Has anyone here had to convince admin to go with traditional helmets? Just looking for the best approach to go at this. If anyone has any insight or idea I would appreciate it. Thanks

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Let's be clear here, I like traditional helmets.  But let's also be honest, any NFPA helmet, including Tactical Tupperware (Cairns 660 style helmets) will protect your head just as well as a  traditional helmet. 

So what is the motivation for wanting them? Is it simply having a traditionally styled helmet?  If that is the entire reason and your current helmets are not 10 years or more old you may have an uphill battle.  Especially if the traditional helmet is more expensive.

Vanity and peer-pressure, our image of a hot-shot firefighter is to have half a cow strapped to his/her head.  What really matters is how it performs when the ceiling is falling in around your ears and the "tactical tupperware", as Don so elegantly put it, does the job just fine.  In these days of strapped-for-cash fire departments it's going to be the $$$ that count, if you can prove that leather is cheaper than plastic in the long-run you might stand a chance of swinging it.  Good luck with that challenge.

we carry two type a traditional hemlets cairns 1010, and a phenix 1500 cali spec for wildland. i use the phenix for both because its light weight and has saved my life more then once, cairns is heavy for me but still a good helmet to use. im trying to get a phenix traditional due to the customization you can have your name stamped on the back.

http://phenixfirehelmets.com/products_1500.html

David,

If you think a 1010 is heavy it is clear you have never had a leather helmet on your head. The Cairns N6A is in my opinion a very heavy helmet. My career FD went with the Cairns 1044 with the retractable eye protection. I liked that helmet very much light and comfortable.

My career department uses 1010 for structure and for me it's heavy, and yes mine has the defender eye shield as well. Like I said it's a good helmet I like it. But I also like my phenix a lot more.



Fireman8634 said:


 I agree. Leather helmets, imho, suck. They're heavy, get too soft when hot, (just what I want to protect me in a fire) and too Gawd damn expensive. We are issued the Cairns 1044 defender and I will never go away from that lid.

Um, I used a leather helmet for close to15 years and it never "Got soft" in a fire.  It offered good protection.

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Don Catenacci said:

David,

If you think a 1010 is heavy it is clear you have never had a leather helmet on your head. The Cairns N6A is in my opinion a very heavy helmet. My career FD went with the Cairns 1044 with the retractable eye protection. I liked that helmet very much light and comfortable.

The Cairns N5A and N6A weigh 1 lb. more than a 1010 with the defender shield. I have a N5A and I love mine...but that's just me.

Is there a reason you want to go to traditional style?  I love the looks of them and we use them at my volunteer dept.  My paid dept, we talked about going to them, ( I was wanting to switch to them) tested them and about 90% of us hated using them,  The eagle gets snagged on everything.. they are bulky in the front and brim.  The one I have at my volly dept has the retractable eye pro, its great unless you have sunglasses or medical glasses on, or have a slightly bigger than normal nose,  then they don't work.  I love the looks of them,(got a couple on my wall) but for using on the fireground, I will stick with the contemporary style.

Im just use to my cal fire helmet, saved my life more than once very strong impact rating, traditional looks nice and everything, but some  composite helmets melt, leather is better, and thermoplastic like the lafc are very good and is a duel helemt used for both structure and wildland.

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