My Meg setup - Info - comments - Advice welcomed!!!

Outlaw

Hello guys,

as i have been a member of this forum for over a year now, and since then i can honestly say that through the forum i learnt a lot from more experienced divers, got answers for questions i had, made friends and generally feel pretty good about the existance of this forum, i have decided to do this post in order to show the set up of my unit. i have been spending most of my recent free time on finding the best setup and each time i was changing this to that, that to this etc... and now i am finished. i think i have the final set up and this is how i would have my unit. therefore i took some pictures,

and posting these here, in order to show what is what and why. i expect some feedback, info or comments on this. you never know. you mind end up making me change the whole set up again. just justify it for me.

Thanks. i hope you'll enjoy it.

1. i started diving my meg with the white 3L steel tanks, which i did not like a lot. i prefer my unit to be black/ dark so since then i was trying to find some tanks that can stand upright, something which the ones i had could not. i ended buying some catalina 3L cylinders, same ones used in the zeagle rapid diver system. the problem was that if i was to use them with the tiger gear, they ended "widening" the meg a lot, therefore i could not pass through a few places in a wreck i dive a lot. so i got rid of the tiger gear and got the shadow mounts. the good thing is that the catalina with the steel cylinders are exactly same weight!!!
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2. for doing so i had to adjust the webbing because it was ok to place to steel tanks, but the "fatter" tanks would not go on the unit. it was also hard to place the shadow mounts, but once you placed them at the right place, then it was ok. now, i have 4 tanks, so i can travel and have extra set of tanks in the boot or boat for diving. very easy to clip them on. here are the pics. is easy to see the difference.

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3. i had purchased a T bar made of stainless steel from Andy. it was supposed to be a handle bar so it would have been better for carrying the meg around, which is indeed, but then the idea came to me to place a weight pocket and have the weights there. i have tried it and its very good. its also no problem with the neck. you actually don't feel that the weight is there.
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4. now on my regs i have placed 2 Y-Blocks, one on the O2 reg and one on the Dil. the reason for this was that i have placed a Bov there fore i would need an extra hose, and then the idea of placing one on the O2 came to me in the thought that i usually dive alone. i always carry at least one bailout tank which has same as dil mix, and if deeper i carry another bailout having 50% nitrox. in the event that i would go on OC then i have the bottome mix, then the 50% for deco and also, because i placed some quick fittings, i can change the dil hose to my bov with the O2 hose and then i have another mix of pure 100% o2. you never know when you might need to accelerate the exit from water...or what might happen. anyway, there is not a hassle, and is easily done when needed.
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5. i am currently using an oms wing, which is a good one but the ends of it where "hanging" too low, resulting in giving me some hard time when placing the meg onthe floor or so, so i had some bungee tied to them lifting them up. the wing has served me very well, but i am in the process of purcharing a CCR-35 from halcyon. that is the only change that i plan to do unless i get some advice to act otherwise...(which we'll examine)
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6. now, i after setting them all together, i took some pictures with my legs showing so one can estimate the width of the meg with the "fatter" catalina tanks. also after placing the whole unit together, the total weight of the meg is 37.3 Kg. i dont think that is bad. how much is yours? this includes the 4.5kg i use for diving, which is in the pocket, and also having a complete new sofno amount in. as it is, the meg is ready to dive.
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7. you have see the picture with the bov, and you can see the hose with the green tape on it, next to the left counter lung with the QC on it. that is the hose for connecting O2 to the bov for OC use. also you can that i have placed all gas inlet (dil + O2 to the left lung) in the thought that this would be easier to handle. either when diving or scootering etc.
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i hope you enjoyed this one. i have tried to include as many pictures as possible as i like to watch pictures when i read posts myself. please give me your comments, the downsides, the upsides of it, and you never know. you might be either giving me more trouble, or making me a very happy diver.

Take care all.

Spyros

Attached Images

DSC_0095.JPG (160.5 KB, 6 views)

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Outlaw

sorry, forgot the pic with the other tank and the weight.

here it is.

Attached Images

DSC_0072.JPG (57.5 KB, 785 views)

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"Once an Outlaw, always an Outlaw"

Stephane

Hello Spyros,

I personally would feed the BOV from the bailout tank, not from the inboard.
Breathing from a 3l tank at depth is a (not so funny) joke. As it feeds also your wing, you will end very fast with an empty tank: nothing to breathe, nothing to bring you back to the surface.
As I don't dive a Meg, I can't tell you more about your configuration.

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womble

I agree.

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schford

Have you tried the ford flow - namely routing your hoses through the cam band strap gaps - will make hose routing on the Meg much neater.



Also threading the hoses through bicyle inner tube helps too.

Stuart

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Decodiver

Hi Spyros,

I agree with the two comments above, especially if you are going to use your wing for buoyancy beware of breathing down all your diluent.

I would also lose the toggle off the wing dump valve, they can get entangled and that can mean all your gas just dumps right out of the wing.

Just a small knot in it should give you enough fingertip purchase to operate it when necessary.

Cheers,

Dave.

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tibby

Hey Spyros,
I'm new at this stuff but I'm thinking in a scenario as you described needing to use the inboard O2 through the BOV you could use the existing O2 manual add QC hose and not need the extra QC O2 hose coming off the Y block. If that works you may be able to get rid of one hose.
I agree with you, the bungied OMS wing is overkill for the meg.
Thanks for taking the time to post this.
Tibby

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Does the voice of reason change when you add helium to the mix?...hmm

Steve

Whereas I would recomend having the BOV plumbed to onboard gas and using it as a transition to the actual bailout. The actual bailout will have a 2nd stage on it for others and I'd prefer to be on that 2nd stage if the fan had a brown hue.

I have issues with the recent change of name for an OC DSV to BOV as it implies that it is a panacea for bailout to newer divers. I firmly see it as a transition only. YMMV.

My only comment for your setup Spyros is with regard to the top weight. Is it more stable and comfortable there than when split into 2 an placed in the pockets at the top of your counterlungs? I prefer the weight located there....

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Fun Under Pressure

Hi Spyrus,

in one picture i see stage tanks in the background. Why not use an inflator hose on the 1st stage. When you need bailout plumb in from the stage tank´s. I use Ali 80 for my dive´s. When the inboard o2 stage or the soleonid failt´s i plumb into the o2 manuall inflator on the CL. Same way for diluent site. Thanks for the time to upload the pic´s.

Cheers Markku

fin

The T bar looks great, I hope its not so heavy. I will be very happy to read impressions on pelagian bov performance.

PS was the color the only reason you changed long tanks? how come you didn't change it?

Safe dives! (πατριωτακι)