Picked up a 95 Pattern PLCE here are my thoughts:

Good video. Liked, and subscribed.

The more modern Brit wide padded belt seems like a vast improvement.

If you think you Need a belt pad (which Is good) the Sportsman guide has 3-packs of them for like 14$, Wide and contoured. Better than the US ones with heavy loads like 3 or 4 utility pouches in the back.

In the other topic we have been talking a lot about jungle Patrol loads, but for a smaller rig no One prohibit you to use Just One Mag pouch, with a utility mirrored on the other side and two utility pouches put tight next to the other two front pouches, not unlike some did with alice rigs to wear with alice packs. That way you still have 6 mags capacity plus 3 utility pouches but have a slick back that can be used with packs that are not sized to rest over the back pockets and can even sit on vehicles.

I liked the video, solid pieces of advice as usual.

Thay do have a padded insert 'Kidney pad' for the belt. I dont know if it was a issue item or Britts purchased it separately.
Its pretty beefy.

I love in the comments of some of your videos you have yahoos saying "who does this guy think he is? Some kinda green beret badass?"

What a fuckin' poser... Bet he didn't spend a day in the military.

Good video, Jeff. We're spoiled because it's easy enough to build a belt kit that's substantially better than PLCE, yet that's still available as a damned decent baseline. I have a set ready to be loaned out.

Lots of ways to roll this stuff.  It all depends on what you are going to be doing with it.

I still tell people to get a set of surplus PLCE stuff to try out the idea of belt kit, to see if that's really what they want to do.

Then use the surplus set as a loaner, or give / sell it to someone else who is wanting to try it out when you finally upgrade to a nicer set.  A full set of PLCE tends to hold it's value pretty well.

Yeah I have been a big fan of PLCE ever since I crossed trained (not dressed) with the Brits and traded out every piece of kit I could with them.  The basic concept is sound, and is a good base to build from.

Spanish buckles are a huge improvement, and probably my favorite issue hardware.  However the Brits have places like JJ's or Dixie's Corner who will sell or modify your kit with long strips of velcro on the mag pouches.  According to the lads over at "ARSE", aka Army Rumor Service, this is so you can do quicker reloads, and just slap the flap shut.  While that works, I actually like something with a bit more retention and a lot less noise.  If you just sew some kydex into a piece of webbing, you get a nice stiff "tab".  Then sew a tunnel of webbing on the front of each pouch that it "tucks" underneath.  Sounds too fucking simple to work, but you know...

You also mentioned retention, and how the lads would rig a bungee around the pouches.  Well taking that a step further, if you rig tunnels for the bungee, with anchor points and a cord lock, you could then adjust the tension.  And then, if you left a space open in the middle, you could tuck the pull tab under it, creating a nice "safety" to prevent opening. And just for shits n giggles, you could sew a square of velcro on there for quick re-closure.  

As far as hangers, for sure the Brit system was light years ahead of ours.  But molle is molle, so you will see more modern iterations of Brit kit with it as well.  And if you go the full monty, you get sewn on pouches, which solves this issue.  JJ's came out with a nice hybrid, with sewn on sustainments and molle mag pouches.

The Brit "yoke" with 6 point suspension is the best thing I have ever found.    The newer custom (or bespoke) rigs come with hardware to attach it directly to the belt pad.  I prefer this, as I think it distributes weight better throughout the whole pad.  Versus pulling up from the pouch.  But Po-tate-to/Po-tot-to.

The belt pad comes in so many shapes n sizes.  My fave is the 8" "hippo" pad.  With sewn in pouches or molle.    

As far as the classic 3-mag pouch.  It still has a lot of utility, but with molle you can switch out to anything you like.  You might prefer 2-mag pouches.  You might prefer different top flaps, or no flaps at all.  You might prefer a different rd-count, or even caliber.  A lot of water under the bridge since the G-WOT, a lot of LBE development; you can pick and choose what pouches work best for you and your situation.

But to your point, (and Marnsdorff's) a surplus belt kit allows you to sample the concept; and then improve from there, if desired.  

Of course you can just get along with any good issue PLCE kit; you might be thinking I'm over-thinking this thing.  But I'm a gear queer; it's what I do.  

Nice video!

Do the mag pouches also accept L1A1 mags or are they too large?

I'm pretty sure they will take 2 x 20-rd 7.62 "FAL" type mags, however a "spacer" such as a field dressing may be required to bring them up a bit.  I know they will take USGI 7.62 NATO 20-rd mags (with spacer) or MagPul 7.62 NATO 25-rd mags.  In fact any good 3-mag 5.56 NATO 30-rd pouch will take 2 x 7.62 NATO 20 or 25-rd mags.

Yea, I would not feel bad rocking the surplus PLCE pouches.  I'd prefer sewing them down to the belt and belt pad, or better, sewing those pouches to a modern style wide padded belt, but even without doing that, they aren't bad.  And considering you can get a set in totally usable condition for around $100-120 if you shop around, that's not bad to see if you like the idea.

And the nicer stuff like the Crossfire rig and my stuff is just like any other gear - it's better.  It takes it a step further, with all the bells and whistles.  The biggest one being that the pouches in the rear are already sewn down, which really does help with stability, especially when running a pack.

Yeah, that was pretty solid on the surplus kits, and I never even screwed around with the various Spanish tab securing methods. I do know the double, secure method was done for airborne ops or so a Brit Para told me.

My question for the ARFCOM tactical gear hive mind, is when did the modern day "Hippo pad" come into existence. With the more custom kits, that style of pad really makes a difference in load-carrying stability.

ROCK6

Thank you, I didn’t even think of the height.  It’s been awhile and I knew you had to do that with Alice pouches and cut the dividers out.

I have one USGI set up with the 1956 cotton web suspenders but all the rest except the cotton butt pack is nylon.   I can throw that on if I had to.

I also have a Ww2 Usgi belt with 1944 era gear: canteen, cup, pouch, M1 carbine pouch and M4 bayonet but it’s for collecting and display and the belt is the small one that only opens up to size 36.. I cannot wear that one.  

I wouldn’t mind getting the National Guard sized 1950’s belt for my M14 set up.   I have a variety of pouches that would work, Army double mags, Marine single mag pouches, and cotton and later nylon “multipurpose” mag pouches.

Mmm, yeah, seen 'em, used 'em, went on to other stuff.  I think you could probably find old Brit 7.62 mag pouches as well, if you keep searching.  Probably on the older PLCE rigs in solid OD green.  And also in canvas to boot.  

When did I first see a "hippo" pad; hoo boy.  I'd say the first ones were mid-to-late 90's, as "clip-ons" to existing web belts, same as Eagle, BH, LBT, etc.  The only difference was the Brit models swooped way down on the sides, as opposed to straight rectangles on the domestics.  Then you had early JJ's, Dixies, and others, who made a nice padded belt, prolly early 2,000's.  Most of these were in conjunction with sewn on pouches.  Then when molle showed up, these really went into over-drive, as did our padded belts over here.  Only difference, again, our's stayed rectangle, while the Brits got wiggy with it, with some different shapes.  

Just for reference, the original "hippo" pads were the ones with the most outrageous size, usually in the 7-8" range; hence the name.  The slimmer 4-5" ones were essentially the same as what you saw over here at the time.  And I'm thinking of the ATS padded belt as the std for this type.

If you go over to Kit Monster, you can see some of the variations.  Some are wider on the sides, some in the lumbar region.  Personally I've always thought it made more sense in the lumbar region, especially in conjunction with a Ruck.  But if you have heavy mags/frags/smokes, rubbing against your legs, I can see the appeal of that format as well.  

So anyways, I'd say starting in the early 2000's would be my best guess on this deal.  

I did not personally start experimenting with them until about 2014.  I wanted to see what width was optimal for what I was doing.  I was up to 4-5" at that time, with molle pouches.  It wasn't until I was exploring sewn on pouches did I see the appeal of an 8" pad.  And then there's the Diz rig pad, but we've covered all that before.

British issue belt pad got its NSN 7 october 1993.

I May be wrong but the australians had the belt pad (belt comforter as they call It) as part of the original iteration of their 1988 pattern webbing.

Very cool; thanks Joe!  Obviously I was seeing it later over here.

Belt kit is definitely making a come back and for good reason.

See guys all the time in Ukraine videos from both sides with belt kit.  For me, it makes sense to spread the weight from off the pack and I'm not a fan of really bulky chest rigs that make me feel like the Michelin Man. I like chest rigs, but I don't want a ton of crap on them and I don't want them to wrap so far around my sides that they interfere with the straps of my ruck.

Plus, when it's just hot as Hades I'd rather go with just belt kit over a chest rig even.  Let that upper torso air out as much as possible.  Between belt kit and the new materials for hot weather clothing along with a lot of companies making modern jungle belts you can actually enjoy yourself a bit out on patrol in the heat of July or August now.

The earliest I've seen references to the British issues 'hippo pad' was for the old OD color PLCE stuff - early 90's like the 1993 one referenced above, I'm assuming they date a little farther back, the British did a quasi-revamp of their gear in the late 80's, modifying a few things here and there on their PLCE stuff.  I'm guessing they added issue hippo pads then, with the custom stuff dating a LITTLE farther back.

I've seen custom, modern-ish sewn on wide British style belts, the pre-cursers to the modern belts we think of today, dating back to the mid to late 90's.  The very early custom rigs.  Most of these were completely sewn on.  (Kit Monster's facebook page, btw, they post all kinds of cool oldschool British gear on there on a regular basis.  It's almost worth subscribing to their page there just to see the old stuff they run across)

The reason the British put the heavy pads on the HIPS, was because the early PLCE attachments attached everything to the belt - at the top of the pouches.  This allowed the mag pouches to flop around really badly when moving quickly - as in, bang against your leg, flop out, bang against the leg again, etc.  You get the same thing with ALICE pouches.  I've run sprints and moved over small obstacles while wearing loaded down ALICE gear back in the day and after a few hundred yards, I'd have big bruises on my outer thighs from the mag pouches.

Modern MOLLE attachment systems have mostly fixed this, as the pouches can be attached all the way down the wider pads.  And then you can flare out the back to help support the taller pouches in the back and not have to worry about flopping around mag pouches.

My Brit surplus multicam PLCE mag pouches hold 7.62N mags.

Thanks @Diz. I just don't remember them being as wide in the 90's working with the Brits. I was envious of their PLCE kit, but then shit started moving towards chest rigs and moved on to a lot of Tactical Tailor shit for how we were operating.

ROCK6

Yeah that's for sure, and when I started making chest rigs myself.  Belt kits sat on the back burner for awhile.  But I'm glad we circled back.