P-Weight Too Heavy? Single Tank Setup

[PompeyDan]

Hi guys,

My actual question is regarding whether a 5kg P-Weight will be too heavy, but some background first:

• I'm a cold water diver (read: I wear a 5mm Neoprene Drysuit)
• Currently dive on Seac Pro 2000 BCD (old version - very heavy. Not tested it's inherent buoyancy, but I suspect it's close to 0). With this BCD I dive with 12kg of lead in the sea.
• Reading around this board (mostly) convinced me to go find a BP/W setup
• 30lb wing seemed to be recommendation in many places. In the end, I managed to get a 40lb (18kg) single wing (Apeks WTX D40 PSD) in a sale cheaply, so that's what I've got to play with

So, excluding the P-Weight for a moment here's my equipment list, with what I estimate to be approximate weight.

• One Piece Harness
• 12 litre steel tank (4kg full in water)
• 3mm S/S backplate (2.5kg)
• Single Tank Adapter (0.5kg)
• 2x Stainless Steel Cam Bands (1kg?)
• Regs (2kg? I haven't weighed these...)
• CathX Euphos Torch (0.7kg)
• Kent Tooling (popular in UK) Stainless Steel Reel (1.5kg)

If I add a small conservative factor to this, then I'm looking at approximately 12.5kg on rig already.

Anyway, I accidentally ordered a 5kg P-Weight as opposed to 3kg. With the wing I'm using (40lb/18kg), do you think using the 5kg p-weight sounds like a bad idea?

Actually, if it's not, it's quite nice in the sense of being able to take more weight off a belt

Thanks for any help!

 

[Bob DBF]

Unless you are changing the gear you carry and the tank you carry, you need only to find the buoyancy difference between the old BC and the new BP/W to find the difference in the ballast you need to carry. When I switched, I had almost +5 on the BC and -5 on the BP/W so I dropped 10# of lead and then fine tuned in the water. The less buoyancy you have in the jacket, the less a BP/W will help you shed lead.


Bob

 

[PompeyDan]

Unless you are changing the gear you carry and the tank you carry, you need only to find the buoyancy difference between the old BC and the new BP/W to find the difference in the ballast you need to carry. When I switched, I had almost +5 on the BC and -5 on the BP/W so I dropped 10# of lead and then fine tuned in the water. The less buoyancy you have in the jacket, the less a BP/W will help you shed lead.


Bob

Thanks Bob. I get this - makes perfect sense. By taking weight off the belt, I literally meant taking off the belt and moving elsewhere (e.g. P-weight), as opposed to reducing total ballast.

My concern is whether I'm pushing it a bit fine with the 5kg attached to the backplate. I mean with regards to not loading the rig so much so that it becomes impossible to make positively buoyant (I do a fair bit of RHIB diving).

 

[Bob DBF]

I dive wet so my theory of non-ditchable weight is going to be different than yours, since I don't have easily available source of backup buoyancy.


Bob

 

[PompeyDan]

I dive wet so my theory of non-ditchable weight is going to be different than yours, since I don't have easily available source of backup buoyancy.


Bob

Okay, good point. Thanks again

 

[Ean86]

I have a very similar setup (haylcon bp, 40lb eclipse wing, oxycheq sta). I use both the 5kg and the 2.5kg p-weights depending on whether I'm using a dry suit or not. Dry suit I switch to the 5kg p-weight, though I have used the 5kg weight with the wetsuit as well without any issues. I really think you're probably fine with just the 5kg weight. The 2.5kg offers another scenario you could try out. Changing up your single tank from an AL80 to an FX100 can also mean that you'll drop more weight. Bottom line - do a weight check or dive with the setup and see how it goes for you. That will help a lot for you to figure out what kind of weighting makes sense.