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At 4:37 PM 1/1/96, <john.r.strohm@BI*.co*> wrote: > At the time I bought the Mark V, it was the industry standard for > commercial air diving, and I have been completely satisfied with it. At > the same time, it is, fundamentally, twenty years old. At the time I > bought the At-Pac, it was state-of-the-art (the At-Pac is the original > grand-daddy of all of the modern "wings" BCs). I trained on it in Basic, > and I strongly prefer it to both the older horse collar design AND the more > modern jacket design. > > Gang, in your collective opinions, is it reasonable to overhaul this gear > again and bring it up-to-date? I can see where overhauling the At-Pac > might not be worth doing, when compared to buying a new BC. The Mark V is > a harder question: it is CERTAINLY suitable for backup duty. Scubapro is > still using that same basic first stage design, and there just isn't that > much you can say wrong about your basic downstream valve second stage. I > am pretty certain I will have to replace the submersible pressure gauge in > any event. > > So. Comments? > > Initially at least, the gear will be used in pool and fresh water, shallow > depths (refresher work first, then getting back to currency). I anticipate > doing salt water work with it, probably at shallow to medium depths (say > not much deeper than 60 fsw). > > EVENTUALLY, I know I am going to be buying new(er) gear. The question is > how soon am I going to have to start biting bullets. I already know there > is a new wetsuit in my future. > if you can have your regulator serviced up to spec there is no reason why it wouldn't be fine, especially for shallow diving. you WILL find, however, that newer models really do breathe noticeably better, especially when working harder and/or going deeper try some and see if it's worth it to you to upgrade certainly it's easy to have the integrity and accuracy of your SPG checked the AT-pac had its problems..notably the tendency for the lead shot used in it to clump together and not dump safely...but if the bladder is fine you can always use it as a BC and wear a weight belt separately... i'm not much of a fan of integrated weight BC's in general for the same reason, but that's just me (and everyone i have any respect for <g>) obviously you already know that your choice is not just between horse collars (which are almost non-existent) and jacket/ADVi style BCs there ARE the wings types which, it seems, you'll prefer without knowing what type of diving you plan on doing it's hard to make much more of a recommendation w2
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