Taking it out for the first time today.

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2loud4u
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Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by 2loud4u »

Even though I swore up and down I would never ever do it... I finally broke down and bought me a scooter. I am taking it out today to Muk with H2o doc so I can break it in (not break it) and get the weighting dialed in, etc.

Anybody have ideas for weight differences for salt and fresh water?


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LCF
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by LCF »

Well, it should be 2.5% of the total weight of the scooter added for salt water, or something in the neighborhood of a pound.
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2loud4u
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by 2loud4u »

So its only 1.05 pounds added for salt water from fresh water?
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by Nwbrewer »

2loud4u wrote:So its only 1.05 pounds added for salt water from fresh water?

I only add like 4lbs to me when switching, so 1.05 for a CUDA sounds reasonable.
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2loud4u
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by 2loud4u »

Ok so this might be a dumb question. But how much difference will 1 pound make on the scooter?
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trevorrowe
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by trevorrowe »

Congratz! If you need help weighting it, just let me know. I weighted mine (Sierra) based on their tables, and then had to do fine tuning after that. You may want it nose-heavy and tail light, etc. I still need to weight mine properly for fresh as well.
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Paulicarp
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by Paulicarp »

YES! Congrats Brendan, nice choice ;)

trim weight is posted on this page on the bottom left:

http://www.dive-xtras.com/pages/support/support.asp
Last edited by Paulicarp on Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

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ljjames
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by ljjames »

It will make a huge difference.

Dragging on the silt vs. a helium balloon. a perfectly weighted and trimmed scooter is a delight. A not perfectly trimmed but neutral scooter can be sorted with tow cord whilst riding. A heavy scooter or light scooter is not so bad when you are on the trigger, but the starting and stopping and if you want to do anything once you get where you are going it can be a bit of PITA.


2loud4u wrote:Ok so this might be a dumb question. But how much difference will 1 pound make on the scooter?
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Mattleycrue76
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by Mattleycrue76 »

That's Awesome dude. Another one hits the crack pipe. :blackblink: :koolaid: Ideally to weight it you want to use 4 weight pouches. All four for saltwater, and two that you remove to adjust for freshwater. The difference isn't really huge though. I never bothered weighting mine for freshwater. While using the scooter in freshwater the difference is marginal. However when clipped off I prefer to have mine slightly nose heavy/tail light. The way it is now my scooter tends to hang straight down in SW. I only really use it FW in Lake Washington though and there I end up setting it down and kicking around the wreck.

BTW one of the best add ons is the SK-7 mount.

I wonder how many people we have to corrupt to get a Dive Xtras sponsorship for MMM :angelblue:
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by H20doctor »

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CaptnJack
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by CaptnJack »

2loud4u wrote:Ok so this might be a dumb question. But how much difference will 1 pound make on the scooter?
Big enough to be a silt bomb in the lake when you come off the trigger (just ask Bdub :p )
Or float up and behind you around your manifold when using freshwater weighting in Puget Sound.

If you spend an hour or so getting it right, all that you'll have to do is add is one marked shot pouch to the nose and another to the tail to go from fresh to salt.
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by H20doctor »

had a sweeeeeeeeet scooter spin today under water... chewed up 1 loins main in my prop.. cause he needed to die .. zipped down to the Fuel pier.. did the world tour there saw lots of stuff , esp the nudies makin love on the pilings.. lots of nudis there right now . saw 2 very new baby wolf eels.. headed back .. brandon kicked that sucker into 8 th gear and he was gone while i was eating his prop wash to the mask... saw 3 more jellies.. i saw a bat wing slug thing , still need to film them little guys.. down to the geo dome .. and back up to see a very fat prego lumpie ... 78 mins .. and of course no pics , so it never happened ..
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Jeff Pack
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by Jeff Pack »

You all suck, I wanna get back on a scoot so badly... those were fun
=============================================

- I got a good squirt in my mouth
- I would imagine that there would be a large amount of involuntary gagging
- I don't know about you but I'm not into swallowing it

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2loud4u
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by 2loud4u »

Ok so I see the point to having it just right. Had the awesome dive with h2o. Then headed up to evergreen had tanks filled now I am about to try this again after a few weight changes. Like Laura said it was not that bad while in motion... But when I stopped it was pretty heavy. And When We first got in we did a few weight changes and I thought ok that's close enough let's just GO!! And I am sure it's lets than a pound off and it was already a PITA. So off I go to try again.
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by CaptnJack »

2loud4u wrote:Ok so I see the point to having it just right. Had the awesome dive with h2o. Then headed up to evergreen had tanks filled now I am about to try this again after a few weight changes. Like Laura said it was not that bad while in motion... But when I stopped it was pretty heavy. And When We first got in we did a few weight changes and I thought ok that's close enough let's just GO!! And I am sure it's lets than a pound off and it was already a PITA. So off I go to try again.
Just go to a marine boat ramp and duct tape the pouches to the outside (Mukilteo or wherever). You can get the total weight and fore-aft weight correct in salt water in about 15mins. (the pouches get wet, dry them some other time)

Then go to a fresh water boat ramp and guess at dividing it up between the 2 pouches. One will be nearly full for salt or fresh. The other maybe half full which is just added for salt. The fresh water will rinse the salt out of your shot pouches.

Otherwise its going to take dozens of dives to get this dialed in.
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by kdupreez »

2loud4u wrote:Ok so this might be a dumb question. But how much difference will 1 pound make on the scooter?
first off, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You're dives will never be the same again! :supz:

1lb of weight on a scoot is HUGE.. I have the exact same Cuda400 series and would be happy to send you my fresh and salt water weightings..

trust me even going from a smaller to to bigger bolt snap on the nose makes a difference!!

PM me if you want the Cuda400 series weighting that I use..
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loanwolf
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by loanwolf »

Muck like Alki (coves) is not the best place to try and wight a scooter. too much fresh water in the area brackish on the surface. So it makes it hard to get thing totally dialed in not like being in Monterrey, CA as the vid is. So dont get disappointed if you cannot get it correct in the first few dives.

Shore dives none brackish salt water in the PS???? other than the west side of Whidbey is hard to find.

Anyone have a good palace other than the west side of the Island for shore? locations with no rivers and town drainage nearby???
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2loud4u
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by 2loud4u »

Thats a good idea. While I don't mind the dozens of dives part :). I would rather do the dozens of dives with it correctly weighted.

Tried it again last night... While the weight was closer to where I wanted it... I messed the trim all up. So I can see it taking a while.
CaptnJack wrote:
Just go to a marine boat ramp and duct tape the pouches to the outside (Mukilteo or wherever). You can get the total weight and fore-aft weight correct in salt water in about 15mins. (the pouches get wet, dry them some other time)

Then go to a fresh water boat ramp and guess at dividing it up between the 2 pouches. One will be nearly full for salt or fresh. The other maybe half full which is just added for salt. The fresh water will rinse the salt out of your shot pouches.

Otherwise its going to take dozens of dives to get this dialed in.
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by BDub »

CaptnJack wrote:
2loud4u wrote:Ok so this might be a dumb question. But how much difference will 1 pound make on the scooter?
Big enough to be a silt bomb in the lake when you come off the trigger (just ask Bdub :p )
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by BDub »

Awesome news, Brendan! It's about time

We can play with the weighting a bit tomorrow morning before the dive to get it dialed in for freshwater.
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airsix
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by airsix »

What loanwolf said. I've been borrowing a Cuda that was weighted in SoCal. It dives great down there (I have 8 open Pacific dives on it), but in Elliott Bay it is a bit overweighted at depth and really overweighted near the surface where you hit the fresh water. So don't do your weighting test in the shallows @ cove2. If you do it'll probably be too light at less brackish sites.
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Mattleycrue76
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by Mattleycrue76 »

While I agree with almost everything said, don't get too OCD about it either. As people have mentioned, you'll be diving in a range of conditions and salinities so things will change a bit from dive to dive. I can notice a difference between Mukilteo and Neah Bay for sure, but not enough to have me start messing with the weighting. Generally I like my scooter ever so slightly positive and tail light so that when clipped off it rides up under my armpit abit kinda like a deco bottle, just on the other side.
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airsix
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by airsix »

Mattleycrue76 wrote:Generally I like my scooter ever so slightly positive and tail light so that when clipped off it rides up under my armpit abit kinda like a deco bottle, just on the other side.
You're right. I was completely tolerant of the slight overweighting in Elliot Bay, but then a few weeks ago Kees had to tow me in over 1/4 mile at depth and through deco after a battery failure (bad charge). I had to hold it up with my legs the whole way and it sucked!
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Re: Taking it out for the first time today.

Post by Diver_C »

2loud4u wrote:So its only 1.05 pounds added [...]
Yes, make sure it is precisely 1.05 pounds, and not 1.04 or 1.06, otherwise all hell will soon break loose, and next thing y'know, you'll be grabbing for that Spare Air you've always been wanting to try out...
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