HSGI suspenders and TT X-Harness?

[Glorybigs]

I am looking at upgrading my current setup which consists of: HSGI Suspenders/Modular Padded Belt www.highspeedgearinc.com/products.asp?cat=18.

I was thinking that by incorporating a Tactical Tailor X-Harness http://www.tacticaltailor.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=80 it would carry the load more evenly.

I would appreciate any thoughts?

[TimW]

How do you plan to attach the X-harness to the padded belt? It's meant to integrate with the buckles and straps on the TT Mav variants. The HSGI suspenders are just that...suspenders.

I guess I am missing something about how you're trying to put this together.

[Glorybigs]

I plan on cutting the suspenders and attaching them to the X-harness.

[TimW]

I can think of a couple of issues.

I pulled out both the HSGI suspenders and a X-harness from inventory and gave them a once-over.

The webbing width is the same, about 1.5" wide. Where you are going to have the issues is the connections.

The front of the MAV uses a 1.5" side-release buckle to attach the X-harness to the MAV. The X-harness doesn't come with this buckle, but uses the one that comes with the MAV. The only way I can think you might work the front connection would be to use the part of the suspenders that attaches to the belt and the 2-1 reducer. You would feed the X-harness webbing through the 2-1 reducer, and then secure it back to itself using a tri-glide. This would still allow for adjustability w/o requiring the side-release buckle.

For the back, you'd have to cut the suspender webbing itself to use in the tri-glides that are attached to the back of the X-harness. Easy day...except that the tri-glides on the harness are set at an angle, since this is where the original cross-straps from the MAV run through.

The issue is the cross-straps attach to the MAV near your sides, wheres the HSGI Suspenders were designed to attach to your belt near your rear centerline, between the kidneys and the spine. Thus, unless you re-position these rear triglides, you will be attaching the HSGI suspender portion to near the 9 & 3 o'clock areas of the belt, not in the back like a "standard" H-harness setup would be.

I've included a copy of TT's pic so you can get an idea of what I am talking about:


http://www.tacticaltailor.com/ProductImages/vests/350/23023-4_350x350.jpg

[Glorybigs]

I can think of a couple of issues.

I pulled out both the HSGI suspenders and a X-harness from inventory and gave them a once-over.

The webbing width is the same, about 1.5" wide. Where you are going to have the issues is the connections.

The front of the MAV uses a 1.5" side-release buckle to attach the X-harness to the MAV. The X-harness doesn't come with this buckle, but uses the one that comes with the MAV. The only way I can think you might work the front connection would be to use the part of the suspenders that attaches to the belt and the 2-1 reducer. You would feed the X-harness webbing through the 2-1 reducer, and then secure it back to itself using a tri-glide. This would still allow for adjustability w/o requiring the side-release buckle.

For the back, you'd have to cut the suspender webbing itself to use in the tri-glides that are attached to the back of the X-harness. Easy day...except that the tri-glides on the harness are set at an angle, since this is where the original cross-straps from the MAV run through.

The issue is the cross-straps attach to the MAV near your sides, wheres the HSGI Suspenders were designed to attach to your belt near your rear centerline, between the kidneys and the spine. Thus, unless you re-position these rear triglides, you will be attaching the HSGI suspender portion to near the 9 & 3 o'clock areas of the belt, not in the back like a "standard" H-harness setup would be.

I've included a copy of TT's pic so you can get an idea of what I am talking about:


http://www.tacticaltailor.com/ProductImages/vests/350/23023-4_350x350.jpg


Thanks Tim for the detailed response.
I will post some pics on my conversion when I complete it.

[rmecapn]

Interesting idea. But I believe you're gonna have problems with the angle on the back attachment points of the X-harness.

[Glorybigs]

Interesting idea. But I believe you're gonna have problems with the angle on the back attachment points of the X-harness.

Thanks for the input, I know what your saying - I ordered one anyhow and will post pics of the modification, if I get her to mate up.

[Glorybigs]

You can see the whole setup here and how it went together.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s246/Glorybigs/x-harness01.jpg


You can see the front suspenders, I cut them at about the center point but ended up not even needing any of the front portion of the suspenders - what you see is the straps that came mounted to the x-harness joined to the old suspender attachment (550/elastic) points.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s246/Glorybigs/x-harness02.jpg


The back did utilize part of the old suspenders but it didn't take much. Notice that due to the 550/elastic attachment points that the nylon can cant inwards to match the angle of the x-harness attachment points. It works great and feels like I am hauling half the weight compared to the old HSGI suspenders.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s246/Glorybigs/x-harness03.jpg


Glad I did it - hope this helps some of you guys.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s246/Glorybigs/x-harness04.jpg

[TimW]

That worked a lot better than I expected it to. I am so used to wearing the back-half of my HSGI suspenders toward my midline that I thought the angle would be all wrong.

Very cool

[Glorybigs]

Thanks for the words-

I actually like where my gear is positioned now, so I will leave it as is -
but if I was to move the rear suspender attachment points further around towards my sides (say at my 8 & 4 ) it would probably further enhanced the weight dispersion.