Just wondering what everyone hauls their gear in when they go from dive site to dive site? With all the suggestions about leaving the windows down and not leaving anything in the truck I don't think my husband and I will take our Akona gear bags with us. Do you just lay everything (regs,masks,BC's,tanks,fins) in the back of the truck and hope it doesn't roll around and get damaged? Not that we drive crazy or anything;-)

Angie: There should be a wooden tank rack that comes with the truck - the tanks go in these. We lay the fins alongside the tank rack between the rack and the wall of the truck. We have integrated bc's so we lay the rest of the gear in the corners of the truck closest to the cab and lean the bc's with weights in over the gear. This has always kept the stuff in place for us. I think we are going to start taking the mesh bags -its easier to carry the gear and they only run $14.95. Have a good trip.

We normally set up our scuba unit for the first dive when we pick up the tanks. Then just lay them in the back of the truck making sure regulators, counsel etc. Are tucked inside the BC and they ride very well. We also put on our wet suit and booties. Leaving the wet suit down around the waist.
Tim

Actually, Timothy's post reminded me that we were also setting up our gear last trip at the dive shop and transporting it already assembled. That's definately an option.

Being a rebel, I've done it both ways. Same for coming back although but most times it just gets tossed in the truck for the ride back and I do drive crazy.

Make sure the rental truck has a tank holder wooden thingee (it looks like a pallet).

We use mesh bags simply because it always seems like there are at least 6 of us diving and that's a lot of stuff. But the key is the cheap mesh bag. Remember your icky t-shirt for the drive back.

We wrap the weight belt and BC belts around the regulator and fins, and they stay together well in the back of the truck.

We put the regs, computers, masks, cameras, lights and any other delicate stuff in the back seat. We load the tanks (usually 6, all pressure and o-ring checked) in the aforementioned tank rack, put the rest of the dive gear, many bottles of water (some frozen for later drinking, some ready to leave on top of the truck to get warm for fresh water rinse-offs between dives), and the cooler with lunch and cold drinks (never been stolen in 9 trips). We have never had anything blow out, but then we drive on "island time" ... after a few days like that you become kind of a feral diver - it's GREAT!

Our Mazda van didn't come with a tank rack, but Sand Dollar had them at the drive-up air station.

Thanks for the suggestions from everyone. Does one normally take two tanks at a time or just one? Concerns over theft jump to mind. I know I'm suppose to leave doors open, take nothing of value and so on, but are extra tanks safe or should we just drive back for round 2, 3, 4, etc?

Rob it really is easier to just drive back to the resort for your surface interval. Most sites are only a few minutes away by truck. There is not a lot of concern about stealing tanks although it is not entirely unheard of.

Surface interval?.....was I suppose to do that? Thanks for the info. I'll convince my buddies to drive back each time...it'll improve our truck driving skills. 8 weeks and we're there.

There are times when you may not want to drive back to get another tank. For us, that's when we are doing the sites "up North" like Ol' Blue and Karpata. For us that's too much of a hassle to go back through the "dirt short cut" and to the resort and then all the way back up so when we do those we bring two tanks.

Some of the shops have limits on how many tanks you can take at one time, so do be sure to check with your shop. We usually took two, then did lunch then took 2 more.