Backplates and Accessories

One configuration consideration is that plates and wings are not always perfectly interchangeable among brands.

All manufacturers will align grommets on 11-inch centers for doubles mounting. However, the shape of the flat in the center of a specific brand wing may be designed to match the specific shape of their plate so that the bladder is not pinched by the plate when the two are assembled together on doubles. The good news is that we are not aware of any interchangeability issues for doubles mounting between any of the brands of wings and plates we sell.

A common annoyance with doubles mounting is the depth of the "V" in the center of the plate varies slightly among brands, which can trigger compatibility problems with the bolt height setting of the bands. The diver might find it very difficult to engage the wing nuts when assembling a plate and wing on a set of doubles where the bolt height was optimized for a different brand plate and wing.

A very few brands of wings do not provide slots in their wings for single tank mounting without a single tank adapter. If they do provide tank strap slots, the manufacturers tend to make the placement of slots on the wing based on aligning similar slots of their own brand of backplate. For single tank mounting, you can usually avoid using a single tank adapter (STA) if the wing and plate are the same brand. By the same token when the brands are mismatched, or the wing manufacturer does not also offer a branded plate, a STA is pretty much a necessity.