Trex just dropped a new chest rig, very feature-rich, but expensive. $240 for multicam, $225 for other colors.

For the TLDW crowd: 4 Loop lined M4 mag cells up front,(Meant to use tall kywi inserts) larger cells on either side compatible with larger radios or 308 mags, along with smaller radio pockets on the inside of the rig.

Big admin pocket in the center, rig comes with a removable zipper insert. Molle has loop velcro sewn on up front, making it serve as an under-cummerbund placard, or you could rig it up with some other kind of harness that uses a cummerbund. Hook field on the inside with a cover for danglers and attaching to PC’s.


I like it, I really do… But it’s more pricey than a VelSys rig, and a LOT pricier than an Esstac trimmed bush as a dedicated chest rig. My primary use for it would be as an under-cummerbund placard with integral radio wings, and I’d have to get kywis to go with it, so very expensive for my use case.

Anyone else feel like being a guinea pig for this one?

Side note: While plenty of folks think Lucas is long-winded, and I get that, I wish other manufacturers would put out videos this detailed when releasing new products.

ETA: just got the Email, Trex is now offering the traap panel separately for $100 less, link in my post down below. Plan on ordering one shortly, will see if it’s as good as I expect, or just a really expensive piece of jank.

ETA2: Traap just came in, first look review in progress

You can get a TAP bundle from Venture surplus for half the price. You would still need to upgrade the harness and add kydex inserts (if you want). And you would have to pay extra for the kydex inserts either way.  Not sure what this does that can’t be achieved with a TAP with some mods.  

Venture Surplus link

I’m not seeing the value here. No question it has better features, but compared to a TAP does it add more functionality? I scored an OCP Taps kit for 17.99. I bought buckles and shock cord from milspec monkey for maybe $10 and an h harness with backstrap from Gcode for $36. I used the Velcro mag flaps to make my own pull tabs. For about $60 I have the same base rig.

Who would anyone copy PEO soldier, the Wish.com of the gear world?

The single plate attachment was interesting.

No doubts that a 18$ surplus TAP is a good item, but keep in mind that Uncle Sams buys It for 99.99$ and orders hundreds of thousands at a time (the complete rifleman kit costs 486.11$).

When i saw that t Rex rig It looked like the ATS modular rig or many other rigs with integrated Mag pouches that were popular in the early 00s and fell out of favor ten years later. I Guess the Pendulum swung again.

That said, this rig has a lot of features that means a lot of time and material to put It together. It's not laser cut, it's all sewn (which Isn't necessarily a plus). I can see why it's priced that amount.

All true. But you can accomplish the same thing sub $100 by using a TAP.

I get your point. I’m not arguing the price point. They exist to make a profit. I want them to succeed. I think it’s a good rig, but I think you could accomplish a lot more with less is all.

Take a $60 TAP, shrink it down to manlet size and quadruple the price... Brilliant!

Give it 6 months and all those $60 TAP's will be $120 TAP's as supply runs out.  Like mentioned above, surplus stuff has ups and downs as supply dwindles.  

What we should be paying attention to is the return to large mag load-out chest rigs with at least some retention.  What is old again is new and all that.  

Saying that, I've still got my old Tactical Tailor MAV's that I picked up almost a quarter of a century ago.  Which is not far off from these once you put mag shingles on them  (yet, they aren't built into the panel, I get that)  Point is, old again.  New again.  Big chest rigs.  blah blah blah.

If 6 mags wide, with two of them being 308 sized, is “manlet” sized to you, you must be an absolute chungus


Only fair to compare it to the TAP, since it’s a modernized version of it, but I think it compares more fairly to the other ~$200 options on the market, VelSys, TAG, etc. Hell, Platatac rigs are close to $400.

If it included four kywi inserts out of the box instead of needing to buy them separately, I think it’d be awful close to being worth the $240.

Marnsdoff’s right, though, once the surplus TAPs start drying up, the cost/value differential will shrink considerably.

(Re)release the Silverthorne!

Or God forbid, the Mookie War Rig.

I had to look up the silverthorne.

Good god, the buckles on that fucker! If it had a couple novelty sized zippers, it could be a Tetsuya Nomura design

I always forget HSGI was one of the frontrunners in overbuilt nylon in the beginning of the GWOT, long before they became known for their tacos.

…That sounds really strange when you say it out loud, lol

Had a Weesatch at one point as well as a SOE Direct Action Rig. Those pieces of kit were Uber overbuilt, they’re like the Crown Vic’s of the gear world.

It's probably not too ridiculous, price-wise for a new-build not-chinese product.
...That said, so long as new surplus TAP rigs are $60 or so, I don't see that this would be worth it (unless you really need different colors or the modded features).

hsgi rigs are Just British NI rigs with extra pouches sewn on.
Gene started by tailoring arktis 42s with buckles on the pouches and sewing a couple of extra pistol pockets and the "sniper belt" part under.



Anyway It looks like the older early 2000 rigs with integrated Mag pouches are coming again (sotech Hellcat, hsgi wasatch, esstac boar and the like). Maybe It took comes from the current war and the idea of augmenting the ammunition load.
The 2005 era pics on Arfcom of guys going to the range with a wasatch loaded with 12 magazines are going to be in full swing again.
I want to see this again, rigs with triple stackes pouches, bring back the FirePower!

Its a neat upgrade to the Taps for people who are not concerned about the 100 Dollar Price difference.

I would prefer their other Rig, but I am also a sucker for the old RRV Rigs and still try to score one on ebay for a good Price.

You guys crack me up.  Yeah I remember those days a swell.  And not keen to return to them.  My buddy's first tour back in '07.  I get this call, hey how ya doin?  Listen we need to have a talk about some new kit.  I'm carrying 70lbs of kit and trying to chase some dude with an AK and maybe a couple of mags, up a mountain.  This is bullshit.  So we came up with several LIGHT WEIGHT chest rigs, for his different weapons.  He could then jump off the truck, grab whichever weapon he wanted (5.56, 7.62, or 40mm) and a chest rig over the PC.  Not much else either.  

So for sure, each and every situation is different and we react accordingly.

I still have the HSGI Wasatch (circa 2003) that I used in Iraq, with all the Blackhawk pouches. I keep meaning to put it up on eBay, LOL.


My buddy Vince (former 8541, KIA on MSR Tampa 2004) had another HSGI rig, but I forget the model:

How to "layer" MOLLE pouches Video

I have a good buddy, just retired out of the Marines last year, did all the HSLD stuff the Marines offered.  He was a huge huge fan of the giant HSGI chest rig setups.  

I just never could wrap my mind around those huge chest rigs like that.

Yeah and have you seen the average size of Marine girlfriends and wives?  'Nuff said.

To be fair, he's currently dating one of the current Miss (insert state he's in)

Room for many opinions, but I have come to side with the opinions of "foot-mobile" folks who cannot rely on "Big Army" providing frequent and ubiquitous re-supply and transport.

I can see folks making "Chest-rig" or "Belt-rig" choices depending on circumstances.  One thing that's common with both alternatives is being able to integrate a pack to both types of rigs.

In the "Best of Worlds" one might have both Chest rigs and Belt rigs, all of which used maximum items/components possible, and which seamlessly integrated to the same Pack.

I understand why some folks insist on sewn-on belt/chest rig pouches, but a civilian, having scant money, might want the option to transfer pouches from Belt rig onto Chest rig, and vice versa, even if such rigs might not be Optimal.

Sometimes Compromises need be made, especially if one is an independent user, not relying on outside re-supply of anything from Big Army.

The "Average" person, who is on a budget, will want to save as much money as possible, and forego the platforms (either Chest rig or Belt rig) with sewn-on pouches in lieu of platforms which allow them to use the same pouches interchangibly.  I think this is unarguable.

YMMV.

I actually believe a smartly put together chest rig compliments the belt kit if used right.

You could even go with using a minimalist chest rig as a 'bandoleer' of sorts, carrying extra ammo in the pack when not in use.  

As for swapping pouches between chest rig / belt kit as needed - that takes an awful lot of time and alot of those pouches don't specifically work great on the other set of kit (though some do).  You're probably better off with dedicated sets of kit - but alot of people want the latest and greatest thing.  There are plenty of budget options out there.  With all the love of belt kits I put out, I actually support people getting a decent chest rig setup - and by decent I mean 'it won't fall apart and is comfortable' - as their first piece of tactical gear.  A decent budget chest rig is very multi purpose.   It CAN fulfill the role of a full set of LBE  (don't get a micro rig as your first setup)  and is compatible with most packs, even civilian backpacking packs, should you be forced to use one.  You can get into a decently setup chest rig that won't fall apart for around $100 if you are careful on what you get.  

The reason I put the chest rig first, is that it fills more roles than the belt kit - specifically use in a vehicle / home defense.  

You can then add your support gear - ruck, etc.  Then look at belt kit.  

(Of course, the ultimate budget options are those complete FLC rifleman's kits.  I saw one selling the other day for $50.  That's insane.)

Basically, people don't NEED both a chest rig and a set of belt kit.  But it's nice to have both.  But not if you need to swap pouches back and forth.  Wait to get the full set of either one, even if you have to wait a bit.  Heck, there are budget approaches to belt kit - surplus PLCE sets are around $100.  Heck, I can hook you up with a set of surplus PLCE pouches sewn to a modern padded belt setup for $150.  But no ones wants to go the budget route, as it isn't the latest and greatest gucci stuff.

I'm not dissing the idea of moving pouches from chest rigs to belts - I did when I was playing around with MOLLE mounted belt kit the first time - but it doesn't make sense keeping on swapping them back and forth when in active use.

minimalist chest rig is best chest rig.  Fight from your belt.  Migrate gear from your chest.  Light, compact, thin, mobile...nothing can interfere with moving, seeing, and shooting.  


That chest rig is not minimalist.

I'm not going to "dictate" to anyone what kind of rig to tote.  An "intelligent" and knowledgeable user will decide for themselves, based on circumstances and kit available.

It's NICE to have choices.

Oh I agree.  I'm still using my old molle Tactical Tailor MAV's for my bigger chest rigs.  

Eventually I'll sew myself up one with the pouches sewn on.  But the molle ones work fine.

Even with a belt kit, I find a chest rig is still sometimes very useful.  There are a few things in common use these days that were not carried back when belt kits were std ware.  I find a small chest rig is the optimum place for a radio, and PTT, not to mention a blow out kit and TQ.   And why not a quick reload or two.  It's sort of a hybrid approach to using a classic belt kit but still enjoying some of the advances in comms and combat medicine.  Sometimes these items have issues integrating into a belt kit format.  

But I also find anything on my chest in really hot, humid weather is a No Go.  So just depends.

I'm starting to think belt kit with a minimalist plate carrier and ruck may be a very versatile option, as a scalable kit.

Plate carrier can carry a few mags, some trauma items, and maybe a radio.
Belt kit can carry a full fighting load, water, and a few survival supplies.
Ruck can carry sustainment gear and plus up any needed items.

-vehicle ops or planned short duration tasks can be covered by the PC.
-hot/long patrols covered by belt kit
-relocation/sustainment by the ruck.
-expected contact combo of PC and belt kit.

What do you think?  Am I off base here?

You could also go slick PC, larger chest rig, and ruck, I guess, but I think you lose a little versatility.

Same.  I think you are on track here.  But I just throw my big chest rig over the plate carrier if I need to.

Though I also have the option to throw my little Haley micro rig that I use as a 'grab and go home defense' rig on my plate carrier as a placard.  I have removable hardware to convert my slick carrier into one that accepts a placard.

Since I'm really rural in the mountains, I lean away from the plate carrier.  But the option is there.  

I fully believe you need both a decent chest rig / plate carrier combo...and a set of belt kit.  And a ruck of course.  

There is just a time and place for that chest rig and / or plate carrier.  Same with the belt kit.

Scalability is the beauty of placard-based systems.

PC can be completely slick to accommodate belt kit, but you can still slap on a placard or one of these chest rigs if you like, it just sucks a bit more. With this chest rig, you can have all your essentials on it, (3-4 mags, TQ/small blowout, radio) with all your sustainment and the rest of your non-gunfighting equipment on the belt or in a pack.

PC and belt kit kinda sucks, but it's more practical than trying to move/shoot while wearing a ruck and armor; unlike the military, in the context of us using this kinda gear, we can't afford to just ditch the ruck and get a new one at the FOB, what we carry is what we've got. Hence why I like a belt kit that integrates an assault pack, it's everything you need for LBE in one unit, (Much faster to throw on/off for jumping in/out of vehicles) doesn't suck complete ass to move/shoot in, integrates half decently with armor, and offers a fair amount of scalability. And without armor, if you don't like wearing a chest rig under it, you can even integrate one of these placard-based chest rigs into the DZ rig if you want, doesn't take too much in the way of arts and crafts.

Terrain/mission dictates whether armor makes more sense than a chest rig. It still makes sense to store some essentials on the torso, so long as it's done as a single layer that doesn't interfere with prone. Doesn't need to be ammo, maybe one or two speed reloads and the rest can be other stuff you'll need all the time; monocular, rangefinder, notepad, compass, map, phone, GPS, light, radio, whatever. So long as it doesn't wear you the fuck out once you start moving around, the sky's the limit. And these days, you can set up chest rigs all sorts of ways, hell, you can replace the H-harness with a flatpack and integrate some level of water and sustainment, and still have room to put on a gun belt to plus up on mags/medical without compromising your ability to get in/out of vehicles, or do goon shit with the boys.

I like rigs like this because they scale up or down, and integrate well with other gear. They also carry weight better than double-stacked rigs by snugly wrapping around the torso. You can turn a slick carrier into a full loadout by popping off the harness and slapping it onto a PC, no other changes needed. You don't have to load it up with six mags, water, radio, TQ, ifak, frags, bangs, det cord, GPS, kitchen sink, and thirty random house keys, you can leave it mostly empty and just add whatever you need/want for the given mission/outing. But unlike the micro rigs, you can scale it up to carry all that crap.

This is where I’m at right now. Seems to be the best all around option. The PC has a triple shingle and two TQs. That alone is a bare minimum. Throwing that PC over a belt kit isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible. Since you can carry some sustainment items in belt kit, it may reduce your pack weight some. Wearing all three at the same time is a young man’s game though. Frankly best case if you need all three is to put the PC in your ruck for movement, then close to the objective, cache pack and put on PC. IMO I’d rather carry the extra weight of the PC in my pack while moving while allowing for more breathability.

The thing I don't like about the TAPS is how far to the side it extends. I've heard from others and it looks to me like it could end up going back behind your backpack straps and I'd rather that area be free so that the straps go on naturally over my body and not come down along the sides of the chest rig.

This is a valid point, vis-a-vis integrating with ruck straps.  I have found going no more than 2 molle slots keeps this from happening.  And keeping your chest rig hardware lo-pro helps out.

Pack straps, I assume?

The more I think about it, the more I think the traap is meant to be an under-cummerbund placard with integral radio wings first, and a chest rig second.

As a chest rig, it seems more oriented towards urban or vehicle ops, rather than field use where you’d have a pack or ruck. I could see myself using it standalone as a training rig, maybe with a flatpack instead of the H-harness, and then just throw it onto a PC the rest of the time without needing to do any reconfiguring or swapping shit around between kits.

Wait, does this mean I can start wearing my Eagle Rhodesian again?

The Eagle Rhodesian never went out of style my brother.  Just that certain degenerates lost the faith.

Sounds good, how much water and where it is carried? Food? a cold weather jacket? Full belt kit is worn over or under PC?

I think for most civilian needs a good minimal chest rig to replenish the belt (like the SOE one) is a nice compact item than can carry a lot and is a good grab bandolier.

Those larger chest rigs...they are good as well provided the user doesn't use them because the military do. Seems silly, but it is reality as many won't have time, money or will to experiment and so they have to settle for something that's common sight and that in the end may be far from his needs.

As Thomas Sowell says, there are no perfect solutions only trade-offs.  

The Chest Rig does have an advantage over belt kit for vehicle operations, especially when operating out of a civilian automobile.  It does provide the end user with faster magazine changes (reasonable minds differ on the importance of saving a second or two on a magazine change).  

The problem with the Chest Rig is that it adds a thick layer of heavy fabric right over your torso, which will insultate you and is far less breathable than belt kit in extreme heat environments.  Not so much a factor for those living in temperate climate zones for at least three seasons of the year, but for those living in a desert, tropical climate zone or using it in high heat during the summer that could be an issue.  

I'm not sure how much stuff is necessary to carry on a chest rig. I think people sometimes forget we have these things called "pockets" as well.  There is the convenience of having everything in a chest rig ready to go, but if you're doing PCC and PCI you shouldn't risk forgetting anything and I never viewed a Chest Rig as something that would need to be grabbed for a quick reaction like body armor would be.  

Going too heavy with a chest rig that isn't balanced out by a pack can definitely change up your body's balance as well.  I am not going to carry more than six mags on a chest rig, if I need more magazines than that I'm going with belt kit and or a pack.   I'm personally not a fan of feeling like the Michelin Man either with a lot of bulk.  

For those who see more use in this thing as a placard, or for those that already have a box full of harnesses and backstraps, Trex is now selling the traap panel itself for $160 camo or $145 solid.

Trex link

Still a little pricey, but much easier to justify if you’re mounting it on a PC, it’s much closer to what you’d pay for an equivalent placard and two radio wings.

ETA: price fixed because I’m dyslexic.

This is the exact problem I have with the TAPs and one reason I am pretty interested in this new setup. I wish there was somewhere I could try it on, I'm sort of tall and skinny so  the TAPS wraps so far around my chest it interferes with ALICE pack straps and is hard to access the last couple mag pouches. I don't really buy newly made gear often, most of what I have is surplus I've either tactically acquired or bought years ago.

I've sort of changed my philosophy over the last few years and I've been experimenting with the larger format chest rig versus LBE thing where I can plus or minus armor under my sustainment/combat load.

This month I got a Citadel Defense Specter Chest Rig and so far I'm really loving it, but it's too early for me to make a definitive statement about it.

I'm going to order a DZ Rig from Crossfire next week. I want to play around with the belt kit and the chest rig together with my newish Crossfire CF2 to see how they play together and make a determination if spreading gear over all three would be good or bad for me.  Then this winter I'll have to see how I like all of them for use during the Winter here in Michigan where we can get 30 degree temp swings in a single day meaning that I'm constantly having to layer up and down with my clothing.  

Right now I'm sort of at the point where I realize there isn't really going to be a "one ring to rule them all" kit set-up for me. In the extreme heat of summer (like right now) and in the really cold winter months of December through early March I'm just going to have to have a set-up that's really specific to those time frames. My goal is to fine tune everything this year and then sort of step away from being so darn gear focused for awhile to get back to spending more money on courses and travel for it again.

I've basically paired stuff down to a set of belt kit and a heavy-ish chest rig.  I can always run the chest rig over a plate carrier too.  

I do have a mini chest rig, but I mostly have reserved that for home defense stuff.

The citadel may not play well with it with the DZ on top, judging from how wide the citadel is and how it’s set up. (I do like the setup of it, though, very practical)

Anything under the DZ needs to be very narrow up front, the straps running down to the belt will interfere with a lot of stuff. 3 mags on a plate carrier is the hard limit. Now going overtop, you’ve got options, but it’s more difficult to get everything settled, and you preclude having much on the back of the yoke.

My first thought was to integrate rather than pile on. Two repair buckles on the last or second to last ladder section of the yoke, and you can now slap on just about any placard, or modern chest rig. Ride height may be annoying, but anything obscene can be fixed with a little bit of webbing and a couple more buckles.

From there, a bit of 1” webbing, some buckles, two triglides, and a bit of shock cord, (Or one of the Trex elastic Y-straps) and you now have something akin to an old school LBV. This would pair very well with something wider, 4 to 6 mag wide, methinks. The chest rig add-on also acts as a sternum strap, minor benefit.

Any wider chest rig like the traap, velsys hybrid, etc would work well in this config, be fairly easy to don/doff, and not preclude the use of a day pack, hydro pouch, etc. probably wouldn’t interfere with a ruck too bad, but I doubt the fastex buckles would be comfortable with ruck straps over top. You’d have to play with that to find out how much it sucks.

For sizing, take two 3-mag placards and set them against your torso side by side, that ought to give you a good idea if it’ll work for you.

I’m built like a brick shithouse at 200 pounds and 5’10”  so 6-mag width works for me, but it’s at the far limit. It’s easiest to reach the outer stuff with the opposite hand, I wouldn’t bother trying to chicken wing anything that’s wedged in tight.

7-mag would suck hard for trying to access those outer pouches, I can’t imagine trying to use the taps without armor under it.

For the sake of adding to this conversation, the SO Tech Hellcat was first in this genre of gear design. When Jim first started showing this design, it was revolutionary and unheard of. Everything after owes its lineage to the Hellcat (or the HHCM4 or whatever he was calling it when it debuted).

I have evolved my thinking similar to this. The idea of having 9 mags at my finger tips as I had on my fighting load in my youth seems silly to me now. My current rig is a Spiritus Micro Fight Chassis with three rifle magazines. Anything more than that stays in the go bag/backpack until needed to refit the chest rig.

I see you are saying specially to fight from your belt. That is a great preference. I do provide one piece of counsel to those reading this who might advocate a chest rig to go along with their belt kit. My opinion is that loading needs to occur from either Belt Kit OR Chest Rig, never Chest Rig AND Belt Kit. If you load from your belt, load from your belt. If you load from your chest, load from your chest.

...but lets make sure the the next generation doesn't think they can get away with choosing from either as they see fit. That is from where very simple but very catastrophic mistakes are born.

I only see the addition of a chest rig to a set of belt kit as a way up 'up-gunning' your belt kit loadout with more magazines.  IE, kinda a wearable bandoleer.  

Probably good advice on reloading from one or the other, not both too btw.  I can see where that could screw you up.