Placement/Position of tank valves & 1st stage

[Gnashrak]

Well a few reasons.
1) I have a Hollis SMS 100 not a Nomad
2) those style bungees are way to small and weak for steel tanks. They allow the tank to hang much lower then then I would like. The bungee I use is 3/8" thick and holds the tank up very well.
3)the wing is bunged down very well and does not taco. If it did it would actually have a piece of 2" webbing holding it down rather then the 3/16" bungee the nomads come with it comes with.

3/16''.. maybe it's because I asked cold water snaps but my bungees are 3/8'' thick and even with HP120's they are quite stiff in the water (or maybe they are freezing by then )

I didn't listen to sales pitches when I was hunting I simply looked at what are serious SM's using. The looped bungee seems to be the favorite at least around here for the type of diving I want to do.

I don't listen to sales pitch neither, well only sometimes to test the seller's knowledge! From some posts I read here, it effectively seems the looped bungees is a favorite, that is why I want to know why and see if it might be useful for me.

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

3/16''.. maybe it's because I asked cold water snaps but my bungees are 3/8'' thick and even with HP120's they are quite stiff in the water (or maybe they are freezing by then )



I don't listen to sales pitch neither, well only sometimes to test the seller's knowledge! From some posts I read here, it effectively seems the looped bungees is a favorite, that is why I want to know why and see if it might be useful for me.

Yeah maybe you can get them in thicker I can say I only have seen the skinner one. It never hurts to try something different I say go for it you might like it. You can make the Old school kit for maybe $10 at the most.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Any particular reason for having looped bungees instead of DR bungees (without the ring) that comes with a Nomad?
It looks to me that the DR bungee acts a bit to keep the wing close to the diver's body.

The standard bungees that are being sold with the current side mount rigs weren't designed very well. While they do keep air in the wing, they also trap air in the wing. The design was made for it to do that. Personally, I don't like the trapped air. The main fault of the standard bungees is that they do not let you get the valve close enough to your body. The bolt snap that attaches to the chest d-ring doesn't allow the valve to be pulled up close enough no matter how you position the cylinder. In fact, it pushes the cylinder valve out. Also, the routing of the bungee causes it to pull the cylinders into your ribs. A common complaint from sidemount divers using this bungee system is sore ribs because to get the cylinders close to where they should be you need really short bungees.

The loops do exactly what they are supposed to do. They pull the cylinders up into your arm pits. It couldn't be simpler. There are ways to keep the wing from tacoing without causing air entrapment.

 

[BB1]

I first tried setting the tanks up as per the armadillo manual with the valve knobs pointing down and had no problems with the bungees coming off - this was with 2 normal right hand valves - and if the valve knobs were at 12 o'clock the butt clip was at 5 o'clock for the left tank and mirrored for the right tank.

Well I finally got a left hand tank valve fitted so I now have left/right valves.

This time out as I set the tanks up with the knobs pointing out and 1st stages on top, I also lengthened the leash on the bottom clips by 2" to try and get the tanks more parallel to my body.

It all looked and felt good initially but I had a lot of problems with the bungee slipping off! Would have been a bigger problem if I hadn't seen the tip about leaving 3" neck leashes attached to the upper d'ring with bolt snaps as a saver - that worked a treat.

I think where I messed up was I set the tanks up so that when the valve knob was horizontal at 9 o'clock the butt clip was at 5 o'clock again. This allowed the tank to rotate to much and the bungee then slipped off the valve knob or its how I attach the bungee.

I loop the bungee over the valve knob from the outside but my buddy does it from the inside (body side) on his with his valve handle pointing down.

I've been think on how to fix this and options are:

1. Loop the bungee from the inside.
2. lengthen the bungee loop a bit so its not so tight and pulling so hard that it rotates the tank and slips off - bungee is damn tight, can get it on just.
3. lengthen the bungee enough to go around the valve knob from the outside and hook over the spigot where you would insert a manifold cross bar.
4. Alter the butt clip position more towards my centre line -it's obviously way off at the moment.

All tank valve and clip positions assume me wearing the left hand tank and looking down at the valve.

pointers appreciated as there are no sidemount instructors here.

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

I loop the bungee over the valve knob from the outside but my buddy does it from the inside (body side) on his with his valve handle pointing down.

I've been think on how to fix this and options are:

1. Loop the bungee from the inside.
2. lengthen the bungee loop a bit so its not so tight and pulling so hard that it rotates the tank and slips off - bungee is damn tight, can get it on just.
3. lengthen the bungee enough to go around the valve knob from the outside and hook over the spigot where you would insert a manifold cross bar.
4. Alter the butt clip position more towards my centre line -it's obviously way off at the moment.

All tank valve and clip positions assume me wearing the left hand tank and looking down at the valve.

pointers appreciated as there are no sidemount instructors here.

Well I use 3/8 bungee which is thick, if standing up and I run my thumbs in the loops and just snug up the slack the loops just meet the plane of my chest. If wing is fully inflated it will be back just a little bit.

I use a Right and Left valve and put the knobs facing out and loop the bungees from the outside with the clips at the bottom being exact opposite (12oclock-6oclock, 9-3 ect)

My buddy has 2 right hand valves and he has the valves facing out with one 1st stage on top and the other on bottom.