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Mounting components, rail systems, rings, and positioning hardware specific to sidemount BCD configurations. Sidemount rigging requires a different hardware set than backmount — cylinders attach to the harness at the hip and shoulder rather than to a backplate, and the attachment points must allow the cylinder to rotate forward at the surface and lie horizontally alongside the diver at depth. The components here provide the structure for building and fine-tuning a sidemount system.
Sidemount Attachment Logic
A sidemount cylinder is attached at two points: the bottom of the cylinder to a bungee loop at the hip (allowing rotation), and the valve end to a ring or clip at the shoulder. The shoulder attachment sets the cylinder’s position in the horizontal plane; the hip bungee determines how tightly the cylinder rides against the diver’s side. The hardware in this category covers both attachment points and the structural components that connect them to the harness.
The Sidemount component – SS rail and rings (240376) provides a stainless steel rail with integrated rings — the rail mounts to the harness at shoulder level and the rings serve as the valve-end attachment point for bolt snaps or carabiners. The Sidemount component – SS ring for hooking stage/side cylinders (240375) is a single mounting ring for configurations where a full rail is not required. Sidemount squares — available in flat (240370) and bent (259.97) geometry — are used as intermediate attachment points on the harness webbing at hip or crotch positions. The bent variant accommodates harnesses where the attachment webbing runs at an angle to the cylinder axis. The SM sliding waist D-ring (240366) slides along the waist webbing to allow precise lateral positioning of the hip attachment point. The Mini back plate for sidemount (230323) and Mini backplate stainless steel (230322) are small plates used as attachment substrates for sidemount rings and squares on harnesses that do not include integrated hard attachment points. Gliders specific to sidemount — Glider with 4 holes for bungy (240374), Glider with hole – 5 cm (804100), Glider with thread for bungy (240368) — provide the bungee routing and tensioning hardware at the hip attachment. The D-ring with 2 compartments (240367) is a sidemount-specific D-ring with dual clip positions for attaching two items at the same point. The Cannister battery holder for Sidemounter (240380) mounts a dive light canister battery to the sidemount harness without additional rigging.
What to Look For
- Rail vs. single ring — a rail provides a more stable shoulder attachment with a fixed registration point; a single ring allows more attachment angle flexibility. Rail systems are standard on dedicated sidemount BCDs; single rings are used for improvised or minimalist configurations.
- Flat vs. bent squares — the bent geometry is necessary when the harness webbing at the hip runs at an angle to the cylinder. Using a flat square on an angled webbing run causes the square to sit off-axis, reducing load distribution efficiency.
- Bungee glider selection — the glider type determines how the bungee routes from the hip loop to the harness webbing. The 4-hole variant allows adjustable bungee tension by routing through different holes; the thread variant uses a fixed bungee attachment point. Choose based on your bungee tension adjustment preference.