Knee pads

Thinking about making knee pads to sew into my bunker pants. Obviously all materials have to be NFPA compliant. Other than that, can you see anything wrong with this idea?

I'm thinking of sewing Kevlar or Nomex pockets to the outside of the liner, and inserting replaceable neoprene pads in the pockets. The pads will be between the liner and the pants, so as not to interfere with donning.

Thanks for your input!

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Permalink Reply by T. Crookshank on September 22, 2008 at 2:52pm

"...but I do find these areas a little sore after wearing my SCBA and crawling around on my hands and knees for hours on end during training evolutions."

BINGO!

Excellent suggestion on contacting the mfg. That's actually a MUST now that you mention it.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on September 22, 2008 at 2:56pm

DO NOT MODIFY YOUR GEAR!! You may void the warranty, as well as cause injury to yourself at an incident. I take it your bunker pants do not currently have knee pads in them?

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Permalink Reply by Brian Dumser on September 22, 2008 at 5:18pm

Us too, I'd never use anything else after this!

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Permalink Reply by T. Crookshank on September 22, 2008 at 5:58pm

Our pants do not have knee pads besides the leather wear pad. Ours are Lion. I definitely will not modify the liner without written authorization from Lion. Now that I think about it, I'm doubting they will agree, however, they may be inspired to mod my liner for me. I'll contact them and see what happens.

Thanks for all your input guys, and everyone else remember, DO NOT modify your gear without consulting the mfg. Thankfully I ran the idea by you guys first.

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Permalink Reply by Eric on November 8, 2008 at 9:45am

As far as modifying the gear goes, I wouldn't do it. I don't know if you've ever seen neoprene knee pads, like many high school and college wrestlers wear, but I have a pair of them and they have been one of the best purchases I've made. I have had some people disagree with me on using them, telling me that the thermo-radiant heat could cause them to melt, or that i shouldn't want to sacrifice the time it takes to put them on when donning my gear for response. I have found that they are as simple as leaving them, with only a small portion of the bottom, tucked into my boots. This way when I get to the firehouse, I still slide my feet into my boots (like I normally would) and slide the knee pads up. Maybe two more seconds added to me donning my gear, if that. As far as problems with the heat, I have been in some structure fires that have been awfully warm and I haven't had the slightest sign of a problem. I think that if the heat is that bad, it probably wouldn't be great to have it radiating directly to my skin. Please let me know what you think.

Knee pads

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