SS vs AL backplate

[palmer loggins]

I am looking to build my first BP/W. I've pretty much made up my mind to go with a Hollis HTS 2 harness and a 38 lb wing from Hollis as well. This is what my LDS carries and highly recommends. He has let me dive around in the pool with the set up and I do like it over the jacket style I used to get OW certified. My question is whether to go with a SS or AL backplate. I am 6'2" 210 lbs and the thickest wetsuit I'll be using is a 5mm. I hate the feeling of being overweighted and having to constantly add and remove air from my bc. I know a lot of that comes from experience which I don't have much... I'm fairly new as I have 5 logged dives. Most all of my dives will be travel destinations to the Caribbean and fresh water springs in FL. I do not have any plans to get into doubles or any tech diving anytime soon. Also I will not be diving in any water colder than 70 degrees. I'm just trying to keep as much weight as possible off the weight belt or even better none at all.
Thanks.

 

[redacted]

I suspect your shop may be selling you what they have rather than what you need. 38 lb is excessive. A SS plate will work in 70f water but may be too heavy in warmer water. An Al plate would be better to avoid being over weighted in warmer water.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I am looking to build my first BP/W. I've pretty much made up my mind to go with a Hollis HTS 2 harness and a 38 lb wing from Hollis as well. This is what my LDS carries and highly recommends. He has let me dive around in the pool with the set up and I do like it over the jacket style I used to get OW certified. My question is whether to go with a SS or AL backplate. I am 6'2" 210 lbs and the thickest wetsuit I'll be using is a 5mm. I hate the feeling of being overweighted and having to constantly add and remove air from my bc. I know a lot of that comes from experience which I don't have much... I'm fairly new as I have 5 logged dives. Most all of my dives will be travel destinations to the Caribbean and fresh water springs in FL. I do not have any plans to get into doubles or any tech diving anytime soon. Also I will not be diving in any water colder than 70 degrees. I'm just trying to keep as much weight as possible off the weight belt or even better none at all.
Thanks.

Plate material is a function of required ballast, and that is a function of your exposure suit buoyancy, cylinder buoyancy, and personal buoyancy.

At 6'2" x 210 lbs you are unlikely to be personally buoyant.

The typical 5mm suit will be ~8-12 lbs (this is a educated wild guess, you want to test your own suit)

If you are diving buoyant tanks like aluminum 80's you will need another ~4lbs to offset the cylinder when it is near empty.

A 5mm suit with a buoyant tank makes a SS Plate look like a better choice than an aluminum plate.

OTOH if you plan on diving with little to no exposure suit, or with thin suits and negative steel tanks a SS plate will over weight you.

In short *you* need to research and understand what your actual ballast requirements are before you make a choice.

Tobin

 

[palmer loggins]

I appreciate the insight. I will be diving AL80s most if not all of the time. Most all my dives will be in warm water with board shorts and possibly a 3 mil rash guard

 

[tbone1004]

if that's most of your dives I would go SS, though I agree that the 38lb wing is something your LDS is trying to sell you because they have it, not because you need it. That is an excessive amount of lift for that type of diving

 

[mattia_v]

They're a Hollis dealer, so ask them to order you an S25 LX wing. I would also consider steel - I'm about your size and weight, dive warm water with a 3.5mm full suit and AL80s. I need about 8 lbs added weight with my Al backplate in salt water, so steel might be handier. On pool dives with my kit (aluminim plate) and a steel tank I was heavily overweight without any added ballast though.

Travel weight was my primary consideration.

 

[RyanT]

I agree with the other posters here. A SS backplate will work well to help offset the buoyancy of a nearly empty AL 80. It is a little heavier for travel, but I travel with the set up you are considering with a 45 lb doubles wing. It works great.

 

[dmaziuk]

I think you'll need 4-8 lbs less for fresh water vs salt water. If you carry less than that in salt water w/ steel plate, you'll be a bit heavy in fresh water -- in the same suit: you'd likely need thicker, more buoyant suit in the lakes. I.e. more weight to cancel that out. Of course, being a few pounds overweight is no biggie anyway, but you might prefer that to be ditchable, just in case.

The other side is luggage weight: you can put the SS plate in your carry-on and drag it all the way to Caribbean -- assuming they don't start weighing cabin luggage, the way it's been going I'm surprised they haven't yet, -- but if you check it in, that can be 6 lbs of other stuff you're not taking.

 

[herman]

Go with the AL back plate. Less weight to carry in your luggage. I personally can't dive a steel plate in warm fresh water, it alone over weights me by a good bit and it's borderline to slightly over weights me in salt water if I am wearing minimal exposure suits. Bottom line, you can always add more weight but once you have removed all of it, you just have to deal with being over weighted, something I can do but don't like to have to.
As for the wing, 38 is too much for the warm water diving you are doing, a 25 or less would be fine, properly weighted, you really don't need one for warm water diving.

 

[NAM001]

I am looking to build my first BP/W. I've pretty much made up my mind to go with a Hollis HTS 2 harness and a 38 lb wing from Hollis as well. This is what my LDS carries and highly recommends. He has let me dive around in the pool with the set up and I do like it over the jacket style I used to get OW certified. My question is whether to go with a SS or AL backplate. I am 6'2" 210 lbs and the thickest wetsuit I'll be using is a 5mm. I hate the feeling of being overweighted and having to constantly add and remove air from my bc. I know a lot of that comes from experience which I don't have much... I'm fairly new as I have 5 logged dives. Most all of my dives will be travel destinations to the Caribbean and fresh water springs in FL. I do not have any plans to get into doubles or any tech diving anytime soon. Also I will not be diving in any water colder than 70 degrees. I'm just trying to keep as much weight as possible off the weight belt or even better none at all.
Thanks.

Your add and venting will not change by using a bpw. the fill and vent is a function of changing buoyancy. That is a function of the set suit and compression primarily and to a more controlled degree the use of air.I think that 38# is a lot of lift and with that a lot of room for the bubble to move from head to hips making stable trim more difficult. I think you have to do the math to see what the max lift you need is. Don't trust the shop, go to a good source to figure out the calculation. I would guess that you suit is about 25# lift and and it will loose about 20 of it at depth plus the 10# of gas so that 30 is all you really may need. Keep the wing as small as you can while insuring you haveenough lift at the most critical time to get up. that is on the bottom at 100 ft with full tank's and perhaps 5# uf crap on you. dont forget you will have some ditchable weight on you. noathing wors than a running bubble making you roller coaster in the water. For instance my 30 works rat my 40 gives me problems unless I have the right tank mounted or the right wet suit on.