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Post by scubalawyer on Jun 10, 2021 20:11:33 GMT -8
The VDH plate is not just for vintage, it works fine with anything but doubles. Herman why don't the VDH plates work well with doubles? I use my VDH backplate on my Twin steel 45's and it works fantastic with a double hose. I did have to drill an extra center hole in the plate to line up the bolt holes for the doubles bands. That plate (or a cutting board replica ) or a military-style harness are the only ways I'll wear doubles (excluding twin 80's back mount plates for cave diving with single hose regs of course). YMMV
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Post by herman on Jun 11, 2021 2:50:02 GMT -8
Yes Herman. Thats what i was asking, is there another plate that works almost as good as the vdh plate. Obviously im aware that anything will "work" but my question is specific to alternative backplates with similar or close to similar performance to vdh Forgive me if this is old news to you but if it's not I think it may help you understand how to choose a BC for DH use. One indicator of a Regs performance is cracking pressure (where the air starts to flow), this is measured in ICW - inches of water column. A good performing reg breaths around 1 ICW or less. This is greatly affected buy the position of a DH reg on the divers body, in contrast it has no effect on a single hose reg. Most metal BPs are bent for comfort and to leave a space for double band bolts, while making the BP more comfortable, this moves the tank away from the body by a inch or so. That does not seem like a big deal but when you realize that that extra inch away from your just doubled the cracking pressure from 1 ICW to 2 ICW or more, its a noticeable difference. Not only is the closeness to the body important but so is the position relative to the lungs, again modern BCs are designed to position the reg higher on the body, somewhere near the back of the neck, this is too high for a DH reg which should be between the shoulder blades, again, this has no impact on a SH reg. The BC also MUST keep the tank against the body during a dive so the harness must be snug, a loose BC will allow the wing to pick the tank and reg up off the diver adding additional space between the reg and the divers body. This is esp true if the diver is over weighted and and using the wing to compensate for it, jacket style BC are really bad in this respect. Bottom line, the BC must keep the reg as close the the body as possible, properly located between the shoulder blades and be snug. I am unaware of a modern BC that works well with a DH reg. Most (all??) modern BCs tend to move the tank and therefore the reg away from the body and position the reg too high, that works fine for a single hose reg but is really bad for a DH reg. Before the VDH plate a number of us modified soft pack BC's. One of the current soft diving backpacks may work, a crotch strap is a necessity. With all that said, there is another option, go old school and ditch the bladder/wing. I prefer the dive that way if I can. Going that route you can easily find one of the older BPs designed to be used with DH regs, the USD Kam-EZ and Voit Snugpack come to mind. I know this is a pain but well tuned, properly worn DH reg is a pleasure to dive. Well worth the effort IMO.
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Post by hgslick on Jun 11, 2021 5:00:21 GMT -8
Ill be more clear on my question in my future posts, I think that will help.
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