Armadillo with a single tank

[hudson]

Hiya,

Does anyone here ever dive the Armadillo with a single tank? I'm worried about wobble/stability. From what I gather the Nomad is just fine in that regard (trying to decide between the two), but I couldn't find much feedback about the Armadillo.

Thanks!

[standingbear56]

Hello,
I have no experience with the Armadillo, but I do use a Nomad. Since it's based on Dive Rite's Trans Pac, the Nomad does fine with a single cylinder. There is a little wobble, but no more than one would accept with any soft pack BCD. I've never had a problem with it. For that matter I also tried it with BM doubles, and it handles them fine also, but you do need the stabilizing plates.
Hope this helps.
George

[rrosepiler]

I hear the armadillo is a nice rig, but there is one main thing that makes the nomad better the lift. The armadillo only has 35lbs of lift compared to the new nomad which Lamar just increased to a 60lb lift mainly because those carrying stage bottles weren't gettingthe lift they need. I can tell you from exclusively using the nomad its the better way to go. We use ours not just for caving but also for single take artifact diving in the sante fe and it works great. Its even better if you can get an extra set of cam bands to leave one on your sidemount tanks and the other ones to slide into the transpac to single tank dive. The other thing about the nomad is the fact that with the stabilizing plates sold separately you can carry doubles or you can also use it for rebreathers which has become very popular with rebreather divers so they can sidemount their back up gas. No I don't work for Dive Rite but I am a big fan of their equipment and when it comes to sidemount right now I feel they have the market. Good luck on your choice I hope I could help.