[Outlaw]

Hello guys,

i had a discussion with a friend of mine who owns another rebreather, and i had to explain why i preffer to have my tanks upright, and not leave it as the factory makes it (or delivers it anyway).

so, out of curiosity, who has also done this? how many megs have been "modified" to upright tanks?

is there any way we can have an estimation of what percentage is the upright ones compared to the whole meg users community?

any of the moderators can make this into a questionaire thing? (i am not able to do it)

Thanks.

Spyros

[mountain diver]

At the moment I dive my unit this way, tanks up-right.




http://www.rebreatherworld.com/megal...-colour-3.html










all the best.

[mempilot]

Spyros,

For me, I leave them inverted. I do this for a couple of reasons:

1. I dive steals and my trim seems to be fine without changing anything
2. I am one of those divers that finds reaching the valves easier when I reach down my sides vs back over the shoulder

When I was diving OC doubles, I found while diving dry that I really had to stretch to get a hold of the valves and would often cramp towards the end of a dive if I decided to futz with it then. I'd have to measure the distance between valves on a manifold vs the Meg, but I think I would really have a heck of a time doing it A) quickly or B) constantly ie. feathering the O2 if I deinverted.

So for me, I'm not messing with what works for me and my rig. I know Cederic likes his de-inverted which shortens hoses and puts them the way God intended them to be. I acknowledge his reasoning, but I'm choosing to keep them the way Leon intended them to be.

[PaulTG2]

Hello,

I haven't converted to upright tanks yet, but I am getting more and more interested in doing so. For me it has less to do with trim as it does protecting the valves and 1st stage regulators. With the tanks inverted they are a very vunerable position when on the boat. Some racks are worse than others... particularly because the rebreather doesn't fit in any of the tank racks.

I'd love someone to build a rebreather that fits the standard tank mounts on a boat.

-p

[mempilot]

Quote: (Originally Posted by PaulTG2)

Hello,

I haven't converted to upright tanks yet, but I am getting more and more interested in doing so. For me it has less to do with trim as it does protecting the valves and 1st stage regulators. With the tanks inverted they are a very vunerable position when on the boat. Some racks are worse than others... particularly because the rebreather doesn't fit in any of the tank racks.

I'd love someone to build a rebreather that fits the standard tank mounts on a boat.

-p

Paul,

I hear you. To remedy the valve protection on the boat, I just rotate the tanks slightly in on the canister. \ O /

I think the valves are better protected in overheads with them inverted though.

Eric

[luxrok]

I di-inverted my tanks. I spend almost all my time using my AL19's. I have steel 19's for saltwater. I needed to find a way to fix the trim without adding any additional weight. I use a modified butt plate to "side-mount" my bailout tanks. Moving the tanks that far down my body, made me very leg heavy.

The only solution seemed to be to flip the tanks. I can reach my valves equally well in either orientation. I am still using my manifold which made hose routing easy, I just need to change the HP hoses and the LP feeds. This change did wonders for my trim, no more fighting with it.

I do not currently like the routing of my HP spg hoses. I have them both on my left together. I am not sure about a solution for this yet.

I know that Patrick from Protech in Playa Del Carmen also has de-inverted his tanks. I believe he has done it for similar reasons.

I have to admit that the valves and the breathing hoses are not as well protected when in an overhead environment in this configuration. I have thought about getting covers for the top section of the loop. Maybe cordora wraps.

The unit is much more boat and setup friendly. The bottom of the tanks and the can are level now. The unit seems more stable when sitting on the ground.

I am in the states right now. When I get back to Mexico, I will post some images and maybe a short on this topic.

Hans

[cedricverdier]

Hi,

One benefit of de-inverting the tanks is to be able to use any size of rental tanks you find without having to re-route/shorten the regulators hoses.
There is a de-inverting guide here.
I know at least 10 Meg divers with de-inverted tanks and they look quite happy with that (good trim, etc).

Cheers

[Outlaw]

Thanks guys,

anyone has a link to the cave cover? this way everything should be well protected right?

personally i like my set up like this.


Cheers Cedric. that is the article i used as my guide when decided to invert mine!!!


Spyros

[Chris]

So out of curiosity and in the (unlikely Megs don't fail) event your solenoid did fail open have you guys tried to do an accent from a serious depth while maintaining a constant PO2, opening and closing the tank valve in the so called de-inverted position? Or are you just bailing out to OC?

It seems to me that if you wanted to stay on the loop you would be in for some serious hard work during the trip home ?

Cheers
Chriso

[gtzavelas]

I have also de-inverted my tanks – and I am quite happy with the setup
I think cedric’s article mentioned above summarizes pretty well the advantages

As for the Solenoid stuck open scenario, the way I practice it is un plug the QC4 quick connection and run the unit via the manual O2 addition inflator leaving the O2 tank open.
To unplug the QC4 can be really a pain as it is in a bad position – but you only need to do it once