Monuting on the Ybod case?

[Brass Monkey]

I’ve noticed a lot of people are mounting bottles directly onto the Ybod, Argon, bail out, Oxy whatever. I have did this with a Metal Sub bracket and 3L pony, I have a 2m hose on it and carry it as much if not more for an octo for my buddies. This I have on the left (lean) side. The trouble is no matter how I attach the bottle I find it almost impossible to reach the dil bottle valve. Not such a big deal with the dil bottle but mounting on the Oxy side would be very naughty. I had hoped to eventually mount a rich mix on the Oxy side but until I can find a way that allows me to easily operate the onboard valves then that will have to stay on the shelf.
Anyone had similar problems and found a way around them? I like the idea of keeping as much on my back as possible. Light years down the road I may think about side slung 7L stages but for what I’m doing now that’s way OTT. Bear in mind that I’m still very much at the Muppet stage of CCR diving.


Regards,

Dave.

[Padowan]

Originally Posted by Brass Monkey

I’ve noticed a lot of people are mounting bottles directly onto the Ybod, Argon, bail out, Oxy whatever. I have did this with a Metal Sub bracket and 3L pony, I have a 2m hose on it and carry it as much if not more for an octo for my buddies. This I have on the left (lean) side. The trouble is no matter how I attach the bottle I find it almost impossible to reach the dil bottle valve. Not such a big deal with the dil bottle but mounting on the Oxy side would be very naughty. I had hoped to eventually mount a rich mix on the Oxy side but until I can find a way that allows me to easily operate the onboard valves then that will have to stay on the shelf.
Anyone had similar problems and found a way around them? I like the idea of keeping as much on my back as possible. Light years down the road I may think about side slung 7L stages but for what I’m doing now that’s way OTT. Bear in mind that I’m still very much at the Muppet stage of CCR diving.


Regards,

Dave.

As I went straight from a single tank to twins and then got 7L sidemounts, before I got the box, I don't actually own any 3L pony cylinders to use for offboard bailout. My plan was to buy a couple of AP cylinders with the funny Inspiration valves on, and these can be used on either side for off board bailout, but could also be used inboard if I go somewhere really remote and need the extra gas or if I want to have 'mix in one and air in another for differend dives over a weekend.

At the moment I've got an argon cylinder on the left side for suit inflation, and I mounted this on a snap on the cam-band - I had to rotate the cylinder so that the valve pointed forward about 45 degrees from straight out, as this allowed mucy easier access to the inboard dil valve.

Not sure if this helps?

[Brass Monkey]

Thanks Padowan, It's not so much the off board valve that's getting in the way it's the physical size of the 3L bottle, no matter how much I move it up or down on the bracket it still makes reaching the onboard valve difficult. I have tried mounting it valve up and valve down either way there's not much in it so I don't know if the AP type valve would make much difference. I have two of the AP O2 bottles on account of only being able to get 120 - 130 bar O2 fills (one day my booster will come). I like the Idea of the extra off board gas mounted on the unit itself, what I don’t like is anything interfering with the basic operation of the unit.
Having never used Argon before I assume that your Argon bottle is a 1.5 or 2L and therefore physically much smaller than a 3L. I know that a lot of people have mounted the 3L's to the box, now I wonder just how well they can reach the onboard valves.


Regards,

Dave.

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by Brass Monkey

The trouble is no matter how I attach the bottle I find it almost impossible to reach the dil bottle valve.

Yes.
Exactly.

I have Argon on the left and a dirty great cannister torch on the right and the does mean that the arm doesn't just sweep back as easily as it used to and find the valve. I edged them both up a bit and it now works but it is a problem. I need to turn my arm so the hand comes inside the elbow and the elbow points forwards... (I'm not explaining that very well am I?)

I've needed to shut the DIL off live when the AutoFreeflow objected to being asked to fill a blob but I've never touched the oxygen except on a drill.

nigelH

[Padowan]

Yep, the Argon cylinder is a 1.5L ally one, and is quite a bit shorter than a 3L. I am eventually planing to use this bottle as an O2 cylinder to mount somewhere (perhaps on the bottom of the unit) to provide an offboard O2 supply, which will be plumbed into the manual O2 add button.

Surely for normal 3l tanks, if you mounted then high enough so that the valve is above the valve on the onboard tank you should be able to reach past it..? With my Argon mounted this way, I can easily reach both the onboard and offboard valves (remember I rotated the bottle in the jubilee clips to the valve points 45 degrees forward, so my arm can pass this valve on the way to the onboard one - before I did this the valve on the argon got in the way of reaching the onboard valve) I imagine that if I mounted a 3 in this way, in the same position, it would just protrude above the case maybe 6-8 inches? Which in actuality, might also mean that you can remove weight from the pouch on top of the unit...

For my bailout tanks, I'm likely to side mount these, but I'm currently working out the best way to do this using a cave-diving sidemount style, which put the bottles right along side you further down towards your hips, with the vlave almost under your armpit. This way they should get in the way less than traditional deco tank mounts on the hip and chest D-Rings. - I'll do this with 7's to begin with.

[Brass Monkey]

It’s possible the only way I can now mount the bottle higher is to re mount the Metal Sub bracket. I originally mounted it so the strap was in the center, looks like it will have to be at the bottom. I’ll try and mount the pony even higher but I think I was maxed out on this last time I tried.

I see what you say about the way you have to bend your arms Nigel, body mechanics and all that, I’ll give the elbow forward method a try next time I’m down.


Dave.