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On Fri, 1 Dec 1995, Michael G. Dowler wrote: > Does anyone out there have any experience (good or bad) with the USD > triple 30 cubic foot tank set-up? It consists of 3 Al 30's with a manifold > surrounded by a plastic case and has been out of production for some time. > Are there any hydrodynamic or weight benefits that offset the maintenance of > 3 tanks instead of 1? > THanks, > Mike I'm not an expert...I've just lusted after them for years. They made two runs of 'triples', I believe, and the ones most folks are familiar with are the grey-shrouded ones. They were originally designed to be used with a USD BC because of circular-shaped indentations in the hardpack that mated with the shrouds, but I think they can be adapted to any hardpack with some modifications. The up side is that you do get a fairly hydrodynamic profile with the shroud, which my local dive shop claims to make the 90 cu ft bottles the equivalent of a 100 in terms of consumption. Their words, not mine. The assembled rig is wonderful in terms of weight and balance and they look trick as hell. The down side is when you think about it, you need two sets of these things unless you want to do the pack modification boogie between your first and second dive to dive a standard tank. You also have 3x the hydro/vip responsibility. And, perhaps more important, you don't have the advantage (no flames, please) of a set of manifolded doubles. Mounting a pony sort of screws up the lovely hydrodynamics, though butt-mounting a 13cu ft under the shroud might work....but I don't like diving with less than a 30 cu ft pony for most stuff. For tech diving, I'm not sure if they're worth the tradeoff in flexibility/redundancy. I've heard pro and con about the manifolds themselves. Can't comment there. They're really neato, but tend to be pricey. I'd love to have a set, but then, I'd love to have a Draeger (she wrote, casting a baleful eye at her dual 72's). If you buy a set and don't like them, I'll make an offer on them :-) YMMV, of course. Victoria
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