Weights on bp/w

[Wijbrandus]

I'm curious about something. How do people who dive a bp/w setup mount their weights? As I understand the GUE website, the weight is to be mounted somehow on the backplate? How do you ditch them then?

 

[ScubaK-Dawg]

I know some people mount soft weights between their wings and the backplate. Due to the bouyancy characteristics of my setup, I don't need to wear any weight besides 1.5 pound ankle weights. Since I don't have much ditchable weight, I ensure that I have more than 1 form of bouyancy to help get me to the surface in case of emergency - i.e. BCD, Drysuit , liftbag.

 

[MechDiver]

As Dawg said, most of us who use bp's don't worry about ditchable weight, especially with doubles. There are many ways to configure ditchable if you so choose however.

MD

 

[jonnythan]

Usually you just wear a weight belt. If you wear a significant amount of weight (10+ pounds in addition to the weight of the backplate), one good option is to either buy a weighted STA or pour your own custom channel weight. I did. Took me about half an hour with a propane burner (actually a turkey fryer I got at Lowe's for $25), a $3 Salvation Army stainless steel pot, and a pair of old diving weights. I used some super cheapo aluminum sheets that I bought at Home Depot for about $1.50 and cut to size with my EMT shears along with some plumber's putty to create a mold right in my backplate. Picture of that here. After the pour, it looked like this and this mounted on the plate. It's about 8 pounds, and I don't need any more weight with a drysuit. Using just plumber's putty it should be easy to make one more like 4 to 6 pounds.

This was the first time I ever did any sort of work with metal or lead... so if I can do it, anyone can

With the combination of a channel weight and the heavy backplate, most people shouldn't need to wear much if any weight on a weight belt.. that's 14 pounds already.

 

[nyresq]

jonnythan... how do you get to your bolts and what holds in the weight???

 

[donacheson]

Wijbrandus once bubbled...
I'm curious about something. How do people who dive a bp/w setup mount their weights? As I understand the GUE website, the weight is to be mounted somehow on the backplate? How do you ditch them then?

I put about half of my lead on my (soft) tank bands close to the backpack. The rest goes on a weight belt.

DIR/GUE? Not important to me. <G>

 

[jonnythan]

nyresq once bubbled...
jonnythan... how do you get to your bolts and what holds in the weight???

I don't bother with bolts really. The cam straps hold it in very securely by themselves. Sometimes I use two of the MC pack bolts (with the flat nut) to hold it all together.

If I were to do it again (which I might), I'd screw the wingnuts and bolts into the bp *then* do the pour... then the wingnuts will be embedded into the weight itself and it could screw directly to the plate. I'd need to get another pair of wingnuts for when I'm diving without the weight, but that's no big deal.

It was really easy... the hardest part was actually sitting around waiting for the lead to melt. I was impatient and felt weird about melting lead in a public park (a barbecue area with an all gravel ground, no one was around.. I didn't want to do it in my dry grassy backyard), so I rushed it and didn't let the lead get hot enough. Hence the ugliness of the weight. If it mattered, I'd get a plumbing propane torch at Home Depot and smooth it out, but it functions just fine. If you have any questons or anything about exactly what I did or used, just ask.

 

[nyresq]

so then I take it that you only use this with a single tank?
I would guess no doubles with this set up, as I can't see how you would hold it in place..

 

[jonnythan]

nyresq once bubbled...
so then I take it that you only use this with a single tank?
I would guess no doubles with this set up, as I can't see how you would hold it in place..

Well, yes. If I had embedded the wingnuts in the lead by installing the bolts *then* pouring, it would work for doubles. Then you wouldn't need the camband slots... or you could do both and use it for both. Course you could always pour a v-weight for doubles, too.

 

[roakey]

V weights for double cylinders, P weight for singles or doubles...

This is a good link:

http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/vweight/pweight.htm

Roak