Best Deals on Singles BP/W

[Bryan@Vintage Double Hose]

If you are buying on price alone I'm going to get beat almost every time. If you want or need direct support from someone who dives the gear they sell, service after the sale or immediate response to questions or problems I'll be glad to help and make you the best deal I can. Loosing money just to make a sale or a zero margin is not something I'm interested in doing.

 

[rsingler]

If you are buying on price alone I'm going to get beat almost every time. If you want or need direct support from someone who dives the gear they sell, service after the sale or immediate response to questions or problems I'll be glad to help and make you the best deal I can.

I LOVE my 18# VDH wing! Its profile is so narrow, it's almost invisible. And misc. parts from DGX for a warm water system made it custom. Of course, I sprang for a Freedom Plate, so I'm already $100 over, if money is the driver. But you only live once.
AL80, and zero weight with a 3mm shorty, or 4# with a 5mm full. Can't beat it. A great wing.

 

[stuartv]

Wrong. What you are referring to is the DSS "Wedge Block", not the cam strap tension pad. Entirely different parts. DSS wedge blocks generally only work correctly with DSS plates. Geometry matters......

Spreading incorrect info benefits no one.

Tobin

My mistake. Thank you for correcting me.

 

[stuartv]

I LOVE my 18# VDH wing! Its profile is so narrow, it's almost invisible. And misc. parts from DGX for a warm water system made it custom. Of course, I sprang for a Freedom Plate, so I'm already $100 over, if money is the driver. But you only live once.
AL80, and zero weight with a 3mm shorty, or 4# with a 5mm full. Can't beat it. A great wing.

I also sprang for the Freedom plate and totally agree that it is the way to go for single tank diving, if you want a back plate and wing rig.

The HOG wing is not perfect, for sure. But, I dive single tank so infrequently that it would be a real stretch for me to spend money to replace it.

I do like the look of the VDH wings. But, I had posted some questions in another thread about them because of some concerns about whether or how well they would work when fit to a non-VDH plate. The owner (? I think) replied to my post and was pretty explicit that his wings were designed to work with his plate and he didn't know or care if they work with other plates. That kind of turned me off to that option.

The Mares XR wings look very similar in their streamlining to the VDH wings. If I replaced my HOG, I personally would look at the Mares or the Deep6. Or the DGX wing, for $199. I feel like a broken record saying this but it's worth remembering that Dive Gear Express has an unlimited return policy. That is, by far, the best in the industry, as far as I know.

But, since I will always take a steel 100 or 120 if available - and they generally are, in the places I have been - I would probably stick to something bigger than an 18# wing. Especially if it's only for occasional warm water use. If I dived warm water a lot, then I might be willing to spend to have an 18 AND a 23 - 25.

 

[Centrals]

The DGX package for $300 for a steel backplate, 25lb wing, and harness/hardware seems tough to beat.

Go for it as DGX has good returning policy.
BTW, I am using one of those but with Al plate and no issue whatsoever.
If you need to carry a lot of dead weight then SS plate is better than Al.

 

[ams511]

No, the link was to cam strap tension pads, which *DO NOT* fit in the center channel of the back plate. We stopped offering the wedge blocks for sale *BECAUSE* the DSS wedge blocks only work correctly with DSS back plates. With 3rd party plates with different depth center channels and different cam strap locations the wedge blocks typically have no effect.

Of course these details aren't very important to those wish to be internet experts.

Tobin

I am not exactly sure if you are wanting to insult me or Stuart. Me and you both agree that Stuart's link was to the cam strap pads which was the correct part for a non-DSS plate. So he linked to the correct part for the OP. He incorrectly described the wedge blocks (I thought they are called wobble stoppers, but I stand corrected) in the post. Which is what I said.

 

[tbone1004]

I do like the look of the VDH wings. But, I had posted some questions in another thread about them because of some concerns about whether or how well they would work when fit to a non-VDH plate. The owner (? I think) replied to my post and was pretty explicit that his wings were designed to work with his plate and he didn't know or care if they work with other plates. That kind of turned me off to that option.

have you asked that question to other manufacturers? They will all say about the same thing in various verbiage

 

[Bryan@Vintage Double Hose]

have you asked that question to other manufacturers? They will all say about the same thing in various verbiage

Thanks Tom but considering the source I didn't think it warranted a reply.

 

[stuartv]

have you asked that question to other manufacturers? They will all say about the same thing in various verbiage

No, I never asked any other manufacturers. The other wings I have looked at (in pictures) never looked to me like the slots for the tank straps were cut too short to accommodate a variety of different dimensions for the spacing of the slots on the back plate. Meaning, if the tank straps are 2" wide and the wing slots are 2" wide, then the wing would not allow for any adjustment up or down on the BP. You could only move it up or down if the back plate had bigger slots, and they would also have to line up perfectly with the wing slots.

The VDH ones did look that way in the pictures I looked at. Thus why I had posted the questions I did.

The wings I have owned have slots that are wider than the tank straps, so they would generally work with any BP, even if the BP only held the tank straps in one specific position..

The pictures on the VDH site now do look like the VDH wings have wider slots than what it looked like in the original pictures I saw.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I am not exactly sure if you are wanting to insult me or Stuart. Me and you both agree that Stuart's link was to the cam strap pads which was the correct part for a non-DSS plate. So he linked to the correct part for the OP. He incorrectly described the wedge blocks (I thought they are called wobble stoppers, but I stand corrected) in the post. Which is what I said.

At this point I doubt it's possible to insult you, or Stuart, but that's not my concern. Confusing diver's is. Stuart quite clearly referenced the wedge blocks (which do fit in the center channel of the plate) and then provided a link to a different part. As already noted that leads to confusion and to divers ordering one part only to discover it's not what they thought they were getting having followed the lead of an internet "expert" That doesn't help the diver, and creates useless motion for me.

I'd try again suggesting leaving DSS product details to actual experts, but I know from long observation that the compulsion to play internet expert is hard to suppress.

Tobin