Changed Meg Setup for Cave Diving

York

Gregg (Wakulla Diving Center) and I had been kicking around the idea of changing the Meg Setup specifically for cave diving for several years now, even before Cedric bolted two 80s to his plenum. Staying at the dive shop for several weeks I finally decided to go ahead with the idea. Gregg provided all the hose lenghts and other parts we needed, and his shop is ideal for any kind of custom conversion and augmentation.
What had bugged us was that you always have to carry extra bailout, which you end up lugging around with you all the time anyhow, increassing dragg and profile. We would always carry extra 80s e.g. scootering to the end of the JB line, drop all but one and go exploring. The basic idea now was to change the diluent for a much larger tank to serve also as an initial bailout. This would be sufficient to return to the stages. The larger tank should be of the size of the plenum. The whole setup was to be configured like doubles.
What we ended up with is a very compact setup of the width of the original Meg, but with tons of bailout. As there is no stage to hand off it obviously requires a long hose. Reaching the valve on the diluent/bailout is like reaching the valve on a set of doubles.

The first two pictures show the empty plenum and the tank assembled as a set of doubles. The plenun is slightly rotated, and the then backwards facing clip is removed as it would break scraping the ceiling. The clip in the middle just clears the tank and wing seen in the third pic.
Pictures four and five indicate the mounting angle of the Tiger Mounts - slightly forward to reduce profile. The extra tiger mount on the bailout allows attaching an argon/suit inflation tank.
Picture six shows the off-set of the breathing hoses. As the Meg head has the breathing hose ports offset anyway, this setup merely reverses the offset to the other side. Longer breathing hoses are not needed.
Pic Seven shows the Meg ready to go.

Obviously the setup is not quite finished yet and needs some revision on details. An integrated BOV is the next logical step. An obvious concern is the reduction in redundancy by combining diluent and bailout. A drawback is to have to haul the whole rigg to the filling station to top off the diluent. We will play with a smaller oxygen tank and de-invert it to see how that performs. Currently, the whole setup dives no different than the Meg alone minus the bailuout stage, and squeezing through some tight spots is no more of an issue.

Joerg

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wedivebc

Why is your long hose placed there? Wouldn't placing it against your O2 tank or alongside the backplate make the front less cluttered?

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Cheers,

Dave....

Man is the only animal burdened with the knowledge he will eventually die

decoweenie

Joerg,

I have done a similar set-up on my XCR, except I used a 2L O2 bottle on the left hip similar to an Argon bottle instead of behind.

Great minds think alike...

York

Some details have changed since I took those pics, but I tried to keep the left side free for clipping on stages - the hose would get entangled in the valves too easily. I also want to be able to unroute and route the hose myself, which is why I kept it at the front. I was wondering if I should route the 7-foot hose over the breathing hoses to gain that extra foot.

J

York

I was thinking about the 2L O2, and it would be more than sufficient for the dive. However, you see the hose of my OC-bailout O2-reg routed down the inside of the right counterlung on the last pic. It has a shutoff valve to prevent accidental gas loss, and the thought being that why carry gas that you can't use in case of a OC bailout situation. This actually saved my bacon on one occasion. So I'll probably stay with 3 liters, but I will definately change to a steel cylinder. Do you have experience with non-inverted mounting?
J

PaulTG2

Hello,

An interesting configuration. Have you considered using an H (or Y) valve on the dilluent tank for redundancy.


-p

decoweenie

Not sure which tank you are referring to, but I used the diluent upright (as yours) and the O2 inverted (upside down) same as if using an Argon tank.

If the O2 tank was to be upright, I would have to slide it down more in order to get the tank valve.

At the time, I didn't have the CCR side-mount gear so didn't know how to deal with a longer tank (i.e. 3L) that far down my hip/thigh - but if I was to do the same now, I just side mount a 3L AL tank on the right side, and a bail-out deco tank on the left, if needed.

netmage

How does it balance in the water....?

What about the muscle memory flipping between valve on top vs. inverted....? Tho I don't suppose the requirement to shut down Dil at the valve is that drastic a concern... As ADV, BOV, inflator mechanisms (should) have shutoff/QD.

-Tim

tibby

There must be a way to attach the meg and dil tank in a detachable manner. I'm thinking an STA or something similar connected to the Meg side of two sets of Tiger mounts (instead of bands) allowing the dil tank to disconnect from both Meg and BP at the same time. It may take some machining but it should work. In the end all you need is two bolts attached to one side of the mounts.
I like the mod, simple and functional.
Tibby

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

netmage

You mean like an 'ole independant doubles rig? Or the more current Dive Rite Remora's....