Thanks for the ping
@Tim
@wyattratt a lot of great feedback from folks here, I am going to add as much detail and info as I can on first go around and let me know where your head is at or more questions pop up and we can clarify from there
It
sounds like you are looking for Plates AND a Plate Carrier, if you are not going to do plates as many have suggested you can do a Chest Rig, however I would argue what ballistic protection do you have? Unless you live in an area that is very forest dense then go with a Helmet at least and a Chest Rig.
As far as Plates go a good set of Level IV plates for WTSHTF is going to cost you around $400 give or take and the most affordable will be HighCom or RMA, you can also get a solid set of Hesco plates for near the same, and that is the baseline from here you go into Special Threat plates as the next step up and that will have varying of costs
Now lets talk about carriers, which you should start by first figuring out WHAT size plates you would wear THEN buy the carrier then the plates, just so that you make sure everything fits together.
Plates wise for around $200 there are many options around that range that are great quality and American Made, no reason to shop for anything that is not, in no particular order I would say look at the following:
Ferro Concepts Slickster
Spirtius Systems LV119
Crye JPC (1.0 or 2.0 depending on prices)
Midwest Armor Leap
Defense Mechanism MEPC
This is a good start to get going, the question is from here do some looking around and check to see what resonates, come back give us all some feedback and from there we can give you more guidance
Hope this helps!