Weight belt or weight pockets?

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Tralfamadore

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Location
Ottawa
# of dives
100 - 199
Hello all, I'm about to recieve my first bp/wing setup. An Oxycheq Mach V 30# with a freedom plate. Up until now I've been diving with a Scubapro Knighthawk where I've been putting 3 kg of weight into the ditchable hip pockets as well as 3 kg in the rear trim pockets. I'm hoping with my new set up I will be able to use half of that weight in a warm water environment with a 3 mm wetsuit. I'm curious as to how I should be adding this weight.

For all of the bp/wing users out there what do you use/prefer a weight belt or pockets on the tank bands? Any advantages or disadvantages to either?
 
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I prefer the rubber freediving weight belts. Mako sells them.
If I need to distribute weight, I use the cam band weight pockets.

This allows me to get some of the weight off of the waist, and higher up if necessary.

I have the same set up on my rig and students rigs. It allows for weight distribution no matter what exposure protection is being used.

I don't like integrated weight pockets. They take up too much room on the waist. If you only need a few pounds in each pocket, it seems to be a waste of space to have one big pocket to hold one lead brick.

For me, a weight belt makes more sense.
 
I have a strong dislike for weight belts combined with a BP/W - I find them uncomfortable and oddly layered, and since I don't dive at home, and don't want to literally drag weight across the world in checked luggage, integrated weight pockets it is. I don't have anything 'better' to use my waist band real estate for, if I'm honest. The pockets I have are a little unnecessarily large (Tecline large weight pockets), while I added DTD branded small weight pockets (release downward, seperate insert pockets) to my GF's BP/W that work well and would be better suited to the diving I'm doing at the moment. If I needed a lot more weight, the bigger pockets I have would be great.

Having said that, if you're fine-tuned well, depending on the added amount of weight you need, you might be fine only using trim pockets. With a 3.5mm wetsuit and an aluminum backplate, I currently use 2kg of weight, which I place in cam band trim pockets. I can swim that amount up easily.
 
I hate, hate, hate weight belts. The ying and yang pull of the BC/Wing going one direction and the weight belt (or harness) going the other is more uncomfortable, the more weight you have to use. In addition, the diver becomes dangerously negative should they have to take off their BC. Lose your grasp and you're headed the wrong way. Put the weight on the BC/Wing and the diver stays buoyant. Lose your grasp and you're headed to the surface: don't forget to exhale. Not that I've ever lost my grasp! I've only had to take off my BC during a dive once in my 48 years of diving.
 
In a effort to stay balanced if I need lead D/T my exposure suit I wear it on a belt. If I need lead D/T diving buoyant gear I wear it on my BCD so that if the SHTF I am not poping out of the water like a Polaris missle but also not dropping like a stone.
 
As others, I hate weight belts.........and when doing most of my dives I need 40lbs of weight......so that means; SS backplate, plate weights, steel tank, STA weights, trim weights and pouches on the waste belt.......luckily your weight needs are much less and easier to deal with.

So 6kg total? 3 mil wetsuit? I assume Al 80 tanks. More than likely you'll drop 3-4 kg just by going with the backplate (steel or Aluminum?). So, I'd add a couple of pockets on the tank bands (trim) and a couple on the waist belt, that way you can do a weight check and then distribute the weight for perfect trim. Or you can spend the time/effort threading and save a few $$. Or.....use a couple bungees to attach the weights, easy fast and cheap.
 
I developed an easy method to attach hard weights to harnesses with 3/16" bungee cord loop.

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Start with a loop of bungee tied Prusik style (two opposing grape knots)
The size of the weight dictates the length: experiment.

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Thread the bungee from front to rear on one side,
The knot will prevent it from pulling through.

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Pull the clean (non knotted) side under the belt and through the other side.

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Pull the clean side over the edge.
The knot will prevent it slipping through when pulled.
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Pull the knotted side over the other side. It should be TIGHT.
Use different length bungees for different weights. Experiment.
If it's too loose, pull the bungees to the other side of the weight.

FWIW, these are easily taken off during a dive albeit a bit harder to replace. In a pinch, you could dump one or more weights to become a little more buoyant rather than becoming a polaris missile. :D :D :D
 
I developed an easy method to attach hard weights to harnesses with 3/16" bungee cord loop.

+1 on this. I do something very similar.

For the OP: one thing to remember is that if you are switching to a BP&W the backplate will add some weight, especially if you choose an SS one. So you may not need to add as much weight as you think.

I found over the years that for 8lbs and less I could wear a weight belt, but I much prefer something like the DUI harness. For anything over 8lbs I can't use a weight belt (slides right off) so the harness is the only option.
 
As Pete shows........I can't count how many times I use and suggest this!
 
For my warm water single tank BP and wing setup, I use Halcyon ACB weight pockets on the harness waist belt for ditchable weight (up to 5 lbs per side), and I use a pair of Halcyon trim weight pockets on both sides of the top tank strap, which also can hold up to 5 lbs each. For my cold water single tank rig, I also use Halcyon ACB pockets on the harness waist belt and a Koplin weighted single tank adapter. The weighted STA provides 6 lbs of ballast and wonderful trim. It took a lot of experimenting over the years to arrive at these configurations, but they work very well for me and are very flexible. Although I have used lots of other weight configurations including weight belts, with these two rigs I've found something I'm really happy with, are very consistent and easy to use in a wide variety of conditions.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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