Halcyon Traveller, thoughts..?

[Just phil]

First off, I'm still in the information gathering stage.

The Halcyon traveller

Who has one?
What do you think of it?
Will it fit in a carry on, (how flat does it pack)?
Is it worth the money?

In advance, I appreciate any input.

Cheers
Phil

 

[tbone1004]

Don't have one, have seen one

Built very nice, but skeptical about the use of nylon as it absorbs water which weakens the polymer significantly over time, it also doesn't play nice with chlorine or sunlight, so would never take it anywhere near the pool

yes, packs flat

absolutely not, nothing Halcyon sells is worth the money they charge for it unless you want/need the blue H. Not saying they aren't high quality pieces of equipment, they are, they are just sold at a very high margin compared to other options.

Dive Rite Hunterpac is actually a sexy little travel rig, but if you want a traditional backplate, you can't go wrong with the kydex plates from Deep Sea Supply. About $150 cheaper than the Halcyon rig, and you can get a smaller wing because 30lbs is probably too big. Worth emailing or calling Tobin at DSS to check that rig out.

 

[SeaCobra]

the weight pockets on the back are real nice, packs real flat

 

[RJP]

I keep toying with the idea of getting one. I currently travel with my H steel BP and weighted STA because I really like having that much weight on my back. With the rear weight pockets I can travel with less weight... while still diving a 12lb plate when I get where I'm going.

---------- Post added December 30th, 2014 at 10:40 AM ----------

Don't have one, have seen one

Built very nice, but skeptical about the use of nylon as it absorbs water which weakens the polymer significantly over time,

Right... you might only get 5,000-7,000 dives out of a rig using nylon before it fails.

 

[tbone1004]

actually much less than that if it is regularly used in salt water in the sun, probably less than 1000 before you start seeing serious fading of the polymer and degradation. I do this for a living, nylon+salt water+sun+chlorine=death, that's why you don't see many nylon ropes in the ocean, they break down far too quickly. They used nylon because it's cheaper than kydex for injection molding, plain and simple.

 

[RJP]

actually much less than that if it is regularly used in salt water in the sun, probably less than 1000 before you start seeing serious fading of the polymer and degradation.

How many before structural failure?

 

[tbone1004]

depends on how stressed the polymer is and how much exposure it has. I'm betting that you would get less than 10 years of regular use out of that rig before the nylon starts to fail. regular use is 4-6 weeks of tropical diving and about 2 weeks of pool diving.

 

[Christian.Juanda]

Hi Phill

Yes I have, the Pro version of Halcyon Traveler with 30lb lift.

I have done several dives in both pool and ocean, I like the traveler pro, the bc is very stable underwater. It helps me to stays on the trim.
And for unknown reason its more easy achieving neutral buoyancy and do the back kick with this bc compared with my first back buoyant bc.
The weight pocket is nice, I prefer soft weight than conventional weight, bigger weight will not insert to the pocket...

Yes traveler can pack flat (no air inside).

from value point of view, it is expensive piece of gear. But I have limited options to get excellent BP/W here.
Generally i like Scubapro, but here the price is even higher than H.

If you will only dive in single tank ,then traveler pro is excellent choices (more durable wings). but if you see yourself diving twinset, better get the eclipse or other alternatives.

Regards
CJ

 

[RJP]

depends on how stressed the polymer is and how much exposure it has. I'm betting that you would get less than 10 years of regular use out of that rig before the nylon starts to fail. regular use is 4-6 weeks of tropical diving and about 2 weeks of pool diving.

OK - what "regular" recreational diver gets in 4-6 weeks of tropical dive travel a year?

:d

And which "regular" recreational diver does two-weeks of pool work per year? (Never mind the fact that we're talking about a "travel" solution here, so there'd be no need to use your travel BCD for pool work done at home... if any.)

But let's say your assumptions about material failure are correct... and then factor that by some more realistic assumptions on diving activities:

Ten years of use at 4-6 weeks per year = 40-60 weeks of travel diving before failure. Using those numbers and your assumptions I've developed a handy chart that any diver can use to calculate an approximate "useful life" estimate for a nylon plate based on their own travel dive frequency. All they need to do is find the number of weeks they actually "dive travel" per year, choose which of your assumptions for "Useful Life In Weeks" and the chart will tell them what their predicted useful life would be in years.

For instance - according to your estimates for time-to-failure, a diver who does two weeks of dive travel per year can expect to get 20 to 30 years of diving out of a nylon plate.

Good thing you've alerted them to the issue.

:d

 

[nimoh]

I'd be pretty happy with a travel BC that lasted 9 years.