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John I'm not sure which wings you own but most the wings I own have had the "strap windows". If yours do not have them ( as one set I own did not) this still is not a big problem. I just cut the windows into the wings and took them to a shoe repair shop and gave the guy $4.00 to sew around the slots. I had to do the same on the outer material of my wings near the bladder for the doubles set up so I could thread them on the outer edge of the back plate (you should not have to do the later since you don't need the independent doubles setup). Look at your wings closly and you will see what I'm talking about. The reasons manifolded doubles do not work in most sumps... (1) Can not drag them through tight low sections of airfilled cave (Sometimes miles of it) due to their physical size. (2) Even if the cave was huge and did permit you to carry them to the dive site you would still have to carry this heavy load long distances and you would most likely be pretty beat by the time you reached the sump. In most cases we are carrying nearly a half ton of tanks and gear for a push dive. Here is an example of one of the caves I'm working on here in the midwest....The entrance is high on the side of a bluff...After approx 600 ft. of airfilled passage the first sump is incountered... 240' then surface in chamber 1...After several thousand feet sump 2 is reached another short 185' until chamber two is reached. (these sumps are large enough for back mounted tanks) Traveling through another 1500' of river passage brings us to sump 3 where I have reached a depth of 160'+ and a 3000' pennatration with no end in site. So it is a matter of adapting to a system that lets me carry the independent tanks in, Then double them up at the sumps, then tear them back down to more managable kits for the difficult logistics that lay ahead. Sometimes there may be vertical drops that can also be a stop-gap. Some caves comand that side mounts be used. Still another cave takes trips that can run into the 72 hour range. This is not to imply that independents twins are more or less safe than manifolded doubles...its just a matter of adapting to a configuration that allows me to safely explore the caves in my region. Florida Springs are a completely different story......But I only go there twice a year...And I do use a manifold. "SILT HAPPENS"JD JEFF DISLER SAFE CAVING NSS 26000 >Jeff, this assumes you are using the Dive-Rite wings, or something similar, >that have built-in windows for the straps. My AUL backplate came with >those slots already cut, but I couldn't use them because my Seapro wings >don't have the strap windows. > >Just out of curiosity, why can't you use manifolded doubles in sumps? > >--John >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. >Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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