BC Hose Routing - For DW Mistral Diving

[rstofer]

I want to dive with my DW Mistral but I still want an octo (for my buddy) and power inflation for my wing. Wimp that I am...

To that end, I bought both a 13 cf and 19 cf cylinder (seems Luxfer won't be making them anymore so I bought them both). At the present time all of my dives are quite shallow (diving with my grandson) so even the 13 will hold enough gas to inflate the wing.

I thought I would sling the cylinder between the upper left and lower left D rings. I have a pretty good idea how to do this and I understand how to mount the octo. What I am unclear about is how to route the hose to the LP inflator. And, of course, I need to get a hose long enough for the proposed routing.

Does the hose go under my left arm and then up and over my shoulder so that it parallels the inflator hose? Or do I just have an inverted U shape with the hose on the front of my body?

Thanks!
Richard

 

[Nemrod]

You will be the first so let us know how it works. Most people (all) diving single stage units do not use a BC and if they do they orally inflate and remove the power inflator. With a two stage you can use a fitting, 90 degree or three way splitter, from the hookah port with an adapter and run your LP over your left shoulder as normal and your octo under your right arm as normal.

N

 

[rstofer]

Yup! I have no problem with using the hookah port on my RAM or even just diving my PRAM (I've done that and it works well). But I want to dive my Mistral. I have no idea why I want to do that, but I do.

Oral inflation is certainly a possibility and, in fact, I have one of the horse collar BCs. But not having an octo for my buddy seems wrong. I could resolve this if she (my wife) had any interest in buddy breathing from a DH reg but I'm pretty sure that is a stretch. She doesn't even want to give up her Delta 4 for a RAM in our pool! And my RAM is perfect!

More to follow, I'm sure...

Richard

 

[DA Aquamaster]

My approach when diving my Mistral in situaitons where a need existed for a power inflator was to use a 70's vintage Sherwood Selpac manifold. This has a center outlet as well as an outlet on the right post. In some cases it may make more sense to reverse the cross bar and have the second outlet on the left post facing backwards.

With a single tank, I never bothered with a power inflator and slung a pony if needed to keep the buddy happy. Back in the pre-octo day, the rule was to just not dive deeper than twice the depth you could freedive to - ensuring you coud make an emergency swimming ascent if you went OOA. If you could freedive to 65 ft, you had the 130 ft recreational limit more or less covered as long as you stayed out of deco.

I'd argue that if you are diving a single tank and are properly weighted, a power inflator is not really needed and any minor bouyancy adjustment you feel you need to make can be done orally. An octo can easily be provided by a slung pony. Alternatively a small tank like a 6, 13 or 14 can also be slung below a horse collar BC by clipping it to 2 D-rings on the waist strap.

For the once or twice a weekend requests I used to encounter at my former boat slip to retrieve glasses, keys etc, dropped off the dock by other boat owners, I used a horse collar BC with a 14 cu ft Catalina clipped to the bottom as the entire scuba unit. It was really light weight, easy to carry and quick to get into service - just put it on along with mask and fins and jump off the dock for the 2-10 minutes it took to cover the search area and retrieve the object.

I wish I would have patented it, as it is basically what Zeagle did with their "Rapid Diver" system, just with a slightly larger tank.

 

[Luis H]

I know of others that have used a pony with a Mistral for the same purpose, but as far as I know they all mounted the pony to the tank with the valve facing up next to the main tank. The routing would be fairly obvious with that configuration.

I have mounted a pony with the valve pointing down as a redundant air source and I would highly recommend the Zeagle mounting straps if you decide to mount the pony. In the rare case that I take a pony, I tend to sling it now, but I still think the Zeagle mounting straps is a great and simple solution. It is easily detached and fits any rig.

Zeagle Pony Bottle Attachment reviews and discounts, Zeagle

 

[Luis H]

My approach when diving my Mistral in situaitons where a need existed for a power inflator was to use a 70's vintage Sherwood Selpac manifold. This has a center outlet as well as an outlet on the right post. In some cases it may make more sense to reverse the cross bar and have the second outlet on the left post facing backwards.

Yep... that is what I would do know a days.

 

[rstofer]

I have such a manifold and I had it mounted to 2 Al 50s. It was a pretty slick setup with the vintage harness. However, I'm getting on in years and the excessive weight (more that even an HP 100) was more than I wanted to deal with.

Then too, I should probably empty out some of the air from the 50s to keep the pressure down around 2500 psi. Or, I can increase my ballast (versus my HP100 & single hose regs) and use my steel 72 '+'

I think that diving in cold water with a wetsuit puts more demands on the BC. Oral inflation at the surface is one thing but at depth it is not something I have ever considered. No doubt it is workable, I just haven't tried it. I would certainly sink quite a ways before I got everything balanced.

I might consider slinging the tank from the right side as this will allow the hose to run behind my back and up and over my left shoulder.

I am not currently thinking about mounting the small tank to my main tank. That seems like a lot of effort.

I just need to order some long inflator hoses and try the various alternatives in the pool.

Richard

 

[rstofer]

I am not currently thinking about mounting the small tank to my main tank. That seems like a lot of effort.

OTOH, that Zeagle mounting strap approach seems pretty slick! I ordered one.

Richard

 

[Nemrod]

I understand the need for an octo but the power inflator? One of the advantages of a slung pony is being able to hand it off quickly.

Mixing vintage equipment and modern equipment and concepts sometimes leads to complicated solutions to non problems. Here is an idea, give your wife the slug pony or dare I say it--a Spare Air.

N

 

[WD8CDH]

Back in the day........I used a "D" oxygen (a little longer than an AL13) or "E" oxygen (as long as an AL80) as a pony attached to the main tank with hose clamps and U clips of stainless steel. At the time, I used a USD horse collar BC with a power inflator on the lower front of the BC so the LP hose ran under my arm. I ran the spare second stage over my shoulder and stowed it in a pocket on the BC. Even with my two stage double hose regulators, I don't, and never did, run anything off of the Hooka port when I had a backup regulator. Conshelf or Poseidon single hose is my preferred backup regulator, Vintage or non-vintage.:cool2:

I never really liked slinging a bottle that was attached to a power inflator.

I second the Sherwood manifold with the side port reversed with doubles.