Sidemount Bailout Config?

[PEDiver]

Bungees from somewhere on the backplate. Not too high, though. The bungees should pull straight up (presuming you're in horizontal trim) or up and maybe a little back. Just not up and forward. So, probably not from the top of the BP.

I use AL80s for BO and clip them to the stand on the bottom of my rEvo. That is nice because it gets them up nicely and doesn't take up waist belt D-rings (which I may or may not have other uses for). And puts the lower rigging lower on the tank, for better control of the butt.

I can't see myself bothering with SM-style sliding D-rings. Those are for adjusting tank trim as you breathe them down. Well, I've never had to bail out from my CCR. If I ever do, I'm probably not going to be worrying about if my BO tanks are starting to float butt-up. Besides for deep and intermediate mixes, I have a 1 or 2# weight on a cam band around the bottom of those tanks, to counteract how floaty they are when full of mix with a lot of helium. If I breathe them down, they are not going to get very floaty anyway.

Somebody was talking about using steels for BO when diving a BM CCR? I am thinking of trying that with the LP50s I got recently. But, other than that, I cannot imagine using steels for BO (for ME). I am negative enough with AL80s. Even in a drysuit.

I think my plan is to just run the bungees from the plate directly and use the stand on my unit for clipping off. I think the stand will be great as like you said it frees up space on my waist d-rings for stages and other items. This configuration will be primarily for cave diving so having the steels with the increased volume is important for some of those bigger dives. But I imagine I’ll end up using AL80s anyway for ocean diving.

 

[kensuf]

With steel cylinders I use the LM BAS system. I don't use the webbing for the loop bungees, I just attach them directly to the plate.

 

[billgraham]

By the way, I have a carbon fiber backplate that we made from a mold years ago for the Prism 1 for just this application, I'm pretty sure it would work for any backmount CCR with a single scrubber. We sand cast a lead trim weight across the top and made the plate long, with two rings by your butt for tank clips and a place to run the bungee through up top in the correct location. It's a good solution for divers who don't need the weight of a metal backplate and it solves the rigging and trim problems most backmount CCR's have straight out of the box. If anyone wants to check it out, I'll snap a photo or two.

 

[OTF]

Pictures would be great from anyone who is very happy with their setup and can post a few a clear images.

 

[211ratsbud]

By the way, I have a carbon fiber backplate that we made from a mold years ago for the Prism 1 for just this application, I'm pretty sure it would work for any backmount CCR with a single scrubber. We sand cast a lead trim weight across the top and made the plate long, with two rings by your butt for tank clips and a place to run the bungee through up top in the correct location. It's a good solution for divers who don't need the weight of a metal backplate and it solves the rigging and trim problems most backmount CCR's have straight out of the box. If anyone wants to check it out, I'll snap a photo or two.

@billgraham yes pics please

 

[billgraham]

This plate and harness was made about 20 years ago so forgive the dust and spiders. The project was to configure a backmount CCR for cave diving with sidemounted bailout, we were using al 40's or 80's at that time. The problems we were trying to solve were **** trim with the stock plate, no good attachment points, nowhere to put weight other than two pockets on the cummerbund that only made the foot heavy trim problems worse, etc. We made a mold of a diver's body and extended the plate further down so it fit over the top of the diver's butt, and located two attachment points for tanks there, that moved the lift of the bladder down where it belongs and straightened out the bailout bottles. We sand cast the trim weight at the top, it's probably six or seven pounds, again to correct the "heads up" trim characteristics of the CCR. I was still using mountain bike inner tubes for bungees at that point, but you can obviousy use whatever you want. The fastek fasteners with webbing on the harness were used to hold a canister light on one side and a 6 cu ft inflation bottle on the other. The loops between the door handles were to hold a lift bag for wreck diving. The only other interesting feature you might consider was the double loop crotch strap, one for each leg, which helped prevent the unfortunate circumstance where you nail the trigger on the scooter and it's like someone drop kicked you in the sack. Cheers and safe diving!

 

[billgraham]

My friend had access to a vacuum bag system at that point so it came out really light.

 

[SetheryJ]

I certainly don't want to hijack this thread, but thought I might add on a related question-

Diving a Meg 2.7 with 2 AL80s as bailout (there is a 3lb weight on the mix side). Currently using side mount front bungees and a butt plate for rigging. The butts of both 80s still angle up. Is there anyway to reconcile this without having to clip them off to D-Rings on the hip belt?

Thanks,

Seth

 

[grantctobin]

I certainly don't want to hijack this thread, but thought I might add on a related question-

Diving a Meg 2.7 with 2 AL80s as bailout (there is a 3lb weight on the mix side). Currently using side mount front bungees and a butt plate for rigging. The butts of both 80s still angle up. Is there anyway to reconcile this without having to clip them off to D-Rings on the hip belt?

Thanks,

Seth

Might consider using a Catalina and overfilling it for your mix side and then a Luxfer slightly underfilled of 50/20 and it’ll enable you to lose the dreadful weight.

The above won’t really fix your tail float, I’m afraid. Hip d rings are the way. Some bungee types apply weird torque, but even proper loop bungees will not fix the cant of the cylinder.

 

[SetheryJ]

Might consider using a Catalina and overfilling it for your mix side and then a Luxfer slightly underfilled of 50/20 and it’ll enable you to lose the dreadful weight.

The above won’t really fix your tail float, I’m afraid. Hip d rings are the way. Some bungee types apply weird torque, but even proper loop bungees will not fix the cant of the cylinder.

Thanks for the quick reply and I applaud your attentiveness to the differences between Catalina's and Luxfer's. Unfortunately, that's not an option for me at present and I'm almost certain all of my 80s are Catalina's. That being said, I don't mind the 3 lbs on the tank, I can't tell it's there and it negates any torsional lift on the mix side. For moderate profiles I'm running a 36 on the right side and an 18/40 on the left. I do have a 40/20 that I can substitute for the 36 if the profiles necessitates.

I'm not as worried about losing tank weight as much as bringing bottles in line with my body. If I move to sliding D-rings, I'll need to figure out what to do with my can light, which isn't the end of the world...Could push it to the butt plate.

Back to the pool we go

Seth