Choices, Choices, Choices.

[REVAN]

I thought I had read through this forum pretty extensively and the only thing I think I have learned is that there are a metric ****ton of choices and none of them are really all that wrong.

That depends on one's perspective, I guess. Another is that there are a tone of choices and none of them are really all that good. That's why I've taken to building my own gear. Do the best you can with what we have, or can get our hands on.

 

[uncfnp]

For warm water diving steel vs aluminum...

Aluminum - lighter weight for travel but means will have to add weight in pouches or belt but also means more dumpable weight if that is important to you.

Steel - obviously more weight for airline travel but advantage is the weight is centered on your back and with less weight around your waist in pouches or belt. Disadvantage is less dumpable weight and depending on your total weight needs you may have less flexibility in trim adjustments.

Also, if you find you dive steel tanks very often you might actually find yourself overweighted with a steel back plate, especially if you later add a pony reg.

And I would recommend removing the sidemount concern from your choice of plate. If you do go sidemount in the future you will want a dedicated sidemount rig.

 

[Altamira]

I don't think 2-3lbs is that critical in luggage, but if you fly for the majority of your diving and are always pushing that limit, it may be

That is why I recommended Saniflush evaluate his own travel requirements rather than rely on what others may need. As an example, I just returned from a 30 day trip to the Middle East, requiring six different flights, carring two complete sets of dive gear plus usual travel stuff in three suitcases, each weighing right at 50 pounds. Another 5-6 pounds of weight would not have been a player for us, and this was not an unusual trip for us.

 

[Trailboss123]

Also, if you find you dive steel tanks very often you might actually find yourself overweighted with a steel back plate, especially if you later add a pony reg.

I found this to be true on my recent trip to Belize. I was using a 100 CF Steel tank, together with my exposure protection and BP/W setup for diving that week, I was diving with Zero additional lead. My backplate and STA are made from aerospace grade aluminum and magnesium alloy.

 

[Saniflush]

Thought I would report back on what I ended up doing.
After going back and forth for what seemed like forever I decided to spec out my stuff completely with Dive Rite. After putting everything together and gaining a better understanding of form and function of the parts of the rig I obviously could have saved some money marrying different pieces together but I'll save that for my next one.

SS backplate with a Voyager wing. I also added the single tank adapter and 1.5" crotch strap to the rig. I think of myself as a pretty hands on, mechanically inclined person but I must admit that once put everything out on the floor for assembly, there was an initial panic of "damn I hope putting this together doesn't whip my butt". Spent the better part of Friday night threading, attaching, unnattaching, unthreading, threading, and attaching webbing. I may hold the record for the most wrong initial placements of everything but it certainly forced me to get "better acquainted" with all of it.

Saturday began pool time with the new rig and I gotta say I was blown away immediately at how comfortable it was! Spent an hour just swimming around doing different things and the only time it seemed to get a little unwieldy was trying to stay horizontal while flipped over upside down. (hopefully this will not be a common position but it makes it easier for me to blow air rings).

With no thermal protection and in fresh water it seems to be spot on weight wise with 500 psi in the tank. Obviously will need to adjust some once in the ocean and any thermal protection added but wow what a difference!

Headed to Honduras in 11 days and can't wait to get a full week of diving in with it and tweak it some more!

Thank you all again for all the suggestions and help.

 

[JCope3]

@Saniflush Which harness did you go with? I'm stuck for which I like better. The Transplate looks nice and fancy and talks about good weight distribution, but in the water that's a non-issue, isn't it?. Also, are all of those D-rings absolutely necessary? Or just the standard 4 on the shoulders, 2 on the waist like with the deluxe? Honestly, I tend to be more of a minimalist (or as much as possible while still having everything I need in a streamlined way), so is there anything wrong with the Basic? I've seen a lot of stuff on here about how some people use (or would use) just a backplate and waistband with crotch strap.

Obviously personal preference will play a role and I still have a lot to learn about my personal preferences, just looking for different schools of thought right now.

For the record I'm fairly new to the game too, and when it comes time to buy my own, I would like to start with the bp/w setup rather than buy a jacket, then switch to bp/w and wish I had never bought the jacket. I'm trying to research as much as I can, and I know the best knowledge comes with experience, but I also want to start down the right path, at least.

Thanks for all the good info - especially @Saniflush , @stuartv and @tbone1004 I really like how you guys explain things and I see you on a LOT of different posts. It's really helpful.

 

[saxman242]

@Saniflush Which harness did you go with? I'm stuck for which I like better. The Transplate looks nice and fancy and talks about good weight distribution, but in the water that's a non-issue, isn't it?. Also, are all of those D-rings absolutely necessary? Or just the standard 4 on the shoulders, 2 on the waist like with the deluxe? Honestly, I tend to be more of a minimalist (or as much as possible while still having everything I need in a streamlined way), so is there anything wrong with the Basic? I've seen a lot of stuff on here about how some people use (or would use) just a backplate and waistband with crotch strap.

Obviously personal preference will play a role and I still have a lot to learn about my personal preferences, just looking for different schools of thought right now.

For the record I'm fairly new to the game too, and when it comes time to buy my own, I would like to start with the bp/w setup rather than buy a jacket, then switch to bp/w and wish I had never bought the jacket. I'm trying to research as much as I can, and I know the best knowledge comes with experience, but I also want to start down the right path, at least.

Thanks for all the good info - especially @Saniflush , @stuartv and @tbone1004 I really like how you guys explain things and I see you on a LOT of different posts. It's really helpful.

While I don't use the transplate, I have the Hollis elite II harness which shares the excessive amount of D-rings on the shoulders. I found that the placement of the two different d rings on the shoulders as it was set up by my LDS wasn't to my liking. One was too high and one was too low. I took it apart and removed one, repositioning the other into the "right" place. Now I've got a couple extra d-rings laying around, but that's no big deal. Point is, you can have as many d-rings as you'd like.

 

[tbone1004]

@JCope3 you don't need any more than the standard 5 d-rings. 2 shoulder, left hip, 2 crotch strap. The right hip d-ring is nice for some specific kinds of diving *mainly rebreather use for right mounted bailouts*, but even 2 on each shoulder is too many.

The weight distribution only matters at the surface. If you are doing a lot of hiking on land with your rig, it may be worthwhile, but for me it has to be over 100yards before I'll look at something other than a simple one-piece harness

 

[Saniflush]

@Saniflush Which harness did you go with? I'm stuck for which I like better. The Transplate looks nice and fancy and talks about good weight distribution, but in the water that's a non-issue, isn't it?. Also, are all of those D-rings absolutely necessary? Or just the standard 4 on the shoulders, 2 on the waist like with the deluxe? Honestly, I tend to be more of a minimalist (or as much as possible while still having everything I need in a streamlined way), so is there anything wrong with the Basic? I've seen a lot of stuff on here about how some people use (or would use) just a backplate and waistband with crotch strap.

Obviously personal preference will play a role and I still have a lot to learn about my personal preferences, just looking for different schools of thought right now.

For the record I'm fairly new to the game too, and when it comes time to buy my own, I would like to start with the bp/w setup rather than buy a jacket, then switch to bp/w and wish I had never bought the jacket. I'm trying to research as much as I can, and I know the best knowledge comes with experience, but I also want to start down the right path, at least.

Thanks for all the good info - especially @Saniflush , @stuartv and @tbone1004 I really like how you guys explain things and I see you on a LOT of different posts. It's really helpful.

@JCope3 i have the transplate harness which is what started all this madness. It has been spot on but I feel pretty sure that any would be. Like everyone has already said, one of the biggest upsides is that the harnesses are modular and you can add items where you want them. I still have not found what I like for pocket(s) but the hunt continues and that is part of the fun.

 

[RyanT]

I was going to support @tbone1004,'s assertion that the the extra few lbs for a SS plate doesn't matter. Then @Altimira said:

I just returned from a 30 day trip to the Middle East, requiring six different flights, carring two complete sets of dive gear plus usual travel stuff in three suitcases, each weighing right at 50 pounds.

Yikes, yes, I can see where counting pounds matters in that case. I dive Panama each year, when I'm there working, and I love my SS plate. I pack two SS plates and other gear in my luggage and I love it for the minimum amount of lead I need to dive with.

It is a journey to figure out what works for you and your style of diving. Enjoy the ride.