Helmet protective ratings are standards that are beyond me. It's simply a whole rabbit hole of itself compared to body armor which I like to think I have adept knowledge of, at least US commercial armor. I do know for a fact it's best to stick to the well known and reputable manufacturers if you want guaranteed head protection however they will always cost more than people are willing to pay, which is always the case with any kind of purchase for a materialistic person. There will always be a low budget option.
Enter the Combat Vehicle Crewman DH-132B helmet. These helmets are usually advertised to be NIJ IIIA rated and often considered as the poor man's high cut because you can find these helmets for cheap, and by design the shape of the helmet requires it to have a open space around the ears to accommodate the CVC headset. To my understanding the NIJ IIIA thing is mostly as a reference and partially marketing for guys who modify these helmets as a side hustle, but that's not to discount that these shells are made for vehicle troops to protect against bumps while in hard armored vehicles, fragmentation and some amount of small arms. At least when used with the padded headset it was designed for however I imagine using combat helmet liners will be roughly "jus as gud".
I took on this project primarily to see what the deal is with this helmet so I started off by buying a surplus shell for cheap. Unfortunately the helmet I received was in poor condition. The helmet was pretty dusty, some dings on the shell, the screws that are used for the original combat vehicle headset were rusty, and the helmet edging/mold was crumbling.
So of course I needed to remove just about everything. The screws had to be cut off carefully with a dremel, drill and enlarge holes with a carbide drill bit for the chin strap hardware I was going to put on, tear off and replace the helmet edging with one that I managed to find on eBay epoxy all the exposed kevlar.
After everything was sorted I assembled the hardware of choice.
On the outside I used industrial grade adhesive Velcro that I got from Walmart (can also be found in Home Depot) and stuck them on common areas such as the back, top, and sides for patches and accessories. I also got a ratchet type night vision mount to fill up the empty front space and I thought the ratchet in the back looked cool, however I blundered and bought the PASGT version instead of the ACH/MICH one so the front hooks did not fit at first but was remedied with pliers and the occasional hammer and anvil to bend the hooks to shape. A random paint job was also applied using whatever can of spray paint I had that would spray.
Inside the helmet I used a Revision Batlskin Modular Suspension System (MSS). It came with two different liners, a mesh net that suspends your head similar to the older generation of helmets and a pack of foam pads which were basically hard foam pads which some of them had soft foam on the "body" side for comfort. I used the foam pads. The Revision MSS is a dial system quite similar to the Ops Core and Team Wendy system. This keeps the helmet stable on my head and doesn't shift around.
Instead of investing in arc rails I chose to wear a cheap set of electronic earpro with the headband still attached. This saves me quite a bit of cash because I do not have to spend on the arc rails themselves but also the adapters to be able to mount earpro onto the arc rails. My choice for earpro was the Peltor Rangeguard. It is a cheap headset priced similarly to the popular Howard Leight Impact Sport but I personally prefer the Rangeguard because I found the oval cup shape and the foam padding to be much more comfortable than the Impact Sports (I will cover this comparison in a future post), but importantly the oval cup will fit better to the curve cutout of the CVC helmet.
It is common practice to space out the helmet pads to fit the earpro headband but I did a simple extra which was to put velcro hook on the direct top of the inside of the helmet and then velcro loop on the top of the earpro headband. This adds a little extra stability and retention to your head since the earpro is clamped onto your head but it is also connected to the helmet. Even if it's negligible amount of added stability the earpro is attached to a consistent spot so there is less need to fuss around with positioning the earpro, chin strap, and the helmet.
Overall this helmet is functional as a high cut helmet for very cheap. You can expect a build like this to cost about $250 give or take (depends on where you get the DH-132B shell and choice of hardware). Word about sizing is to stick to the small/medium shell since CVC helmets are oversized by design. Ignoring the price and just looking at the protective rating of the CVC DH-132B I will not recommend this over the reputable options even an ACH, but as a entry level high cut I think this is a decent option.
I have also tried using the Gentex X-nape type chin straps and it works fine. Paired with some basic ACH helmet pads (velcro one-wrap might be needed as spacers) and you can probably save even more money that way. The sky is the limit.
Additional tips I recommend is:
-Buy a good condition shell. It saves you a lot of trouble.
-Drill the bolt holes slowly preferably with a carbide drill bit or specialty drill bit, or send to someone who can professionally drill through kevlar with minimal or no fraying and delamination.
-If the above sounds too difficult then buy a shell that has already been drilled by a professional.
-Don't use night vision mounts that have PASGT type claw hooks.
-Have extra bolts for the chinstrap assembly.
Bonus pic of the CVC with a mitznefet.
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