Tank Holders on the boat?

[tburns67]

With 3 or 4 divers and two or three tanks per diver, that is alot of tanks!

How do most of you hold the tanks on the boat?

Or do most of you just have a compressor on board? *grin*

-Tom

[speckle-catcher]

I usually dive off a 25' CC wellcraft with a forward cutty cabin. We usually only go with three divers, but occasionally 4.

the boat owner fashioned a tank holder out of 1" PVC that is slightly oven heated, then bent to a "C" to hold a tank. It has 1" nylon strap through the pipe with buckles to hold the tank and is then bolted to the gunwale. He has 2 tanks at each the port and starboard corners of the stern. We store additional tanks in the cutty on the floor.

I'll take pictures of the tank racks next time I go to POC. For about $30 worth of materials, they work great - to buy something like that pre-made is pretty expensive.

[michaelbaranowski]

This subject came up over on spearboard. And one guy was talking about basket style rack. I am new to scuba but my dad being a welder has already come up with an idea of a rack that will slide over the tanks and hook on to a rail on the side of the gunnel. Does any one stack tanks on the floor of the boat near the rear? I have an i/o so I was thinking that if all else failed I could stack tanks there. I am just not sure how safe this would be.

[speckle-catcher]

you can buy pre-made basket racks - they aren't too much.

problem is they take up alot of deck space cause you are storing all the tanks together - and beacuse of that all divers are trying to get at the at the same time creates havoc.

another problem with them is that holes are larger than the tanks, so that a tank boot will fit down in the hole. Then all the tanks rattle alot when on the water. Then when you pull a tank out - alot of times the boots will come off.

look at the rail type systems:
http://www.joediveramerica.com/scubagear/prods/TA80.html

my buddy basically made those out of PVC pipe - they don't fold down, but who cares?

[gaudi]

I will second that idea, a rack takes too much space and you have no where to put it when not in use, the rail kind is best,
or if you have a bunch, like more than 8 you can just tie them together with a racheting strap or two and then tie that to your boat

[michaelbaranowski]

Here is a crate I found. A little expensive but I like the design. I am not sure about boots and they can't be used once BC is on the tank.
http://www.baxcoproducts.com/23026_tank_crate.htm

[CoastalOutfitters]

i bought some 4 tank fold down racks that mount to the gunnels
they run about $90 for the track plus 4 brackets
very sturdy, a fellow sells them on ebay under tank racks if i remember

[TeamCrossfire]

I had a set of bars that went across under my leaning post that would hold 6 tanks that angled upward toward the back of the boat. I took them out due to the fact that we fish more than we dive and the space could be better served by a larger livewell. I plan on buying one of the basket racks so I can take them out if I am not diving. I also use my under deck fish boxes to store them and I can usually keep 3 in each box.