Freedom Plate!

[Couv]

Hello All,

I just received my new Freedom Plate made by our very own ZKY. What an absolute thing of beauty and simplicity. This stainless steel back plate is reminiscent of the form fitting backpack I learned to dive with in the early 70ies. However, it's made of SS rather than plastic, no tools are required to change tanks, and it's damn near indestructible. This plate is very streamlined and lightweight enough (about 3lbs without the rail, 4lbs with) to use as a travel plate, but sturdy enough for supporting the heaviest of loads. This plate is primarily for a single tank setup, but I would be willing to bet it would have no problem handling any set of doubles.

I fell in love with this plate last year when I borrowed a friends on a liveaboard. For a picture and another review, see: http://www.scubatoys.com/store/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=FreedomPlate and this thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/buoyancy-compensators-bcs-weight-systems/320863-freedom-plate-dive-rite-plate.html.

Thanks Eric,

Couv

 

[HenrikBP]

Congratulations on your new acquisition

I love mine for warm water, single tank diving:

ScubaBoard Gallery - Freedom Plate

Great fit and rock solid tank mounting.

Henrik

 

[Peter_C]

Mine spends its time strapped to an HP130 for cold water single tank diving. It would like to travel to the tropics more than it does, and works great without a wetsuit or anything, just the Freedom Plate against bare skin.

 

[Akimbo]

I have used one of Eric's Freedom plates for almost two years. About the only characteristic I wished for was that the belly band would pull through the lower slots a little easier and with less wear on the webbing. After some experimentation I came up with installing a 1½" long piece of ½" PVC pipe on both sides as shown in the photo. Now the belly band tightens the shoulder strap just like on a 1980s era blow-molded plastic pack -- not loose enough to slide under the weight of the tank, but still easy to adjust.

I split the pipe lengthwise with a hacksaw, inserted a ¼" stainless D-ring, and glued the slit shut with PVC cement. Originally I thought the D-ring's only function was to keep the pipe from falling out when tension was released. I found the D-rings were fairly easy to reach and good for hanging stuff like an SMB or reel.

Photo was taken before the slit in the PVC pipe as glued shut to better illustrate construction and confirm that it worked. It works fine without glue, but makes me feel a lot better using it.

 

[halocline]

I have used one of ZKY’s Freedom plates for almost two years. About the only characteristic I wished for was that the belly band would pull through the lower slots a little easier and with less wear on the webbing.

In 'normal' configuration, you don't want the waistband to move back and forth through the slots; in fact most people use keepers to hold it in place. It's all part of the same harness, so pulling the waistbelt through tightens the shoulder straps; exactly what most users would not want.

I love my freedom plate, kudos to ZKY for building such a great product!

 

[Akimbo]

In 'normal' configuration, you don't want the waistband to move back and forth through the slots; in fact most people use keepers to hold it in place. It's all part of the same harness, so pulling the waistbelt through tightens the shoulder straps; exactly what most users would not want.

I love my freedom plate, kudos to ZKY for building such a great product!

Your pronouncement defining normal lacks functional justification. The inherent advantage of allowing the belly band to tighten the shoulder straps is the tank is far more secure, to the point that I don’t need a crotch strap even when lifted by the deadman ring I installed.

See post #24 on
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bu...ems/320863-freedom-plate-dive-rite-plate.html

Quick shoulder strap adjustment makes donning and doffing far easier and offers no disadvantage. The one caveat is a keeper is required between the bitter-end of the belly band to prevent pulling completely out. The buckle prevents pulling out the other end. It is important that the straps don’t freely adjust under minor tension, which this and blow-molded plastic back packs prevent. I can pull the belly band tight while standing on deck and the straps do not loosen before buckling.

I have heard the bogus argument that a buckle failure will cause total harness failure, but it is no worse than with fixed shoulder straps. This configuration is safer in a rescue or emergency that requires ditching.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I dive both ways with cinch and keepered. Both ways have their pros and cons.
I've tooled the slots on a few plates to make it easier for the webbing to slide, but Akimbo's idea with the pvc pipe and D-ring steals the show.

What I found with keepered webbing is that at depth with suit compression the rig can loosen up, but I don't need a crotch strap necessarily. I can count on it being locked in one spot and not moving.

With movable webbing I've had the waist strap continuously loosen, so I take up the slack and it loosens again and so on. The next thing I know the rig is up behind my head and the waist band is up just below my pectoral muscles. The only way for me to avoid this is to employ the crotch strap to hold the waist band down where it needs to be. But I do like the adjustability factor.
One thing that can be done is to place keepers before and aft of the slot so the webbing will only tighten so far and loosen so far.

One other design idea I had was to tig weld in a small bar if 1/2" round stainless right between the slots. The slot would actually be cut like a big rectagle and the welded in 1/2" rod would be the center piece.

I think it's funny how other companies come up with this "breakthrough cinch system" that was already done 40 years ago. Hell, I was doing it with my product for 4 years before the big "breakthrough" but never thought it was a big deal, just a nice bonus.

I'm going to try your PVC idea Chris.


And just an FYI for anybody else:
With the Scubatoys link: The product is deactivated because they aren't getting any more,
the plates can only be obtained directly through me.

 

[laguna230diver]

akimbo i see you have the mach v extreme... great minds think alike!

 

[Gilldiver]

I have one of the earlier aluminum plates, I like it but the aluminum is a bit soft and the top bent when the tank fell over on a boat. It was easy to bend back and I think I will take it to one of my heat treaters to do a full solution and age treatment to get the hardness up some. I might then do a Type II anodize or have another processor run it through an aluminum Keronite process which makes anodize look feeble.

As for pulling the straps tight, its what I always want to do as soon as I get onto a wreck - check gas, check regs, tighten rig, tie off tanks and bags if needed, turn on lights if not already on, head into wreck ...........

 

[Gilldiver]

Here is my plate on the triple 40's I am finishing up this weekend.