So two-piece belts or over-the-belt belts. There's not really a… I don't know if there's a consistent name for the type of belt that you just run on top of, you know, whatever it is that you're wearing. An over-the-belt belt, I think actually works pretty good. But these are the larger, more traditional belts, battle belts, Warbelts, back when they used to be called battle belts that you just literally take the whole thing, all the… All the… All the goods… All the lovely stuffs. And you literally just put it on, on top of whatever you're wearing. Then this is not… I should tighten this up. I had this for like winter clothing last week (which is also another good point). If I wanna actually tighten this up based on, you know, changing up my wardrobe and whatnot, it's a little more tricky than say a two-piece belt, and I'll talk about that.
But as you can see right here, it's sitting on top of just my untucked button shirt. It's not too bad. Last week when it was actually really cold, I had it on top of my PCU on top of, you know, all this stuff going on. And the nice thing with that with the weather is you're not having to break layers with, like, with a two-piece belt to go to your belt that you're wearing underneath. You can maintain, you know, proper layering and just have this on top of whatever you're wearing. Now, the downside to that is because this is on top of, you know whatever you're wearing as you move around, it could potentially slide around and move around because it is not hooked or attached to anything on your body in particular. And that's where the two-piece belt really comes in handy, because what I can do with the two-piece belt, which utilizes hook and velcro.
So in this case, this is the Ronin: Hook is on the outer belt, loop is on the inner belt, which I far prefer. Eagle actually flips it the opposite, which I think is bonkers. I love Eagle stuff. I just think the two-piece belt is kinda… Not sure why you would flip it when everyone else is doing hook and then loop, they may have a great reason. I'm just not exactly sure what that is, but I already have a velcro loop belt on. So I'm going to pull my shirt, make sure this mates together, buckle it with my Cobra buckle. Most of them have Cobra buckles or Raptor buckles. As of right now, I can already see all this is too far forward. I need to shift everything a little bit, but now when I go and move around and do stuff, this is actually adhered to the other belt that I am wearing. And it's much more stable to the body.
Now, the downside to this is there's that weather element that I talked about, that if I'm now wearing a big winter jacket or whatever that layer is getting broken up by this belt and cold air and whatnot is… My insulation, it's just not as good. And even just doing stuff out in the cold this winter. I mean, when I run my two-piece belt and it's below freezing, I feel it versus a belt like this where, you know, I'm have an over belt where I'm not having that issue. But this is a little more stable, a little bit more minimalist. What I really like about the two-piece belt is or two-piece belts in general is they're usually much easier to attach competition style mag carriers. So in this case, our MARS carriers on Tek-Loks, not every two-piece belt on the market will support a Tek-Lok though. Some of them are really thick with material. In this case, Ronin's doing the folded over MOLLE approach and they are keeping it pretty slim, which is that's really big because I've tried a couple that just didn't work with Tek-Loks. But I can easily pop these off, change 'em out.
If I wanna run three pistol, I can literally pop my rifle mag carrier, throw another pistol one on, and I'm done. With MOLLE pouches it's not as easy, as fast, or as simple. If I wanna pop this MOLLE pouch off—this rifle pouch—and add another, you know, double pistol or whatever that is quite a bit more work weaving in and outta the MOLLE and getting it set up. But the other thing is on a belt like this a dedicated MOLLE belt such as the Orion you are getting much more MOLLE engagement on some of these two-piece belts. You're actually not able to swim back through and get adequate, you know it… You know, keeping the pouch on the belt as MOLLE was intended.
So you are able to have a larger belt with a little bit more MOLLE to use it as it's intended. And my recommendation for people running belts like this, don't try to fit Kydex mag pouches on these. It's gonna take up too many rows of MOLLE. A single mag pouch takes up two rows of MOLLE. Whereas this ESSTAC double mag pouch takes up two rows of MOLLE. So I can, you know, fit more ammunition. Now, is it as fast necessarily clumping all your mags together and you can't angle 'em at this point? Yes and no… Possibly… But I recommend if you're doing a full MOLLE approach, stick to nylon pouches to maximize real estate and space on the belt. And if you wanna go slick, high speed, only have a couple mags. You're not really concerned about absolutely loading yourself down.
That's where the two-piece belt—like this Ronin or a bunch of the other ones on the market—will do you better. And I've been running our prototype two-piece belt now for a long time, it's been a year and a half or more. And I'm typically going to that more than the Orion, but I still have the Orion for certain things, cuz it does do certain things a little bit better. So just understand the differences between the two pick one train. And if you wanna get the other one later, go ahead. But but that's kinda the differences between these two belts. If you have any other questions, you can email us at team@trex-arms.com.