Reg. hose routing w/pony

[Scott M]

It seems the general consenses is that slinging the pony works best and I can see while diving from a boat which I will be doing from both locations (as listed above) this would be fine BUT I have a camp on the lake at which I will be doing my primary diving and the bay is VERY shallow for a long way out so for times when I shore dive I think I would like the pony mounted to the main tank, I believe this would make for easier entry and exit as opposed to carrying the bottle a few hundred yards. In this case where should I store the reg.?

In an effort to keep the gear uniform for quick deployment purposes I should keep it the same always. Will mounting it on my main work out alright?

Thanks
ScottM

 

[mwilding]

cd_in_SeaTac once bubbled...


Wouldn't a first stage be required to get the right IP?

He doesn't mention two seconds so I can only guess where you're getting this.

OK, either he edited his post or I am a dope (latter is more likely) - as I was saying you don't need 2 2nds on a pony...

 

[Sean326]

My Zeagle Ranger LTD has a great zipper attachment and holster for a pony under the wing of the BC. I've got a 19 cft with an A.L. first and a very low profile oceanic as a second. I use yellow hose and have it bungeed with surg. tube to the bottle. valve and reg facing down. the nice part is that it is very secure and out of the way but i can easily remove it to hand to a buddy or pass it through a hole to someone. I can also work the valve easily unlike some back mounted tanks.

By the way..... people have critisized the oceanic and that got me concerned so I used it as my primary for a dozen dives off of my main tank and even off of the pony. It breathes fine and worked great.... not as comfy as my S.P. G250HP but still very nice.

How many people had the low profile oceanics fail????

 

[IzzyTahil]

Yes, mounting on your main tank will work out alright. When I back mounted my 30cf tank, unlike most, I had it mounted on the left side. On the 2nd stage (SP R380), I had the hose switched to the left so the hose wouldnt pull when breathing from it. I routed the reg down under the arm and clipped off a d ring. I liked my left config better than the normal right also because I didnt want 3 hoses (primary, octo, pony) all on the right side.

 

[Don Burke]

Scott M once bubbled... It seems the general consenses is that slinging the pony works best and I can see while diving from a boat which I will be doing from both locations (as listed above) this would be fine BUT I have a camp on the lake at which I will be doing my primary diving and the bay is VERY shallow for a long way out so for times when I shore dive I think I would like the pony mounted to the main tank, I believe this would make for easier entry and exit as opposed to carrying the bottle a few hundred yards. In this case where should I store the reg.?

In an effort to keep the gear uniform for quick deployment purposes I should keep it the same always. Will mounting it on my main work out alright?

Thanks
ScottM

The problem with attaching your pony to a main tank is that second stages get switched around quite often. You'll find several stories about it on this board.

The pony weighs what it weighs and will be just as much weight on a bracket to your main tank as clipped to your left upper d-ring, so I don't see any advantage there.

 

[spurtill]

IF it is only a single cylinder and pony as it seems to be, i'd mount it on the cylinder.

Apex 200 regs can't be switched to left side, so rules that option out.

Id have my primary and my pony reg over my right shoulder. Primary stuck in my gob and the pony reg on a necklace around my neck.

the octopuss can either come under my left arm or under my right depending on whether you want it suited to you or your buddy. In either cae it clips to the front of your stab down around the waist line on a D-ring.

this way you don't change the setup when you take the pony off.

 

[Scott M]

Thanks for all the replys.

All of this will make more sense once I have the gear on hand.

I don't think I was real clear on what my intentions were with the pony. I'll be the first to admit I have no idea what a pony bottle is actually suppose to be used for.

When I originally started to investigate gear I saw the ads for the spare air. Which I think is a great idea, for me anyway. After reading it's limited capabilities I started looking at the pony bottles. The pony in this situation would be for an emergency - all else fails - redundent back-up. I do not plan on doing any diving that would require more than a single tank of air with at least 500lbs left at the end of the dive. With any kind of planning and a little luck I will never have to use the pony.

Somewhere along the way I thought I saw a quick disconnect set-up that put the pony on the main tank (stable, out of the way) with a quick disconnect cable that would runs to your BC. In a situation that it is needed you simply pull the cable and the pony drops down and is now in a slung postion. After seeing a few pictures of staged set-ups it looks like having the pony reg attatched right to the pony itself would work out, I am not sure but I think I would try to set-up the pony reg so that if the quick disconnect fails I could reach behind and pull the reg free to be used.

With all the comments I can see having three regs readily available would create a problem so I am not going to do that.

Maybe I'm dreaming

Scott M

 

[spurtill]

3 regs is not a problem, its 4 regs i think people had the issue with (2 off your main tank and another 2 off your pony).

If you side sling the pony, what i'd do is get a set up rubber bands (even cut strips off an old car tube). Put the elastic bands around the pony and tuck the reg hoses in behind it so the reg is all coiled up neat against the pony itself. IF you ever need the reg, just tug the reg and the hoses slide out from the bands and you are sorted.

If you mount it on the back I'd get a necklace so you know where it is.