Diving is a passion of mine. I’ve been diving more often lately and, as any diver knows, transporting equipment is one of the logistical challenges of the sport. Having acquired a larger vehicle recently I decided to build a small equipment rack for it to support my usual configuration, namely two single AL80’s.
Update December 2021
Yeah…I no longer dive single 80s. I assumed that when I started diving doubles I would have to find something to do with the PVC rack, but as it turns out, if I just fold the seats of my car down the rack can be slid up further towards the cockpit. At that point doubles fit “in front” of the rack (on the hatch side), a storage bin can be put to the side of that, and the rack can hold another bin and two single bottles - which works perfectly for stages.
Conclusion: this rack can grow with you :-)
Tools:
- Hacksaw
- Hammer / mallet (optional, helps with seating PVC)
Materials:
- x4 5’ lengths of 1.25” PVC
- x4 T-joints
- x4 4-way joints
- x4 3-way (“side outlet elbow”) joints
I chose not to epoxy the PVC because I foresee making changes to the rack design in the future. If you want to epoxy the PVC into the joints, you’ll also need:
- PVC primer & epoxy
- 200-250 grit sandpaper
The 1.25” PVC can be found at your local hardware store. Neither Lowes nor Home Depot carried any of the 1.25” joints so I got those on Amazon.
I have 43” of trunk space between the wheel wells in my vehicle. This rack is 41” wide, which ended up being a snug fit.
The sections that run parallel to the cylinders are ~27”. The short connector sections perpendicular to the cylinders are each 5”.
I chose to leave a large central space for my gear bag. Adding additional 27” sections using the T-joints adds capacity for up to 3 additional single AL80s for a total capacity of 5. In the future I may move sections around to support a twinset, which is why I didn’t epoxy anything yet.
Overall I think it turned out pretty good. Total cost of materials was about $100. I believe the demand for PVC to build ventilators has slightly increased the price. Tank racks can be had premade for much cheaper, but I wanted something fit to my use case, equipment and vehicle. Plus it’s fun to build it yourself.