AR500.com PLATES AND PLATE CARRIERS YOUR OPINION

[Line Rider]

I have been looking at AR500.com Plates and Plate Carriers for sometime. What your opinion? If you have some of their gear, what do you have?

[Jellybean]

You will likely not get any favorable input on either their armor or gear offerings around here. :o

It is well documented that steel is a poor material for personal body armor - it's not just the very random nature of what will penetrate and what won't, it's also how steel absorbs and transfers energy.

As far a their gear, it's offbrand nonsense they bundle with their plates to get people to buy it, while some of the other legit gear on their website is wildly overpriced, IMO to falsely deter people from buying it in favor of their "such a deal we make you" packages.

I don't usually care for Reddit, but someone put together a great post here;
https://www.reddit.com/r/tacticalgear/comments/er513n/a_serious_discussion_on_ar500_and_steel_body_armor/

If you are looking for armor and gear, but aren't sure what to buy, give us a plate budget, gear budget, and what role you want it to fill/planned loadout, and someone here will be able to help you start going in a better direction than...that.

[turnburglar]

I have experience wearing issued ESAPI's as well as lvl 2A armor, and I also own some of these AR500 plates.

If you want a cheap plate that WILL stop a round, its hard to argue against these. They are certainly not light weight or comfortable though. To get any kind of comfort I cut a yoga mat to the same shape and use it like a plate backer. My buddy had one that he didn't want anymore when he got a full set of ESAPI's so we used the plate for target practice. At 50- 100 yards we hit that plate with probably hundreds of rounds of 556 and 308, and it never let one through even when the plate started to bow in a little towards the impacts and the edges got super chipped up.

[Wake27]

Have we not already beat steel plates to death?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pappabear]

To death, and it weighs a metric ass-ton. If my poor memory serves me.

PB

[Jellybean]

Let's put it this way;
If you want lighter weight and/or non-steel plates, AR500 wants $320-350 for their UHMWPE plates that won't stop 855. For that price, you're not far off Ceramic/hybrid plates that WILL stop 855.
If you want to drag around 8 pounds per plate, just suck it up and get some Hesco 4400 Lvl 4 plates.
They're only $210 a plate, multi/triple curve (way better than single curve or that halfass bend the steel companies try to sell as "triple curve"), slightly under 1" thick, and are rated for every round you could want.
Hell, the shipping is even free.

https://sabersolutions.com/collections/hesco-armor/products/4400-level-iv-stand-alone

For the basic $65 Lvl 3 AR500 10x12, once you add the [not]multi-curve and 'build up coating' options you're @ $163 per plate
For the $99 Lvl 3+ AR500 10x12, once you add the [not]multi-curve and 'build up coating' options you're @ $193 per plate
+ Shipping/tax for either option. To ship a basic set to me would run $362. YMMV with location. But that's only $58 difference between the AR500 and some far better plates in the 8lb range.
If you get the 3+ AR500 set it breaks even (for me) @$421.
Pretty easy choice imo.

[ViniVidivici]

You will likely not get any favorable input on either their armor or gear offerings around here. :o

It is well documented that steel is a poor material for personal body armor - it's not just the very random nature of what will penetrate and what won't, it's also how steel absorbs and transfers energy.

As far a their gear, it's offbrand nonsense they bundle with their plates to get people to buy it, while some of the other legit gear on their website is wildly overpriced, IMO to falsely deter people from buying it in favor of their "such a deal we make you" packages.

I don't usually care for Reddit, but someone put together a great post here;
[URL]https://www.reddit.com/r/tacticalgear/comments/er513n/a_serious_discussion_on_ar500_and_steel_body_armor/[u/URL]

If you are looking for armor and gear, but aren't sure what to buy, give us a plate budget, gear budget, and what role you want it to fill/planned loadout, and someone here will be able to help you start going in a better direction than...that.

Fantastic article, thank you. Good info to pass along, helps explain things to folks who have questions, as I tire of explaining things like this to people.