Cost Info for Back Plate & Wing Kits

[divesergeant]

I paid around 470 US for my DSS setup and learned to dive it on a vacation to Grand Cayman. Did I swear at it a time or two? Yes, I did. But I PM'd Tobin and he got right back to me with very good suggestions about fitting and adjusting it. Call him and get your rig ordered asap and enjoy the heck out of it on your vacation.

 

[dkktsunami]

Google golemgear, dive rite, and deep sea supply.

 

[Bonairetrip]

Five tips:
a) Be certain when you compare costs that each kit is complete. What this means is: backplate, wing, hog harness (resin impregnated webbing, buckle, d-rings, tri-glides), inflator hose, two cam straps/bands, crotch strap and ideally some little blocks that help keep the tank snug (elastomer blocks). You may need a STA although one is not needed with DSS or some Oxycheq wings.
b) Get it as far in advance as possible. Spend some time adjusting the webbing and getting things just so in your living room. Taking it off and on. No tank or regs -- just the plate and harness. Note: when in the water, the shoulder straps will be looser than you thought and the crotch strap will seem tighter than you thought.
c) Head to a pool if you can. More tweaking at this stage. It will soon be dialed in and it will fit better than any BC has ever fit.
d) Get the right size wing. Too big means too much drag. Do not get a wing that someone says is better because it work on either singles or doubles or that has tons of lift.
e) I like DSS a great deal (own wing, plate and harness) and the Oxycheq wings are nice as well (own a wing). Many other brands are solid.

Why are many suggesting DSS?
a) Lots of size options on the plate as well coming in heavy (stainless) or light (Kydex). Lots of wing options as well.
b) Very solid and well thought out products.
c) Great customer service. This includes working hard to understand what product (including wing size) they think will work best for you. They don't try and sell you extras (in fact the opposite).
d) Their complete rig is really well made, complete and a solid value at around $460 (depending on choices) plus shipping. (That includes a stainless plate, wing, two cam straps and wedge blocks and the harness. The harness kit is 12 ft of webbing, DIR style knife and sheath, buckle, some cave line, 5 d rings, crotch strap, 5 tri glides, and some inner tube pieces). Add a marine bolt snap (and attach it to your gauges with the cave line) and you have a pretty fine kit.

I have also used Cave Adventurers (for the Oxy wing) and they were solid as well. In the end, I rate my DSS BP/W as one of my two best gear purchases ever (the other being a DUI classic weight belt harness).

 

[Jim Lapenta]

HOG singles wings also do not need an STA. I have two DSS setups now and the quality is great. I'd like to get HOG just to have one. I also have the Zeagle Express Tech and have to agree that for a travel bc it is damn tough to beat. Add 20 bucks worth of Drings and 2 weight pockets for the cam bands and you essentially have the same weighting as BPW but you add weights when you get where you are going. I use 2lb or 3lb in mine depending on exposure suit. And you can set it up very nicely for under 300 bucks total.

 

[rstofer]

One hint from a previous post: call Tobin at Deep Sea Supply and get a rig on order. But, while you are at it, get all of the information you will need to get it adjusted properly. One of the great advantages to buying from Tobin is all of the customer service.

There are web sites that have pictorials about adjusting the BP/W.

BAUE Equipment Images
Gear Review: Deep Sea Supply BP/W [Archive] - ScubaBoard
BAUE How To Size a Backplate

Richard

 

[super7]

Since no one's mentioning it, DSS now has this glide harness adaptor. This is said to allow on the fly adjustment, similar to the cinch system Halcyon has.

Kaza

 

[cmburch]

Check out SCUBAToys. BackPlate and Wing Package reviews and discounts, Dive Rite They have a customizable package deal.

I have done a lot of business with them over the past few years with excellent service.

They also give a 10% discount for forum members and $10/$50 discounts for posting on their forum. Scuba diving forum and scuba diving discussion board

I use a Dive Rite TransPlate. It is easily adjustable. Mine is set-up for cold water diving though.

 

[wilderydude83]

Yo,

I did about a months worth of research on BP/Wing deals and I found a few that were pretty damn good. As you've seen so far, most everyone will rep DSS. I almost bought that package because of all the hype about great customer service and quality. I also heard about golem gear. They, too, have a great package for 360 bucks, a little cheaper than dss. I went with the diverite package from caveadventurers.com and it costed 400 even and that came with a crotch strap and i added 2 ss cam straps. Any of those deals are awesome compared to the other options (halcyon, oms, hollis...) btw, i absolutely love my gear. no problems with the company i bought from and they threw in the crotch strap. also, pretty much all the companies have quality gear so you cant go wrong. hope that helps.

R

 

[rstofer]

Since no one's mentioning it, DSS now has this glide harness adaptor. This is said to allow on the fly adjustment, similar to the cinch system Halcyon has.

Kaza

Interesting!

I guess the idea is to allow, say, the left strap to slide up when trying to doff the rig. I think I'm going to try one.

Right now I have the ProFit harness on the rig but that is easily changed.

Richard

 

[iztok]

I have two sets of HOG technical package I got from Diver Supply. When I got them the package was $199 (now $249 so not bad). I added 2" crotch strap to both and cam bands for single tank wing. So I have doubles wing, singles wing and AL and SS BP.