Side Mount DIY from jacket BC?

[tracydr]

I have an old jacket BC, a very basic travel type that I would like to play around with making into a sidemount rig for my pool. I know I saw something like this somewhere a few years ago. Figured since I'm a bit layed up right now with knee problems and might be switching to sidemount it would be a good time to see how I like it.
I assume I would end up buying a commercial system, if I like it but would just like to play around with my old BC, which I don't mind trashing.
I could possibly be layed up awhile, Doc is talking possibility of new knees.
Anybody with ideas or pictures, I'd love if you would post them.:depressed:
again, this will basically just be a pool experiment. If I like it, and i get clearance to dive again, I will trade in one of my BP/wings for a sidemount system. I'm researching to see which system would best meet my needs.

 

[victorzamora]

Hey Tracy! I'm sorry to hear you're layed up.

To answer your question, I don't think you'd want to go about simply converting your jacket to SM the way some people do it with BPW setups. The most success you'll have with a jacket BCD is using it as your BCD. If you made a custom Razor-style harness, you could wear your jacket over it as your inflation device. That way, your harness is dedicated to sidemount and you can make sure everything is in the right spot for clips, etc. Also, there's less modifying because everything is kind of standard (2" webbing and D-rings, for example). Then you throw your jacket on over it. There's a forum more specialized to Caves that has more info. PM me if you'd like a link.

To make the Razor clone, there are many ways of doing it. The price on most setups is mostly devoted to webbing and d-rings....so they're petty cheap. That's my suggestion.