Yep better to have weight on hips rather than on shoulders. My back takes a serious beating when I put to much on the shoulders. Good advice Sir!
Gotcha, thanks Rob appreciate the feedback…as always.
Gotta disagree on where the load is carried at least for myself and the way our guys adjust and wear their load. This goes for the way armor, a good ruck set up is carried, even our SCBA’s. No such thing as the tank hanging low for us. Too much weight on the hips wreaks havoc on the lower back over extended periods of time. More correctly a good vest set up with say a cumberbund or belly type of strap should keep the load up off the hips and not so much on the shoulders but high on the back and the bodies core distributes the load and not the hips or shoulders. Even our SCBA belly straps are not on the hips.
I have been wearing loadouts from molle belts to full armor almost daily for well over a decade. The best thing that I did was to get everything off of my thighs and my hips and get it mounted on my armor. The critical part with the armor is proper adjustment where the load is carried correctly and not via the shoulders. This is what causes our guys the most problems with back and shoulders is that they don’t carry the load correctly. The cumberbund or belly strap is one critical component to balancing the load properly.
If I wear my molle belt only my lower back is screaming after only a few hours. I would much rather be wearing an extra 30 lbs in my armor set up where everything is off my hips.
YMMV
Conceivably couldn’t someone get the suspenders and that would shift the carry weight to the same area you’re referring to?
having suspenders with a battle belt is more for keeping it from slipping down, rather than transferring all the weight to the shoulders.
suspenders allow you to decide what the weight distribution between the hips and shoulders are by adjusting the strap length. i basically adjust mine so that there’s very little pressure on my shoulders, and the suspenders just keep them in place.
another plus to having them is that you don’t have to keep the belt as tight to keep it from slipping down. you can also unbuckle the belt and have it hang off the suspenders if you need to, if you need to pull your pants down to take a dump, or just want to relax some pressure off the hips around camp etc.
for a backpack hip belt to work effectively, it has to be worn tight on the hips, which may be comfortable for hiking, but you may not need the mobility with a backpack that you might with a battle belt (running around, squatting, going prone etc), and may not want to wear a battle belt that tight.
some disadvantages of suspenders are that you can’t take the belt off if you’re wearing armour over the suspenders, or rotate the belt around on your hips to access pouches in the back (if you can’t reach them).
Yes but that won’t help the shoulders. What I mention above doesn’t place stress on the shoulders either with a good cumberbund set up. The key is to get the belt or the load secure around the core (abdomen) and secured at that point and keep the load higher on the back. Same thing as in humping a heavy ruck where the key is high on the upper back.
As MM mentions for a warbelt you could tightly secure the belt higher off the hips around the core and use suspenders to hold them there. While it is not the most ideal it is a lot better than wearing say a warbelt that hangs or sags on the hips.