Cavechat.org

I echo the sentiment of support for the Howitzers. Howitzers from OR1 are the way only way to go from my experience.

--Bryant

UnderGroundEarth wrote:You can extend the life of any pair of knees pads by putting a few coats of Tool Dip on them - http://www.plastidip.com/home_solutions/Plasti_Dip.

This has greatly extended the life of my Dirty Daves... You can pick up a can of tool dip at hardware stores.

Did you paint it on using a dip can or spray it on using the spray can? Any application tips?

I seem to get a better layer of it when I paint it one.

How many layers? Do you let it dry in between or does it matter?

I paint it on. Buy the can and a cheap paint brush. Paint one layer on making sure to coat it well, then let it dry, and follow with a second coat. With the Dirty Dave's I use about half a can with two layers. After a lot of use, if the tool dip starts to wear any just simply re apply.

Kelly
^V^

What Kelly said!

Seam grip on the seams works well and holds up without coming off very easy. I've used plastidip and shoo goo and have had it flake off over time, of course leaving remains behind underground. I read some advice online a few years ago to mix shoo goo with toluene. Mix to a consistency of warm syrup. This makes it thinner and easier to paint on and allows it to soak into the fabric rather than drying on top of it. Use a couple thin coats with drying time in between. It seems to last longer and not flake off.

I had a pair of extra-long Dirty Dave kneepads that I really liked, but they wore out on me a bit sooner than I had hoped. I hadn't done anything to protect them, like Kelly said, so that's part of the reason. I really liked that you didn't have to take your boots off to put them on. Since then, I bought a pair of the Howitzers and have liked them so far. I used them in McBrides and they stayed in place quite well. My wetsuit had gel kneepads as well, so the combination made the crawl out of the cave quite bearable.

Been using these kneepads for 2 years now. Great protection on entire lower leg. Comfortable and almost no wear so far. Built to military specs http://www.theonlygear.com/products/caving.html#order

Kneepads are very personal. What works for one person doesn't for another. Plus, having had knee surgery, I probably need more knee protection than some people. I want to be able to crawl comfortably on chert and popcorn. And I only considered knee pads worn on the outside. So here is my experience (worth exactly what you paid for it):

I found the Expedition Essentials mentioned by the previous poster will not stay in place (both to the side and up and down). They might be okay for those will bigger legs - if you have even moderately skinny legs, these will never stay in place. The stitching is not that good and you may want to run over it with a sewing machine before using.

The Howitzers do stay in place, but they are too thin a pad for me - good for the trips where people insist you don't need kneepads (I've learned never to believe that).

The long Dirty Daves are comfortably thick, but lack side coverage, and they seem to wear quickly on the back and at the seams.

The B&C Wunderwear kneepads (middle length) require religious cleaning of the velcro after muddy trips (especially after several years), but provide good protection to the side and do stay in place. The new version has easy to replace straps. Have worn out velcro and elastic strap on my old pair, but the pad part is still good.

Got a pair of Cave Legs knee pads at the convention. They are a very nice quality and a step or two above Dirty Daves in design, but I haven't tried them yet.

My first 20 years of caving was done with Rockmasters. If they provided shin protection and if those dang elastic straps were easier to replace I might still be using them - they really do protect your knees. They sure took some getting used to at first But in those days there was not much else that worked.

I most often wear a pair of Trace softball knee pads on my knees (like the Trace 42000 pads) and then I layer on 2 to 3 pairs of the cheap $6-a-pair walmart volleyball knee pads to protect my shins and to protect the more pricey Trace pads when wearing shorts and poly. How many depends on how much crawling and how sharp the floor is in the crawls and how much sand/gypsum chafing is expected.. We call this style of knee pad layering: "knee armor" and it works better then any single pair of knee pads I've ever used... Also for extreme amounts of crawling I replace one pair of my shin protecting knee pads with soccer shin guards and then continue layering the rest of the knee pads as usual...

Most of my friends and I just buy the flexible rubber ones with the rubber straps at home depot. They work very well in missouri, and they work very well when doing 2 miles of cobble crawling in one day. Love them.