I didn't get much feedback on it in the plate carrier thread so I thought I would just drop this question here.

Does anyone have any opinions on running something like the SKD pontoons or qcore icevents on a carrier with internal Velcro like the esstac ass. I have one on order from the BF sale and living in Florida and all I was thinking if I should go ahead and get some kind of pads to go on it.

For everyone who owns an deadon, do you guys have any thoughts about running the carrier without any pads at all since it doesn't have any mesh.

Thanks!

I run pontoons on my First Spear. I think it makes a difference for me.

Some people find they help with their back in terms of comfort. When wearing them you will sweat still just not as much in the areas without pontoons/cooling pads.

Kind of a subjective thing. Some guys love em some guys don't. You will not know until you try them for awhile.

As a fellow Floridian I don’t think it would hurt. I have a PIG backpack with a hard insert and I bought the pontoons to keep my back cool on day hikes. I think they work well.

There’s not much to them. There constructed like padded shoulder straps on a Jansport backpack. I wish the foam inside was a little thicker/stiffer to keep it off your back better.

I ordered the same carrier, just waiting for it and my plates from Midwest. Then I’ll try the SKD pontoons and follow this thread to see if there is something better.

I bought mine as a set before they released their Aero version for the shoulder. Some things to note: The Icevents have slots cut into them that allow for hook and loop strip to secure to shoulders or as a headband for ear pro. They come with sticky side hook and loop sections that you attach to the Icevents for plate carriers. Make sure you prep the Icevents well or the material won't stick. The structure doesn't of the Icevents doesn't compress well like foam pads do, so it gives a small bit of standoff space that allows for more airflow. If you're a little bit delicate, they will also scratch you. For this problem I say suck it up or adjust the Daedon cummerbund so it doesn't shift around so much.

Qore Icevents are pricey but totally worth it, imo. My shirt in the chest area with the Daedon Gen 1 after jogging on a treadmill at 8mph is damp after about 7 minutes and soaked in about 18-20 minutes. I don't sweat as much on my back. This is in about 70% humidity and 75 to 80*F ambient temp. With the Icevents, the damp feeling starts around double the amount of time (14-15 minutes) and my shirt doesn't start soaking until about 30 minutes into my jog. I can't tell a temperature difference with or without the Icevents with physical exertion. Wearing a PC while exercising just feels hot. The difference for me though is sweat evaporation is significantly faster with the Icevents.

The only time I notice a difference in temperature is with no physical exertion. The Daedon without Icevents makes you get warm real quick even when doing nothing. With Icevents, it's noticeably cooler than without.

Is it worth the money for the chest and back? Hell yeah.
Is it worth the money for the shoulders? Maybe.I, myself didn't notice any change in my shoulder area when it came to sweat, temperature difference, or load bearing pressure (comfort/tolerance) while exercising and only mild temperature difference when just sitting. Edited to add: If you've ever read advertisement on any shoulder pads that state they will spread the load over a wider surface area, IceVents won't do it (neither will the closed cell foam mesh pads I've tried).

How does it compare to a mesh-lined carrier?

I personally don’t like them. I’m gonna sweat and get hot regardless and I prefer to have my gear as close to me and low profile as I can get it.

Never had a carrier with full mesh backing. I have added pads that were mesh covered closed cell foam for both shoulders and plates front and back. The pads compress to the point where there's no airflow going into the mesh when I have the plate carrier and cummerbund adjusted with no shifting while moving exercising. They end up trapping a lot of heat and while it did create some air space at my sternum area; the portions of my body touching the pad itself ended up being hotter than everything else. 3D mesh on those pads did absolutely nothing in terms of wicking sweat, temperature regulation or overall sweat evaporation but they were significantly more comfortable against my chest and back.

Mesh wrapped closed cell foam shoulder pads also really did nothing in terms of offering load bearing support, only load bearing tolerance. The weight never feels distributed evenly across the pad, it only makes the pressure point feel less annoying. These were with 2" wide pads shoulder pads and I think 1/4" thick (can't quite remember the thickness). It made no difference on a Daedon since the Daedon shoulder was already comfortable to begin with. Made a difference on comfort for my JPC 2.0 though. Heat wise the pads made my shoulders even hotter than norm and that's just sitting around.

Closed Cell foam wrapped in 3d Mesh add on pads for chest and back? Not worth it.
Closed cell foam wrapped in 3d mesh wrap around shoulder pads? - If your carrier has thin and narrow shoulder sections and considering you can get these pads for like $30, I suppose that makes it worth it for comfort only. Edited to add: If you've ever read advertisement on any shoulder pads that state the pads will spread the load over a wider surface area, closed cell foam mesh pads won't do it (at least the ones I tried, neither will IceVents).


If I had to guess, a full mesh lined carrier will suffer the same issues of foam compression (and the heat build up) on contact areas but will overall wick away more sweat mainly due to the sheer amount of uncompressed surface area that can actually receive some airflow (compared to just mesh/foam pads).

Edited to add:
If the mesh material is like a 3D mesh without a foam backing like found on a small section of the front and back of the JPC 2.0 (pic below), note that that mesh compresses pretty easily and likely the mesh would compress all the way down until your chest or back contacts the plates. This would likely cause hot spots and a lack of airflow as well. The material may wick moisture away really well though and would allow moisture to evaporate rapidly on the uncompressed areas, but I'm unsure of this.

Thanks for the input. I was hoping that mesh lining help get rid of that swimming in sweat feel, but I guess not. Maybe mesh with first-spear's padded backer, hmm..

Thanks for all the input and feedback guys, yeah price no object I would like to jump on qcore set but I think I already spent more than I'm comfortable this black Friday. Im probably going to pick up 2 pair of Pontoons and see how I like them.

Speaking of 3d Mesh, my current LEPC has it everywhere and I can confirm it is comfy, cant really tell if it helps or not though compared to no mesh at all.

SKD PIG pontoons all day... simple, cheap, and work well.  They have minimum contact and create a huge void for air movement.

I have a Esstac ASS and was considering getting some pontoons to try out.

please update the thread on your opinion of them.

what color ASS's did they have on Black Friday?

I used PIG pontoons on my AVS when I didn't yet have the harness, and they worked pretty well at making it more comfortable. As for reducing heat, I suppose they did, but wearing a plate carrier with rifle mags, a radio, medical and other minor misc. stuff is going to get hot no matter what you do. Now that I have the harness and Crye pads the pontoons are in my extra gear bag in one of my closets.

Will do, they had some of the regular stuff, OD, black, coyote, MC, Black MC

I’ve got a set of these on my Velocity LEPC.

Body Armor Vent Gen 1

They are currently blowing these out as they have released a new Gen 2. It works pretty well, I notice a difference in comfort in the heat and humidity of Georgia summers. I’m kicking around getting one the Gen 2’s and seeing how much improvement there is.

I would think that any additional stand off would make wearing packs in conjunction with a carrier even more difficult? True? Doesn’t matter?

I almost pulled the trigger on those, but my SKD Pontoons are here already so i guess thats what im going to use then.

USMC once issued this cooling vest: https://armysurpluswarehouse.com/usmc-cooling-vest/

Can find them on eBay now.  Some pix on eBay even have readable instructions for donning/doffing and trimming of excess material.