As many of you might know, Iam a huge fan of Velocity Systems SCARAB LT Platecarrier, that we already reviewed in an article before. But sometimes the mission demands something that your favorite plate carrier doesn’t offer yet. Our team at RBT discussed the problem of donning and doffing a platecarrier inside confined space recently and we all agreed to the point that we needed a shoulder quick release option.
Cryes CPC and some First Spear products offer said ability by integrating a side release buckle or tubes, but I wanted to continue using my good old SCARAB, so I needed something that let me “buckle” one of my shoulder straps without restricting movement. Because of the SCARABs unique, swiveling shoulder Straps, sewing in a fastex buckle wasn’t an option. It wasn’t also an option because I wanted as less moving parts as possible and I wanted to keep the SCARAB LT sitting as high as possible and also be able to still carry a ruck.
So after some thoughts involving Tubes or Fidlocks V-Buckle, I finally came to another solution, making use of the SCARABs unique anatomy. I approached the German company Tactical Trim and ordered some paracord and an ITW Nexus TacToggle. As it turned out, the TacToggle interlocks with the SCARAB LTs suspension D-Rings and I was simply able to unlock this construction by twisting the TacToggle in a 90 degrees inwards or outwards motion.
I simply cinched the left shoulder strap as tight as possible and routed a two-and-a-half-inch long ring of paracord through the end of the shoulder strap that is facing to the front. I also incorporated the TacToggle into this ring. It takes some time to adjust everything to the desired length, but after you got your desired end result you just twist the TacToggle and interlock it with the D-Ring. As the knot is self-tightening there is no danger of the knot turning loose.
When you want to ditch the carrier while sitting or standing you just need to pull the TacToggle away from you and twist it. We also tried this with gloves and yes, even a thick military issue wool sock around our hands and it worked better than most COTS solutions you might find on other carriers. The TacToggles slick design also adds no bulk to the SCARAB and the shoulders still do their free float thing.
For cosmetical reasons I stored the loose ends under the SCARABs shoulder pads. This easy way of adding a QR feature to the shoulders of Velocity Systems SCARAB requires no sewing skills and it really surprised me, how well this simple solution turned out. Now I can ditch my platecarrier inside a vehicle without choking myself by spending less than 5€ on paracord and a TacToggle. Surely, guys that can use a sewing machine can propably get more aesthetic results, but I prefer this solution because it is Field repairable.
At the end of the day we called it the hood rat mod for its KISS approach.
You can get all required materials very very fast direct from TacticalTrim
For more weird ideas follow us on Instagram.
