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Back armor upgrade?

ppenrose

ppenrose

Street Cruiser
I'd like to upgrade the "armor" in my Tourmaster Jett Series 2 jacket with something that will do a better job of protecting my spine. CE 1 or 2 would be optimal. Does anybody know what will fit into that jacket? I can do a lot of research myself, of course, but my time is pretty limited right now, so I thought I ask. I really like this jacket and it still has a lot of life left in it, so I'd rather upgrade it than have to spend a bunch of time to find another one that will fit my needs and budget.
 
I talked to Mark from Klim at Nationals and he said they sell a kit of the D30 (Dee Three Oh) armor to retrofit jackets. I told him I have a Tourmaster winter jacket and would like to retrofit it.

The D30 armor is the soft-to-hard-upon-impact stuff that Klim puts in their own stuff. You can find video on YouTube. FirstGear offers it too, I think.It's also used for rib protectors for quarterbacks, baseball players, and more. It feels just like foam in my jacket, but seeing the videos is believing.

Mark said the kit which is a back protector, elbows, and shoulders was available as a retrofit kit, it that's what you are thinking of. Look them up and call them. They had a huge display at Nationals.
Ron
 
ron203 said:
I talked to Mark from Klim at Nationals and he said they sell a kit of the D30 (Dee Three Oh) armor to retrofit jackets. I told him I have a Tourmaster winter jacket and would like to retrofit it.

The D30 armor is the soft-to-hard-upon-impact stuff that Klim puts in their own stuff. You can find video on YouTube. FirstGear offers it too, I think.It's also used for rib protectors for quarterbacks, baseball players, and more. It feels just like foam in my jacket, but seeing the videos is believing.

Mark said the kit which is a back protector, elbows, and shoulders was available as a retrofit kit, it that's what you are thinking of. Look them up and call them. They had a huge display at Nationals.
Ron
Click to expand...

+1

D30 is the cat's meow. I can't believe how well it works.

http://www.d3o.com/d3o_products
 
Hi Paul
I did what you are thinking about to one of my jackets with good results. The d30 armour trims quite easily so I spent the 30$ and used the old POS protector as a pattern...easy peasy.
 
I had that armor in a FirstGear jacket and it was absolutely amazing.  You just can't believe that it's happening.  But it is, and it's happening faster than you can perceive it.

 
Thanks everybody, I'll have to take a look at the D30 armor. I like the fact that I can just trim it myself to fit my jacket.
 
I've ordered the 3DO back kit. It should arrive on Tuesday and I will post up about my experiences with it. I'm thinking at this point that if I like this stuff, I might just sew in some pockets around the rib and chest area to give me more protection there. While I was pondering this, I realized that the knee protectors on my Scorpion pants were not the best. So I took out the hard protectors from a pair of Caliber pants that had a failed leg zipper and put them in the Scorpion. They fit pretty well, but when I put the pants on and did a little drop to my knees on the concrete floor, it reminded me why I didn't like those Caliber pants so much. Ouch, not enough padding on the inside of the hard protectors. So I put the original Scorpion pads inside with the hard shells from the Caliber and while a little bulky, gives me great protection. I can drop to my knees to the concrete floor as fast as gravity will pull me down and not feel any pain and only minimal shock to my body. Yeah, I know, I'm a cheap bastard. Or maybe I'm green - you know, recycle and reuse!  :great:
 
I upgraded all my armor to D30 in my Olympia gear. However rather than trim the wings on the D30 back protector I cut a couple of slots in the containing pocket for them to poke
through. Couldn't see cutting something that I wanted to upgrade to for more protection. So far it's good, and if there is a problem later on with the slots then I guess I'll just have to get out the needle and thread. I took the original Olympia CE shoulder pads an put them in the hip protector pockets which previously had only some thin foam. Makes my hips look fuller and more girlish, but heck I'm in my 60s so I'm going to be along way from cool no matter how I dress.  ???  The other replaced armor from the Olympia gear went into my Tourmaster mesh jacket which needed some upgrading as well. I'm hoping that I never need any of this stuff to protect me in an accident, but the original Olympia shoulder pads have already protected me from some very significant hail impact last year in Wyoming.
 
Forgot to mention this before but the same d30 back armour worked well for adding chest protection. I trimmed cardboard patterns to fit tightly into the chest inner pockets and it worked great.
 
Depending on how I like the new back armor, I was thinking the same thing: get a couple more and use them for rib/chest armor. My jacket does not have good pockets there I can use (only the external ones which I already use for holding my keys and gloves, but they aren't big enough anyway), so I was thinking of sewing some into the inner liner, kind of like the back armor pocket. Actually, I'd have someone else do the sewing once I figured out the shape and location, but you get the idea.
 
I got the D3O back pad yesterday. I played with it a bit and while it's not the miracle material they make it out to be in the video, it's much better than what the jacket came with. I and trimmed it to fit in the existing pocket and slipped it in. It does not make the jacket feel any heavier, even though I know the new pad is denser. Next I think I will upgrade the hip pads in my riding pants with the D3O. Once I can find somebody to sew in the pockets, one on each side of the front zipper, I will order two more back pads. I plan on putting them in rotated 90 degrees from the intended orientation. I figure the top part meant to protect the upper spine will wrap around nicely under the arm and protect the ribs along the side, and the where it flares out lower down should cover the ribs and chest in front. Seems like a good way to upgrade an otherwise serviceable jacket.
 
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