I hope this is an appropriate place to ask this; I made several searches of the forums and didn't find a better location. I am planning to get a better plate carrier and am fairly well set on First Spear. My first thought was to get a cummerbund retrofit kit for one of my current carriers as I think the tubes appear to be much better than velcro or buckles. But while the retrofit kit looks great, it won't fix the other issues with my budge carriers (eg mediocre Chinese build quality, poor shoulder straps, mediocre PALS webbing, etc). My next thought was maybe to go with the SST & w/an Overlap cummerbund and upgraded shoulder pads and the PIG pontoons. Well, maybe I'm outsmarting myself but once I get everything to upgrade the SST it seems like I'm not saving much cash vs just getting a Strandhögg.
For reference I have two plate carriers now, fairly inexpensive ones. One is set up with Level IV ceramic/PE armor and the other is Level III+ ceramic/PE. I did just get one of the nicer multicurve plates from RMA which feel enough better fit-wise that I'll likely get another one. Neither of my current rigs have real cummerbuns and I'm not presently running side plates. Generally I wear them to the range and to train, and of course keep one handy at home to grab in case of an emergency. My feeling was been that the speed of donning the simpler armor outweighed the extra protection of side plates, etc. But now I am wanting a bit more protection, and it seems that a better carrier with tubes would be at least as fast my stripped down carriers. In a home invasion scenario the layout of my place would likely allow me to keep opponents in front of me but on a shooting range there's a greater risk of a round coming in from the sides or rear.
Protection is the main priority but a big part of spending $500 or more on just the carrier would be to have a rig that is comfortable as well. I won't be humping through the valleys of Afghanistan or anything so I don't pouches for comms or space for six AR mags, but an admin pouch for a cell phone and flashlight would be good. Normally I keep a couple of AR mags on the carrier and a couple of pistol mags. I've got a lot of stuff that First Spear sews for Hill People Gear so I'm really leaning towards them as they do quality stuff and are American made.
So I'm curious if anyone here runs a Strandhögg or other First Spear rig? If so, do common commercial Level IV ceramic/PE plates fit well in the versions made for SAPI plates? How is the comfort of the carrier? Are there any downsides to running tubes that I need to consider? Should I consider a different First Spear carrier? I'm not super interesting in buying a bunch of new plates so I want something that will fit my RMA and LAPG plates if possible (although I will likely add side plates and/or soft side panels- the latter being a big draw of the Overlap cummerbund).
Thanks for any info you can provide!