Pony tank with BCD

[carrielsal]

Carrie,

I'm curious if you have received your new pony AL19 tank and mounting kit yet? Have you dove with it? How do you like that size pony attached to your tank on your back? I'm in the same market and wondering what your first impressions are along with your pros and cons if you have had the chance to dive it yet?

I picked up the pony yesterday and headed out to the lake this morning.
I bought a Luxfer 19cu pony and x-bracket, pony bottle bracket from ReefScuba.com,
The x-bracket is permanently mounted to the pony and is threaded through the bcd strap. It took me a while to figure out how to put the bc on my 80cu tank with the pony already attached. I have the pony on my right side just behind my bc.
Here's my inital impressions.
Dive 1 - I started with equal weight on both sides. I had the top of the pony about an inch lower than my other tank. I dropped to 20' on a platform. I really felt like I was heavy to one side. I moved 3 pounds of weight to my left side. This felt a little better, but my trim is definately going to need some work. I tried hanging out over the platform and kept ending up in a head down, feet up position. I made some adjustments to my bc and swam around for about hald an hour. The pony definately needs to be moved down.
Dive 2 - I moved the pony down about 1 1/2". I'm still a little head heavy. I found that I can maintenance neutral buoyancy comfortably on either my left or right side. Interesting feeling. I spent about an hour at 40' swimming around trying to get comfortable with this. At the end of the dive it wasn't quite as awkward.
Not bad for the first time out. It's going to take a lot of dives before this starts feeling natural, but I think this was a good decision.
On Sunday I'm taking the SDI Solo course, so I'll take the pony out and see if the instructor has any suggestions on fixing my trim. I'm not sure if I still have the pony too high up or if this is just going to take time to get use to.
carrie

 

[Texas Torpedo]

I'm late to this thread but thought I would post since I've been down a similar road.

I too was looking for an additional air source, especially for blue water diving at depths approaching or exceeding 100 fsw. Of course, here in Swamper Land you can lose a buddy diving in low viz, or you may just chose to dive solo. I've experienced both, and enjoy solo diving within reason. Regardless, I am much more comfortable in any situation with a fully redundant air system. (Independent doubles are in my future, but one step at a time) I also started out looking at systems similar to the one you were looking at Carrie, but also went for something a little more... sturdy(?)..

For my secondary I went with a 30 cu/ft bottle that currently is mounted to AL 80's (usually). I used the Quick Draw Bracket because it looked to be more solid than a lot of the brackets I came across. It has two pins that can be easily pulled to hand the bottle off to another diver if an OOA situation occurs with them. The bracket can also aid in staging. It does seem a bit overpriced (like much in this sport) but it is very solid.

I originally was looking at a 13 or 19cu pony, but but a few things relating to the diving I was doing changed my mind:

1. If I were down deep (100 +) on a ship (etc) and I had a problem with my primary, how much of a safety zone would I actually have? Especially if there is a substantial current.. Or if I handed it off to a buddy that is stressed. Sure, this is an extreme but when I was thinking about diving the Oriskany, potentially with an insta-buddy, it really made me think..

2. The bottle can be used as an 02 deco bottle in the future when I get into Tech.

Of course, I feel a 30 cu/ft is major overkill diving in Texas and not at depth.

The downside is obviously that I have more weight on my left side - where it rides. I'm currently combating this by moving weight to the right side. Once I get settled into a bp/w I will likely sling it from my chest. I tried doing that with my BCD but it wasn't comfortable with the way the available D-rings are situated.

Another issue that I am currently dealing with is that I have to mount the bottle right side up, with the valve on top because I have an Oceanic Delta 4 2nd stage reg with the swivel hose connection to the reg. I can't extend the hose on this so that I can invert the bottle and have easy access to turning on and off the tank valve. I'm planning on selling both of them for other equipment in the near future so for the time being I simply turn it on and dive. I've yet to lose any air on the backup but I would prefer to pressurize prior to the dive and then shut it down until needed.

David

 

[RonFrank]

I dive with a pony at times. It is a CF19. I attach it to the tank rather than sling it because I generally dive with a big camera. However I know a number of folks that sling their pony, and that is not a problem BP/w or no.

I use the Zeagle pony mounts, but there are plenty of good mounting systems out there. Slings can be home made, or purchased, and they also work well. Most folks that tank mount their pony do so upside down. This allows for easy access to the valve.

If you do a lot of solo diving, IMO you can skip redundant computers, etc., but don't skip the redundant air source. Failures are rare, but you have no backup in the unlikely event a failure does occur if you are diving singles as you have one first stage/tank/air source.

NOTE: I see that you have already purchased and received the gear! Cool!

Drings are easily added to most BC's. Not sure where you would want to add one, but talk to the LDS, or look at options available. Most mount to 2 inch webbing but I *bet* there are some other options out there.