Vintage Double Hose

Pretty Neat! I'll let him chime in and give you the details. I thought I would get the ball rolling by posting the pictures 1st.

Thanks for posting the pictures Bryan. This will be my standard vintage set up. They have the US Divers solid bar manifold and reserve (thanks to SeaRat for the pull rod) and the US Divers military bands and harness. The bands and harness are available for both 6.9 and 7.25 diameter tanks. I bought them from Mar-Vel in New Jersey and they usually have a couple sets in stock. The harness is very adjustable so you can get the tanks right where you want them. The regulator is a US Divers Royal Aqua Master (circa 1971) that I bought from Dan at Vintage Scuba Supply. I had a long yoke installed by Bryan so I can use the banjo fitting and a SPG. There is a LP adapter on the hookah attachment and I installed a Sherwood Shadow Plus Octo/inflator so I could have second air and BC inflation on one hose. I had to get a 39" hose since the hookah attachment is on the right side and must come around to the left side to attach to my Sunfish. I have used the setup on my other set of doubles and it works well. If you don't use the inflator then the octo can attach to the right side of the BC, and as someone said on another forum, your inflator becomes CO2!

John

John, where did you get your harness ? Also, have you tried putting your banjo fiting facing down as opposed to up? It works on some setups and makes it more stremlined....I think Rob does it that way. Less stuff to hang up on. The cylinders look fantastic!

You are correct Bryan. I do indeed mount my banjo on my doubles downward so the hose runs between the tanks and out to the right or left side. I find that to be much cleaner. I love the old military style harness. Ever since I was a little boy and first saw Tom aka Captain diving his set up I searched and saved until I got my little hands on a set of nice 72s and a military harness of my own. I have never regreted it.

I like the rig. What size cylinders are those? I also like the idea of using the second air/inflator to reduce hose clutter though that piece of equipment it is not exactly vintage. I am curious also as to how secure the tanks are with that type harness. I have used that type harness with a single and it was not all that solid feeling which is why I built my "Double 50s" around a Hammerhead backplate system (but then that is not all that vintage either) That said the backplate offers a very secure and yet flexible mounting for a variety of equipments.

Congrats on the beautiful set up, what BC do you plan to use with it?

Pic is of my Double 50s used on the Florida Vintage trip and recently in Table Rock etc for the sake of comparison.

James

Hey Nemrod, How quickly we forget. Both Tom and I use that style of harness and bands. I cannot speak for Tom, but I can say that coupled with my one piece USD manifold everything is solid and secure. Next March I will have to let u try mine out. Tom let me dive his in Alexander spring 2 years ago and I was sold.

The tanks are 50cuft and I bought the bands and harness from Mar-Vel in New Jersey. I have two sets of 50s with the bands and harness and find they are quite solid. I'll try orienting the banjo fitting down - hadn't thought of it. Thanks for the tip!

John

The bands look great and very strong, no, I was wondering how "solid" that type harness holds the rig to the diver. It seems I remember them sliding about a bunch but then it could have been that the harness I used so long ago was wron out and to big for me.

I think that vintage type of harness has an advantage in that it can easily be adjusted to keep the tanks low on your back. My Hammerhead backplate wants to sit a little higher than optimum. I cured that by leaving the shoulder loops a little longer than normal and it still works OK when used in a modern configuration but that is a problem when adapting any modern equipment to vintage diving. The advantage of the backplate is that it snaps of the double sets and onto singles or whatever with a couple of wings nuts. It can accept a wing or be dived with a horsecollar like my Seachute etc, very flexible that way. AND, there is plenty of room to locate D-Rings per DIR locations--those D rings really are useful to standardize locations of equipment, clip off the spg, carry a light etc.

How do you go about buying from Marvel? I had my bands custom made to fit the Sherwood manifold c/c dimensions.
James

Hi Nemrod,
I have found that it takes a little trial and error to get the harnness just right. Mar-Vel has a website - www.mar-vel.com. You can phone in an order or you can register as a customer on the site.

John