I have not yet found an appropriately small, soft-sided bag with easy-grip handles and heavily-padded shoulder straps that can be used as backpack style, to carry about 40 pounds of diving weight bags. The inadequate bags I have tried tend to cut uncomfortably into me, requiring all kinds of ad hoc padding, and worse their seams fall apart relatively quickly from use with this heavy load.

Dive shop no use: divers usually just toss around their already loaded weight belts, sling the belt over a shoulder, or put them at the bottom of a huge, incredibly heavy everything bag. My weights, especially the extra weights involved in shifting from freshwater to saltwater, keep losing themselves, getting filthy, lodging inside remote parts of pieces of wetsuit, and generally being a pain in the ... neck to collect and use on trips.

Expedition weight drybags with shoulder straps are way too big. Bowling bag? How do weight-lifters move extra plates?

Anybody know of something appropriate?

Thanks.

How far are you planning to move them?

What about using a backpack style book bag?

No further than I have to! typically less than 100 yards per carry.



I am trying one of those now. I can already see the fabric beginning to part and strap sewing straining. The weight is just beyond the intended long-term use of such things.

Are you looking for a carry bag or backpack?

There are plenty of good 40-50 Lt (2200 to 3000 cubic inch) sized backpacks that could easily carry 40 lbs and not wear out. Just ensure that you spend the money and don't cheap out on the pack. Purchasing a good quality pack will allow dual purpose use and give years of service.

I am sure that 10-15 minutes of research on such sites as REI et al, will prove fruitful.

A bag that has straps that allow it to be carried like a backpack.



The relatively large volume of backpacks make them a bad fit for the compact size of the weight bags.

I still use the old style weights. I would imagine a heavy duty messenger type, bob type or Ribz frontpack would do the job.
The Ribz packs have been used to hold rocks and other improvised weights during dives; the soft packs shouldn't be a problem.

I will try to find a placce to look at a Ribz front pack to assess its strength for repeated hard use. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

If your just looking for something to carry the weights, try StormTracker's Looter. You can order it on his site http://www.edcgear.com, but it will be a wait to get it. Its a glorified shopping tote bag.

All kinds of reviews on other forums about how much this thing can carry and the abuse it can take. When your done, you can fold it away!

Thanks, Kris. Interesting product.

I assume dive weights are relatively small volume?

If so, do you actually pad the bottom of the bag that you use? This would help distribute the weight across the entire bottom, instead of all these little weights tumbling together and funneling at the bottom of the bag.

Have you looked into the pricier bags? Things like Kifaru or similar tactical gear - no affiliation, it's just a bag I have in front of my right now. Lots of tactical bags tend to be double or triple stitched, with very good warranties, plus come in numerous volumes.

Or you could just buy a dolly.