Review & DIY/ Rubber weight belts

For those who might not be aware of the benefits; since I started using a rubber weight belt it has become a piece of gear I don't want to dive without. Here's a comparison of some rubber belts on the market.

I've examined various rubber belts in dive shops and got some idea of how they might perform but have personally used two so far, the Rob Allen and a no name brand.

The Rob Allen belt is made of a rubber material that is different to all other rubber belts that I’ve seen. The best way I can describe it is that it is somewhere between rubber and plastic. It stretches but not as much as other rubber belts and it is stiffer because of it, which is good. This allows the weights to not sag away from the body so much. The down side is that the RA material being stiffer cracks at stress points where normal rubber belts would never crack and does so relatively fast. No complaints whatsoever about the Buckle. The quick release function works perfectly. The width is 5.0cm and the thickness is 0.50cm.

This no name belt is available from leisurepro for $22 http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/Categ...B45.html?Hit=1 The buckle is a PITA. When you close it tends to pinch your skin or wetsuit. The quick release function works fine. Changing weights is a big PITA because of the way the rubber belt needs to be threaded into the buckle. Once it is threaded there is no slack hanging out of the buckle. So if you miscalculated the length you need you have to do it over again. The rubber however is decent quality. Very durable and a nice balance between stretch and stiffness. At this price it's worth to buy the belt just for the rubber. Dimensions are 5.1cm by 0.30cm.

As a BTW I heard that truck tire inner tubes have rubber that may be suitable to make a belt.

Here are some other belts on the market you might want to comment on.

Omer Marsellaise belt.

Sporasub Marsellaise belt.

Cressi Marsellaise belt.

Immersion Marsellaise belt.

Spetton Marsellaise belt.

I wanted to make sure that the next belt I get will fit into the pinch weights Tin Man invented. These weights are awesome, they work exactly the way Tin Man envisioned them. Once I tried one I knew that I must get a belt that will fit the weights. The Rob Allen belt is the only one that is too thick to fit through the slot.

I mentioned that the rubber of the leisure pro belt had a very good balance between stiffness and stretch. So rather than experiment with yet another belt I simply took the buckle of the RA belt and combined it with the rubber of the leisure pro belt. I'm very pleased with the result. The hardware keeping the buckle on the belt is very sturdy. I also had the possibility to put only 4 holes in the belt at the intervals that I found most suitable. This makes the fit around my waist just right.

To hold the buckle in place I used these SS threaded inserts. They have a name but I forget what it is, you can buy them at west marine. They are a slimmer version of the ones in the pic of the muzzle wings. I had to grind them down to a length equal to two layers of the rubber belt.

The reason I used these fasteners instead of the Rob Allen mounting plate is because I have a distaste for logos and take them off whenever possible. On top of that I never liked the green color on that plate. However I was ready to reuse it with the DIY belt because I figured RA must know what they're doing. I laid the RA belt over the DIY belt and marked the holes to cut them out exactly like the RA.

When it was time to put the screw plate on I noticed that the plastic around two of the screw holes was cracked. The kind of crack that can happen when you over tighten screws. Except I've never taken it apart before so I didn't cause it. I tried tightening the screws anyways but two were spinning freely in the plastic. Garbage belongs in the garbage. I had the belt for a year BTW.