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hi was just wondering if anyone has switched the dump valve and inflator hose over on the sms 100. It would mean the inflator hose coming up from bottom left and been in a better posistion for sidemount. only draw back i can see is the hose might get damaged under the pressure of the harness?
Frank at Cave Adventurers set mine up with the dump valve on the left shoulder and the inflator on the bottom. It's the way Edd dives, it works well. The dump valve will dig into my shoulder out of water, but works fine in the water. A Dive Rite inflator hose is more flrxable the the Hollis, and don't use tie wraps to secure it, use the metal band clamp, if you ever have to manually inflate it, you will have to stretch it quite a bit, and a tie wrap may come off. Hose gets no damage at all, I've seen harnesses that have thousands of dives on them, and the hose (Dive Rite) holds up well.
Now, I'm a novice at Cave Diving, so take anything I say with a grain of salt.
hose won't get damaged, it's flexible corrugated tubing anyway. I don't like the way hollis chose to put the top dump on the inside of the wing, but it's not going to pinch into you if you have the harness set up right. May if you are walking around with tanks on, but with just the harness it shouldn't. the inflator should be long enough coming from the bottom to EASILY orally inflate the wing. You shouldn't have to stretch it, so all this you see about keeping the inflators short in tech diving doesn't apply here. It needs to easily reach your mouth. One of my buddies swapped them on his sms100 and it works just fine with the stock hose from hollis
thats great will give it a go! sorry when i said about the hose getting damaged was more refering to the hard plastic bit the corrugeted hose goes onto. It just seems a bit squashed by the webbing on the harness.
If I remember correctly, the stock hose when mounted at the bottom is nowhere near long enough to orally inflate without stretching it, unless maybe you bend way over at the waist? About the only way I can see to keep it tucked in and tight is to position it underneath the dry suit valve, and if it's there, your not getting it into your mouth without stretching the hose. I run the inflator hose(small one coming from the second stage, not the big corrugated one) under the harness, but over the chest strap, which tends to hold the inflator in position. I do have two, 2lb weights on my harness which is probably why the dump valve digs in, but it's no problem really, the only reason I mentioned it was to ensure you that if yours did while fitting the thing in the living room, that it's no problem when in the water. If I had my druthers, I'd have had Hollis put the valve on the top of the wing too.
Thats how I have mine and I love it. I did switch it out for the 18" DiveRite one. Having the longer hose for me made all the difference in being able to manually inflate of not but I have the 2XL. There is no way I could see it getting damaged and no damaged has occurred to mine.
As for the one guy not liking the top dump on the inside of the wing I have to say that is somthoing I love it that way because you are much less likely to have rocks from the roof fall down and jam open your dump leaving you with no buoyancy control.
I have the Hollis and the Edd inflator hose / dump valve switch. I've dove it probably about 75 times now and it seems to work well. I've switched out the inflator twice though due to issues I've experienced. In fact, on my last few dives in Mexico last week, I found it to be self-inflating. However, I don't attribute this to the configuration.
UTD.
Right from the beginning, I had the original inflator leaking gas, I swapped it out with an Ocenic one from an old dead open water BC I had years ago. The y look identical, I think mayne Hollis and Oceanic are the same company.
they are not the same but come from the same line of people. http://www.oceanicworldwide.com/us/about-oceanic/ (see Hollis Gear)Quote:
Originally Posted by a64pilot
I am 5'11" and 240 lbs. I have the Hollis SMS 100 in a L-XL, and have put only about 10 OW dives, and 5 pool dives. I have swaped the inflator and dump valve several times. When the inflator was mounted on the bottom I could not manually inflate. I have since mounted the inflator in the standard position. If your diving configuration calls for mounting the inflator on the bottom, then I would recomend purchasing a longer hose.
Yes they are, they are owned by AUP.Quote:
Originally Posted by whodunit68
I did the inflator swap when I still had my Recon, which is what Hollis copied to make the SMS100. I do like the inflator hose coming from the bottom, but it is just my personal preference. Use it whichever you prefer. Not sure how often or why you would be manually inflating in a SM passage, but whatever works for the diving you do.
correct that they are owned by the same owner but incorrect that they are the same company.Quote:
Originally Posted by jcook
2 companies operating independently.
from the same URL:
"To build products that continue to revolutionize diving, Hollis has created several sister companies under the American Underwater Products family:"
Quote:
Originally Posted by whodunit68
I use the same, I've been very happy with it.