Posted July 14, 2023 in Friday Night Lights, Night Vision, Reviews by Nicholas C with No Comments Tags: head harness, nightcap, skull crusher
Here we are back together again on this Friday night. Last week we took a look at the exceedingly rare ECOSI. Well, today we will take a look at the new Head Harness from Tracer Tactical. It is a newcomer to the skull crusher, alternate head mounting solution marketplace. We will also revisit the Crye Nightcap and highlight some modifications I have made to it since I reviewed it almost three years ago. Replica Riot Shield
NightVision head mounting solutions @ TFB:
Some people find the Crye Nightcap to be too small and uncomfortable. So people like Tracer Tactical made their own Head Harness as a helmet alternative skull crusher, without the crushing. The Tracer Tactical Head Harness is a sort of tactical thong made of nylon webbing and Cordura.
The head harness has Velcro and slots for their battery pack pouch.
Tracer Tactical claims one size fits all. The Head Harness is simpler than the Crye Nightcap. It is just three nylon straps holding the front forehead pad and the rear panel on your head. The bare bones Head Harness does come as you see above. You have to supply your own NVG Shroud but unlike the Crye Nightcap the Head Harness already has holes for a three-hole shroud. You have to drill the holes yourself for a Nightcap
I borrowed the Head Harness below from my friend Alex of Nocorium. It has been upgraded with Tracer Tactical’s chin strap and battery pack strap kit. He also installed a PTS three-hole shroud, the same used on their MTEK Flux helmets.
Here is the battery pack strap kit. I used my Nodpod as a counterweight filled with tungsten carbide weights and some batteries.
It fits rather well. It will also fit the PVS-31 battery pack and similar-sized battery packs.
The chin strap on the head harness is a little bit too simplistic. It does not sit on the chin like a modern helmet chin strap. This is more like a bicycle helmet chin strap which sits behind your chin to help keep it from falling off your head.
I tried to load the head harness with more weight and I definitely felt hot spots at the top of my head. Alex said he can really feel the triglide pressing on his head after a long period of time.
One drawback to the simpler design of the head harness is the lack of wire management. If you are using a night vision device that requires a battery pack, like ANVIS-10 or lightweight binos, then you will need to strap your battery cable to either the headband or the top strap.
There are some unique benefits to the Tracer Tactical Head Harness though. Users have been hacking them with boonie hats. Juan Maldonado modified his head harness with a Multicam boonie to replicate Call of Duty. Is it now a Goonie hat for gooning? LOL
Bravo Six going dark. He has a boonie cap with panoramic goggles. But he flips them down over the bill of the hat? Well with a modified Head Harness you can do this too.
Screen cap from Call of Duty
Since I reviewed my Crye Nightcap, I have made some modifications to it. I ditched the three-hole shroud and replaced it with a Wilcox G69. It is a lighter-weight mount than the G24 and that is with the integrated shroud. The G69 is 25% lighter than the G24 and that is not including a shroud for the G24. The only compromise is that it is closer to the head and it is not detachable. The G69 does have a longer arm so the dovetail shoe sticks out further helping to keep your NVGs from pressing against your eye sockets. The G69 also has an integrated Wilcox gear keeper to prevent goggles from dropping on the floor in case they get disconnected from the mount.
Next up, I sewed a loop velcro panel onto the left side of the nightcap.
So I can use the hook velcro mount from my Streamlight Stinger Stalk IR. This gives me a short Arc rail segment to use my Princeton-Tec Charge for an admin light.
I modified my Nitecore NU05MI VIS/IR strobe. I cut the PALS/Molle hook and stuck on adhesive hook velcro. This makes the beacon lower profile.
This next modification is rather recent. I learned about bump cap inserts. They are inexpensive, around $8-$10 each. It is a plastic insert that you can put inside baseball hats to act as bump protection in case you bump your head against something. It is not rated for impacts from falling or flying objects but it is some added protection – like if you are going through brush and a branch pokes you, it won’t hurt or if you are in confined spaces and hit your head against the low ceiling.
I had to trim the right side rear section. There is stitching in the sweatband for the head adjustment strap. This interferes with the bump cap insert. So it was a simple matter of cutting away the plastic insert to clear that sealed-off section.
The last modification is thanks to my friends telling me about it. You replace the nightcap chin strap with an Ops-Core Improved ACH H-Nape chin strap. You can find them brand new for $20 on eBay.
The ACH chin strap has these plastic pieces at the ends of the straps.
Open the strap so you can see the back side of the plastic part.
With a pair of snips, cut this bar off so you can remove the plastic part from the strap.
The Nightcap has metal hoops. Push the metal bar around to expose the split in the metal hoop. Using pliers, bend the metal so you can remove the factory chin strap. Install the improved H-Nape chin strap and close the metal hoops.
Now with the improved chin strap, I have a lot more adjustment in the chin strap. I have to tighten it all the way to fit my head. But if I lend this to someone with a large and tall head, it will fit them better.
You do not have to install the H-nape. But I left it on to see how it feels. And it feels great.
Apparently, you can modify a Crye Nightcap with a boonie hat as well.
The Head Harness retails for $99.95. If you want the chin strap add $16.95. Surprisingly, the battery pack strap kit is cheap at just $9.95. That is a total of $126.85 and that does not include the cost of the NVG shroud. You can pre-order the complete kit and you save $0.90. That is isn’t too pricey but you can get the Crye nightcap for $73 on TNVC. Add the counterweight pouch for an additional $23.50. You are at just $96.50.
Riot Helmet The Nightcap is a lot easier to adjust than the Head Harness. Just put it on your head and either tighten the straps or loosen them. The Tracer Tactical Head Harness takes a bit of time adjusting it for other people. You have to unfasten the straps, adjust the triglides and when you find the sweet spot you have to stop and tighten everything back down. For more information on the Head Harness, go on over to Tracer Tactical’s website.