The independent (twins) traveller

[Spike Jackson]

I have got an OMS double bladder wing that I want to use for travelling. I have a steel backplate for Uk diving and an ali plate which I intend to travel with. The ali plate for some reason does not have camband slots. I will be webbing the plate myself. I'm wanting to use it for the Red Sea, Chuuk and (when I win the lottery) Bikini.

Questions - how do I go about attaching independent twins to the backplate? Short of the obvious which is to take steel bands and bolts with me? Weight is obviously very important!

I have looked at the Buddy twinning bands-and-blocks - could I use their bands and thread them through cam band slots in the plate? Another possibility that has occurred to me is to drill holes in the blocks themselves and bolt them on to the plate. Is this do-able?

Can I cut cam band slots into the ali plate without seriously weakening it? What's the best way of doing this?

If anyone has come up with a brilliant system would be very keen to hear about it!

[Kate R]

<font color='#000080'>fraid i don't really know much about it, but i do use buddy twinning bands and i'm sure i've heard of people putting bolts through the blocks. they're pretty sturdy.

from looking at the BP020 OMS backplate it looks like you would have to cut more slots to use the twinning bands properly - it wouldn't work with just the one pair of slots.   you'd have to speak to people more knowledgable than myself to find out how though!

although look at the review of the OMS wing here - mentions using buddy twinning bands, but doesn't say how....

[Kate R]

<font color='#000080'>aha! found something for you

http://www.stevecowley.com/diving/tw...ependents.html

[Mark Chase]

I think Skipper (Dave Aplin) uses this idea. It sounds good. I think Dave has some pics posted under the which wing thread concerning fitting indys to a Halcyon BP.

You should have baught a Custome Divers rig M8 POP with one of them &nbsp;

ATB

Mark Chase

[MickG]

It is very easy to fit twin independant cylinders to the OMS wing or indeed any similar backplate. I posted this method before but here goes again.

Using the buddy twinning bands and blocks couple these up to a single tank adaptor. I use one from Outlaw Divers, but any similar low cost STA would do. This STA needs to be mounted the wrong way round from normal so that the concave face is next to the wing and the convex face looks towards the cylinders, i.e. pointing backwards. Each buddy band is then fed through the plastic block as per normal set up with each band also passing through it's own single slot in the STA and out around the edge of the STA. Using 50mm long ss bolts, washers and nuts bolted tight onto the STA you can then set the bolt projection through the concave side to the correct length to fix through your backplate.

I and now quite a few other club members have sucessfully used this method to twin up independants for some more adventurous dives in the red sea and elsewhere.

Regards

Mike

[Darren27]

OMS do a set of twinning bands for use with indi cylinders. They are much like the buddy bands except they they are designed to bolt through the BP and not threat through cam slots. They are listed on the OMS website, but not on the Divers warewarehouse web site.


I was diving recently with a guy who had a very similar set of bands fom Narked at 60, dont know how much they cost.

Darren

[Darren27]

Found the NAS bands, not cheap but very nice and no modifications needed to get them to fit.


http://www.narkedat60.com/store/item...p?id=22-32-153

[Darren27]

The OMS bands are here, no price though. I'm sure you could find them via the net somewhere.


http://www.omsdive.com/softband.html

[Fiona]

I took my ali backplate and OMS wing to the Redsea in Sept. I tried to get a single tank adapter but DW didn't have any in stock. I bought one of SDS's own, try them they might be able to do something for you, if they don't already. Theirs was a bit cheaper than the OMS one.

[NotDeadYet]

What I used to do was get a Dive Rite single tank adapter but to mount it back to front. This is a sort of C profile, normally worn concave so a single bottle sits in it. Back to front it sits convex so the indys sit either side of it. I just used the cam bands on the adapter to hold the bottles.