Downrange and not allowed to wear any of our own plate carriers etc even if the and armor and sides! Anyways anyone got any tips or stuff they added to iotvs?

If you are carrying weight on your back, you can either go super tight for your side plates, or let them sag. Everything in between rubs skin off. Use sheets of thin packing foam or cut up a sleep pad and stick those in your side plates as well.

If you are going to spend a lot of time sitting or riding in something, loosen everything up so you can slouch down and try to feign a comfortable position.

If you don't 100% need it on your chest, get those pouches off your vest.

Take all the extra shit off, yoke, daps, dick flap, and ass flap.

I don't like side plates, so I'd pull the plates, leave the pouches to fake the funk if you can get away with it. Otherwise, tighten up the cummerbund and enjoy the suck.

Jacked the skeletal 3 cumberbund off my crye avs I have here and made it work with the iotv side plates molle on and then I hooked up my velocity systems uw iv placard to my iotv and seems to work pretty well, plates ride higher and takes away the stupid front buckle bullshit that an idiot designed. The shoulders on the iotv is terrible and if you have any sort of muscle on your neck and shoulder you can't get comfortable. Still an upgrade from previous iotv so not much I can complain about. Will try and get some pictures up when I can all my other shits on my belt.

I never realized it sucked this bad, last piece I wore was the IBA.

The cumberbund design is so bad and shoulders are Still a dumb two piece design that never sit right and always twist. The front buckle makes for loose sides and sagging side plates that go too low, classic army lowest bidder to outfit army wide type deal.

Blow the supply guy and have him order plate carriers.

Pull the soft (frag) Kevlar out, readjust, and BOOM instant plate carrier.

Don't do this, really don't. Not only do you lose soft armor protection ESAPIs were designed to be used with soft armor backing.

^^^ very true, and in the event you get fragged, the gov might not pay out your $400k to your NOK cuz you removed portions of the armor.

I will put a caveat to my previous suggestion: you may only really get away with it in a training environment, DEFINITELY NOT while deployed.

10th Mtn on excursion in Iraq?  I was shocked to hear the deploying unit didn't get plate carriers.   There is actually a Gen 4 and Gen 5 crossover IOTV, both use that National Molding Quad Trigger Release (kit itself is $100 retail), the difference is in the body panel sizes.  The Gen 4 are wider like the Gen 3 IOTV, the Gen 5 has body panels about the same size as the SPCS like this:


  I made a plate carrier for one of your SGMs, like the Gen 3 SPCS but with integral admin pocket, hydration carrier and 4 mag Joey pocket:


But honest no BS assessment, you are stuck using the IOTV, SPCS or if you can sneak it by, the Multicam Modular Body Armor Vest MBAV in the SFLCS kits, those are the only NSN plate carriers available.    The Crye JPC has a Part# for SOCOM to order thru the system but no NSN assigned.

Burn it and find somebody's old IBA. 

Seriously, one year of wearing an iotv wrecked my back the way 7 years in an IBA never did. Fuck the IOTV and whoever designed it, and the faggots who made it, and the fuckpuppets that ordered it, and the catamite congressfuck who approved it, and the nutless cockshitting bar polisher who issued it. 

Yep. I wore the IBA for a year humping in Afghanistan. Then on my next tour I had the IOTV and hated it!! About to go out again and although I won’t be out and about as much, I am still not looking forward to the IOTV

Not with the Iraq guys over in afghan but still 10th mtn. Shitty having better gear but it not being issued gear so it's just good to look at. Iotv made by people who don't use it like grunts I guess.

Battle belt to get as much stuff off of it as you can.  I'm really not liking the how the shoulder seam works on the 4, keeps sliding around and the strap starts chaffing pretty dang quick if you're wearing a combat shirt.