Attaching a pony?

[MATTBIN]

AP Valves do the cam bands, your local shop should be able to get them, or ebay sometimes (£15/20 on ebay I think). I've used them (as Bryan/Finless says) they were fine if a slight faff between dives if you swap to a second cylinder. Currently I dive twins indies on cam bands. Dont bother with a button pressure gauge, if you want a gauge make sure you can read it during the dive. I used to dive mine with the valve down, gas it up before I hit the water and turn it off as I went in, just in case it leaked during the dive.
Weighting - ensure you weight yourself with an empty main cylinder (leave a little in during the test though - just in case) and a near empty pony so you can hold a 6m stop if you have to, get a buddy to help doing this. You will be in taht situation if the crap hits the fan, its no good weighting yourself with 50 in the main cylinder (unless you compensate of course).

HTH

Local farm should be able to supply the hay, the pony droppings are good for your roses.

Matt

[gwilson]

I use to cam band mine to a dumpy 12 but that made me feel lopsided, there was a thread on here a while back about side slinging a pony. I tried that and for me its brilliant once in the water you dont know its there, but its easy to reach to get to the 1st stage if need be.

[MATTBIN]

Originally Posted by gwilson

I use to cam band mine to a dumpy 12 but that made me feel lopsided, there was a thread on here a while back about side slinging a pony. I tried that and for me its brilliant once in the water you dont know its there, but its easy to reach to get to the 1st stage if need be.

Did you compensate by sliding a bit more weight onto the other side of your weight belt?

Matt

[gwilson]

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

Did you compensate by sliding a bit more weight onto the other side of your weight belt?

Matt

Yep i tried that and also tried off setting it by putting weight in my bcd pockets, and also tried attaching pony at different positions but for me the best way was side slung. Now just hook it on and don't notice it is there.

[broady]

On a similar theme - does here anyone sidesling a 7? This is probably how I'm going to go but just wondered if weighting is an issue?

Cheers

G

[MATTBIN]

Originally Posted by broady

On a similar theme - does here anyone sidesling a 7? This is probably how I'm going to go but just wondered if weighting is an issue?

Cheers

G

Might be better to open a new thread in the Techie section.
Matt

[big_si]

Originally Posted by broady

On a similar theme - does here anyone sidesling a 7? This is probably how I'm going to go but just wondered if weighting is an issue?

Cheers

G

I've got a 7L stage and don't notice any difference in trim in the water. Doesn't really affect my weighting at all either. 2kg with stage, 3kg without.

Shouldn't notice any difference with a pony

HTH Si

[Twinsetmad]

I always dive a wing...and with 3/7/10ltr side slungs when you have done it a few times, its not a problem. Do it and practice.

[Tony Jay]

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

Tony
it is also usefull to be able put the pony after the bcd has been put on, with a rear mounted pony this has to be lifted in one go and/or carried as one lump, can be quite heavy. Side sling gets around this issue.
Matt

This is obviously an issue, but not enough to justify for most. These same people we are advising now, are probably going to be asking about twin 12's next year.

Originally Posted by MATTBIN

I cant agree that a single cylinder diver shouldnt be able to turn off his pony, its not rocket science and what happens if he loses his buddy and needs to throttle the pony, its a skill that should be learnt at the earliest opportunity. If you are UK diving you should be self sufficient (unless you are DIR of course but that is quite a step from newbie/inexperienced diver). I put a pony on my bcd almost from day 1 in UK diving and knew how to throttle it if needs be.
Matt

I guess that is just a different way of diving. From day 1 I have tried not to lose my buddy (whether leading or following) and then kit failure is like having the reserve parachute fail. Also throttling a cylinder just turns it off to reduce bubbles, it generally does not make it usable (unlike on a manifolded set).
Self sufficient is a subjective term. There are many ways to deal with problems, . i.e. if you lose buddy and pony on a dive, just surface. It is no different than not having the pony in the first place.
I think if one is doing diving that requires shutdowns one is beyond a Pony.
But that is just an opinion !

Why is equipement failure discussed at such length when it always seems to be the kit between the ears that fails first.

Tony

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by nomis

Thanks chaps, I think I'll try the cam band option to begin with, plus a bit of hay. Any ideas where to get these from and what do I attach to? I find the problem with asking questions is that it inevitably leads to more! I don't go on pool sessions at the moment, but I would be playing with it at Horsea Island first.

I got mine off ebay, it's called a pony tamer and is permanently clamped to the pony but has a camstrap/clamp affair to fit it to the cylinder and is fitted and removed in the same way as your bcd.

Only problem I found with my 10L dumpy was actually having enough space to fir it and the BC, a bit of a squeeze and it limits your options as to where you can fit the bc (ie up or down) on the cylinder.

Like Mattbin, I also find that combined with my 15L, it's quite a lift, especially when I'm pulling the thing back into our club boat, which is quite high-sided.

I've recently acquired a 4L pony; this is aluminium and whilst slightly negative, won't have too much impact on my buoyancy if I hand it off to another diver - I'm pretty well one of the few in our club down here, 3 of us I think, who carry a pony and although primarily it's for me, I'd prefer to be able to hand it over holus bolus to an OOA buddy rather than have him hanging off of my occie for the ascent.

I now side sling this cylinder and found, much to my surprise, that it's weightless in the water and doesn't get in my way at all, although it is a bit of a problem in this set up for catching crayfish, which involves thrusting my arm down deep crevices. The side sling is easy to set up and way way cheaper than a pony clamp setup to hang it off your primary cylinder.

If you want to see the set up for the side-sling, PM me, I have some photos of it now.

Richard M.