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.

Yes, altogether they take up a space a little bigger than the size of half gallon of liquid.



These are weight bags of heavy, cordura-like material. Heavier weights are bigger sizes. I would like to get a bag sized just for the weights, but use of a pad or stiffener to distribute weight is an otherwise sound idea - thanks.

I almost forgot to ask, does it have to be a bag?

When I used to dive multiple times a week from either dive boats or from the shore from a dive shop... they all used old plastic milk crates. I used one myself whenever I was diving from the car. Open to select what you need, strong to carry whatever you put in it and super cheap if you bust it.

You should also look at some of the shooter or range bags. These are probably the size you are looking for and these bags are usually made of stouter material then a similar sized everyday duffel bag.

In addition to tactical bags, which might be very good, try online for sites like Miners (www.minerox.com), Ben Medows (www.benmedows.com), Forestry Suppliers (www.forestry-suppliers.com), or others that have bags for Geologists, wildland fire crews, etc. Roy Gfeller, True North, Stat Packs and severak others make packs for carrying heavy, small loads (like rocks or fire tools). Be prepared for the cost though. My experience (rocks and equipment mostly) is that zippers are not the best choice. Not too many top opening packs left, so you might use one where only the upper part is zippered. Not a full opening so that the zipper does not carry much of the load.

Respectfully,

Jerry

Jerry's also got a good idea - wildland fire crews have some stout stuff. I wonder if your local fire station would let you try some of their gear w/ your weights?

Following up; will report.

I don't get it. Forty pounds over 100 yards? Pack the weights into two nylon mesh shopping bags, you could use dive bags if you are made of money, pick one up in your right hand , one in the left, walk. When you get there have a beer. The mesh bags are light, compact when unloaded, and allow you to see what is inside and hose off the weights without having to unload them.

Average weight of concrete blocks is about 44 pounds and we used to carry two at a time, one in each hand, all the time. If we were feeling strong and shorter distance, and had our Wheaties, four at a time.

Some dive shops running trips use milk crates for dive weights and similar heavy and bulky gear. These they stack and move down the dock with a simple hand truck.

If terrain stops wheels then you might rig a simple pole and suspend the bags or crates from each end. This is very popular in Asian nations. Traditional European farmers who use a functionally similar but more elaborate carved yoke. Using this they move hundreds of pounds for miles. Forty pound would be trivial.

Forty pounds is light enough that you could put the weight in a simple bag and tie on a piece of webbing sized to go over the top of the head. The webbing rides on top of the head and the weight hangs behind your back. You can add a line around the waist to keep it from swinging if it seems necessary.

No problem transporting the weight. The original post states the objectives.

As stated the requirement is both quixotic and ridiculous. Your wasting everyone's time.

Ouch. Apologies to all who so think. I will continue my search for an extra-tough small bag to keep my gear clean as best I can.

You can adapt some of the inexpensive tool bags from the big orange store or its competition. There are some that compartmented and would work great.

Standard Disclaimer

My $.02

Forty poounds? That is a lot of lead. Why are you carrying around what is usually about two weight belts?

The bags come in a number of different weights [10, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1]. To keep balanced I need two sets of identical weights, one on each side of my weight harness. Depending on water temperature I wear more or thicker layers of wetsuit; my body weight and percentage of fat varies a bit over time; and as my gear load varies it can go from positive to negative buoyancy.

To achieve just slightly negative buoyancy for freediving requires a bit of weight experimentation each time. Over the years, I have needed as high as 32 pounds of weight and as little as 22, and most of the stops in between. To be able to get the right weight set, ranging so far from 16 pounds a side to 11 pounds a side has required assembling a collection of weight bags. Plus, to be prepared, I carry a few more pounds of weight than I have needed to be on the safe side - and occasionally to help a diving buddy get it right.

It sounds more complicated than it is in practice. You get suited and geared up, guess at the weight you need, load the bags into the pockets on the harness, and get wet. If you immediately bob to the surface or sink to the bottom, you adjust the weight load. I takes a few minutes but fine tuning lets you move almost effortlessly in the water column and prevents the use of energy and beath struggling to maintain position.

More than you ever wanted to know ....

I am a scuba diver too, but it has just never been that complex. I dragged a weight belt around and occasionally shed a weight or two if I was in fresh water, as opposed to my normal salt water venue. My belt was about twenty- twenty-two pounds. It helped that I was normally using steel tanks. I never required forty pounds, and I am not exactly slender.

These days SCUBA usually involve a buoyancy compensation or BC vest that uses air from your SCUBS tank to allow precise adjustment of your buoyancy. I freedive and no such device is used, so I have to physically make weight adjustments.

In addition to my seemingly everchanging weight, I am usually messing with new and different gear, each item of which has makes it own buoyancy contribution. Camera and camera light housings, large spearguns - particulary if with wooden bodies, foraging tools like abalone irons and crab or bivalve legal-size guages which vary with the legal season, gloves, booties, rash guard clothing, etcetera. It always seems to be a different buoyancy puzzle.

The puzzle is always quickly solved, but it is a step in my preparation each time.

Maybe I am doing something wrong!

Try one of the Swiss Gear packs. IIRC I was using one for about 30lbs if I was carrying the whole day's books & a laptop.

Art,

If you think it is wasting your time, please stop reading the thread. The rest of us are quite capable of deciding that for ourselves.

Respectfully,

Jerry

Art's comments took me a bit by suprise and seem out of character for him. For my part I am content to just move on, though I reserve the right to tilt at the occasional windmill.

My first thought was an old style external frame backpack to isolate you from the weight behind. But backpacks are all designed for distributed weight, and you are dealing with concentrated weight. A decent pack--not a cheapie--should be able to handle 30 pounds.

Try cutting up a half inch closed cell foam sleeping pad. Put a couple of pieces in the bottom of the pack to distribute the load. U-shaped, going up the front and back several inches. One of the layers could go up front and back, the second up both sides.

Try to find out what rock climbers use for packs nowadays. They tend to carry a lot of ironmongery, albeit probably not as heavy a load as yours.

Hey D,have a look at the French water buckets in Sportsmans guide site,they are Heavy duty canvas,collapsable & Cheap!

You could also go see what Ed has in stock in Clovis:

http://www.hawkepaks.com/

Clovis is a doable distance. Like the looks of this:

http://www.hawkepaks.com/prod.itml/icOid/245