Critique my rig/setup

[a22shady]

I have the Halcyon Eclipse SS backplate 6lb adapter. I wear drysuit with fourth element undergarments. In fresh water I add 4lbs of weight into my Halcyon trim pockets. 2 each side, for salt water I add 10lb of weight 5 each side into my trim pockets.

I do not actually dive with any quick ditchable weight. But I am dialed in perfectly with this setup. Using Worthington X-7 HP100. Also when calculating what you'll need for weighting remember that as you use your tank you’re going to lose weight. Take some time get into a pool or something after the dive let all but 500PSI out of your tank and then do a weight check have a buddy topside help out if possible and add/subtract weight as necessary until you have the weight dialed in.

 

[Bossman]

Thanks for your reply a22shady. It looks like you dive with a similar amount of ballast with your drysuit as I do in my 7mm super duper buoyant farmer wetsuit, and a similar setup/tank.

So let's say you wore your weight on a belt instead of the trim pockets. If you ditched it you'd be swimming a 20 lb rig to the surface. With the assistance of the drysuit that's an easier option. How would you view it if you were in a wetsuit?

I'm thinking a used drysuit is the way to go.

 

[on_two_wheels]

BP 6, STA 6, Regs and lead 16.5 plus the steel tank (10 lbs full 2.5 empty) = 38.5 lbs.

Okay, so you dump 10 and you're now at 28.5 if you have a failure on entry. So we'll go with worst case scenario. You already said your suit is over 30 lbs positive which is already more than you're carrying. Now if you have an SMB you're easily in a position to surface without physically swimming up 30 lbs as if you're in shorts in the tropics. The one thing to remember is you should have a buddy. Hopefully he can help some with getting you to the surface as well. Let's say you are seriously overweight AND have to surface. You both could ditch weight and just use his/her BC. There's more redundancy here than you might realize.

 

[TSandM]

You've really come nose to nose with the problem of diving thick wetsuits and going deep. You can lose a large amount of lift at depth, and end up in a situation (with a wing failure) where you will have a lot of trouble getting back to the surface. This is not a "balanced rig", because even ditching weight, you can't make yourself buoyant enough to swim up easily. Therefore, you need redundant buoyancy. A drysuit is a good choice if you are doing deep dives in cold water. A lift bag is an option, but imagine yourself with your wing torn open, on a wall where the bottom is at technical depths, trying to manage deploying and filling a lift bag while kicking frantically and sinking -- doesn't sound like a good option to me.

 

[a22shady]

I am not sure as I have only dove dry. The only time I used a wetsuit was in the pool with a 3mm and dont remeber the weight I used.
My total weight I dive with now Excluding the tank weight. is 16lb for freshwater 6BP/6sta/4 lead in trim pockets

For salt water I have a total of 22lb. 6/BP/6STA/10lead. I go to dutch springs and one of the first things My g/f and I did was at the end of our first dive we let all but 500~PSI out of our tank and played with our weight until we could at surface on a breath hold float eye level and exhale and slowly descend to 15 ft and then ascend slowly at each foot back to surface. and then for the Saltwater they say add 4-6lbs so I dove with 4lb lead in fresh so estimated the 6lb to 10.

For me with the Drysuit I do not worry about having to ditch the weight, hence why it's in trim pockets on my back. For me it's easier attached to my system then me and more comfortable. If I have a wing failure I can use my drysuit to reach surface. If somehow catastraphic failure. I carry a Halcyon 6' SMB which I could use to reach surface. If all else fails have not attempted it yet but I think I may be able to swim up. Or 1st would have my buddy remove the weight from my trim pocket. Or even myself I would remove my Rig completly and take the Weights out myself. I think that is another advantage of having the Long/short hose it gives you a little more room.

 

[Reef_Haven]

For those of you diving dry with all your weight on your rig and for Bossman with a 30# buoyant wetsuit and 10# belt; have any of you actually removed your rig at depth and re-donned it? I can imagine it would be difficult to maintain same depth as your rig. Seems like you would want about equal buoyancy as your rig, should this be necessary for an entanglement issue. Chances are remote your buddy can't help you out of a situation like this, just wondering if it is something that warrants consideration?

 

[halocline]

2. What are your thoughts about having 16 lbs. on your back plus the steel tank. In a wing failure that means swimming 20-25 lbs. to the surface.

Not really, it means swimming 20-25 lbs to the surface with the aid from whatever buoyancy your wetsuit has. At any sort of recreational depth it will not lose all it's buoyancy. If you're starting with a 32 lbs buoyant wetsuit it might get down to 15 or so, that's a guess, but I would suspect you're looking at at no more than 10 lbs to swim up, and less as your depth decreases. If you ditch 16 lbs of lead at depth, and you were not overweighted to begin with, you're going up, believe me.

 

[diveprof]

I also think way too much weight. However, depending on level of experience and number of dives, I suggest the best plan is to do a salt dive. When you are down to 600-700 pounds at the end of your dive at 15-18' arrange your weighting such that you can pass off weight to your buddy to find you true minimal weighting...

 

[elmer fudd]

My understanding is that a wetsuit can lose 2/3's of it's buoyancy at depth. So at 100' or so your wetsuit should still be at least 10 lbs. buoyant. Now you've also got 12 lbs. of steel, (not quite the same as 12 lbs. of lead, but pretty close, I figure it would be about the same as 11 lbs of lead and likely balances out your wetsuit at depth). A tank that starts out 10 lbs. negative and probably finishes up about 3 lbs. negative. Regs that combined are probably 4 lbs negative. A pony that's likely neutral and a harness that's probably 2 lbs. positive.

The other big factor would be how buoyant you are.

So far, without the lead, I'm guessing your rig would be about 12 lbs. negative at 100' with a full tank and 16 pounds positive at the surface with an empty tank. So if you were to pack 16 lbs of lead, a 30 lb. wing should have enough lift.

In reality though you're going to have to get out there and figure out your weighting and see. I dive a 7mm O'Neil J-suit with a 6 lb. backplate, one piece harness, HP119 and 10 lbs. of lead and have no problem with weighting. When I switch to my drysuit though I have to add another 14 lbs of lead.

 

[Kern]

at 10mt = 50% of buoyancy gone.
at 20mt = 75%
at 30mt = 87.5%
at 40mt = 93.75% of buoyancy gone.

Strikes me you could loose most of your buoyancy at no stop depths.