Awesome!! Looks are deceiving.. and that’s why I wanted to ask..
Seems like a backplate and web harness is the way to go.. I have no idea how much weight i will need, but how do you guys suggest rigging weight up?
Well, if you have a steel backplate, that is about 6 lbs negative. If you are comparing it to a jacket BC, many of them are a pound or two positive from the padding, so there is that difference if you were using your BP/W with a single tank.
If you are diving steel doubles and a steel backplate, you may not need any weight at all. I never did, even in a dry suit with thick undergarments.
If you are diving with double aluminum 80s, you might need to do a weight check and add ballast. I have only done that once, in a 5 mm wetsuit, and I needed 6 lbs.
As far as where to put weight if you need it, you need to decide if you must have ditchable weight or if you are OK with trim weight. If you don't need ditchable weight, many people use V-weights - either cast lead or a
pouch to which you can add weight. These fit between the doubles and are held in place by the bolts. That's what I used when I was using the double AL80s. I was OK with non-ditchable weight, since I had a relatively thin exposure suit, and didn't need much extra ballast. I figured I could swim up the 6 lbs if necessary. This topic is a common debate here, and there are lots of threads about it.
You will find that most tech divers don't use ditchable weight for a few reasons. First of all, with doubles you generally don't need huge amounts of additional ballast, and you are generally carrying one if not two SMBs. So even if you don't have a dry suit and you have a total wing failure, you could swim your rig up without ditching weight. And if you had to, you could use an SMB for backup buoyancy.
Also, tech divers are wary of anything that could accidentally make them suddenly buoyant, like dropping a weight. If you have a deco obligation, a sudden increases of buoyancy could be life threatening (this may have happened recently on the Andrea Doria).
Can you tell us more about what kind of tanks and exposure suit you will be using?