then all you need is a small fabric tailors tape when traveling. An adapter as described I could also see presenting packing problems. Right now I have three rigs that could go in a carry on. One that rolls up more or less and would fit in a back pack. A rigid adapter would negate that advantage.
 
The other problem with a SM sta as such is that as pointed out, for any given diver, coherent tanks require a different setup. Therefore unless you know you are getting the exact same tasks you did the original setup for, the SM sta would be wrong anyway.
 
SCUBA Diving Equipment for Technical, Sidemount, Rebreather, Wreck and Cave Diving: Dive Rite, Inc - Product Catalog - Travel Stage Straps

That's what these are for. Set the strap height to where you want it, and it works for all the tanks. With a STA type, you'd still need to put the hose retainers on manually.

Leaving the tanks on the rig would be horrible since the original purpose of sidemount included a lot of tank removal, and the STA would increase the profile of the tanks and the catch points significantly.
 
That makes the tanks rigid, which makes the whole assembly VERY dangerous.....especially in a cave/wreck. It also helps in no possible ways that I can think of.
 
SCUBA Diving Equipment for Technical, Sidemount, Rebreather, Wreck and Cave Diving: Dive Rite, Inc - Product Catalog - Travel Stage Straps

That's what these are for. Set the strap height to where you want it, and it works for all the tanks. With a STA type, you'd still need to put the hose retainers on manually.

Thanks for that link! I plan to keep my steel tanks setup with their hardware all the time, but when I travel and use AL80s these would be great!


Also.... +1 for "it's not a big deal to setup" and if you have your own tanks, you either leave the hardware attached, or mark your tanks so it can be added to just the right spot easily.
 
Even for those that don't like the stage rigging, if you're changing tanks regularly, it is quite nice to be able to just throw a piece of 1/4" or 3/8" line on there, make a DIR style stage rigging for it, and swap the worm gear for a 1.5" or 2" cam band. Since the line is doubled going down, you can slip your hose retainers inside of the line so you can set them and not lose them, and if you don't want the top clip you don't have to put it in, but it makes the whole setup much easier for swapping tanks back and forth.
 
One of the things that turns people off potentially, including me is all the rigging and all the bits and pieces.

@Nemrod, the trials of configuring a sidemount rig really aren't as complicated and involved as we all make it sound when writing about it here on SB. What you've heard -- if you've followed for any length of time -- is a ton of quibbling about tiny details.

The point is, sidemount rigs are extremely customizable, but you don't have to go down that rabbit hole too far until you're ready to. As long as your initial trim is decent, you feel in control and are enjoying yourself, it's "good enough" until you decide you want to fine tune some more.

For a travel rig, I use normal cam bands instead of the "hose clamp" style bands on my stage rigging. The distance from the tank neck to the band is already set for AL80s by the length of my stage rigging, so I rarely need to mess with it too much when traveling if I'm using AL80s. A setup like this moves from tank to tank on boats pretty easily if the boat doesn't have a compressor to refill spent tanks.
 
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