Yes4All Ruck Plate – Our Review

Congratulations on your interest in rucking! We’re glad you’re here and want to help you get started in the right way!

…you are brand new to rucking, right? Outside of a select few instances, I have to assume that you are if you’re reading up on a Yes4All ruck plate…

Right?

Let’s back up for a bit. Regardless of how are why you got here, I’m here today to discuss the most popular ruck plates on the scene today.

More importantly, I’m here to point out that despite their very attractive price point, they actually don’t work that well in many circumstances.

Yes, I’ve heard and read the “it’s just a plate; why spend so much money!” arguments ad nauseum and just because they’re endlessly repeated doesn’t mean they’re any good.

So whether you’re brand new to rucking and are curious about the cheapest plates (by far) you’ve come across so far or if you’ve been around a bit and are wondering why things have not been feeling quite right, you’re in luck. We’re gonna cover it all right now.

Rucking

Unlike reviews where we discuss actual rucks themselves, our take on what it’s like to ruck with the Yes4All plates in tow will be relatively short. To be honest, most of what you’re gonna need to know will be in the “Compatibility” section below, but we can have a quick discussion here.

I don’t really notice these plates when they’re in “long” plate pockets that I have in my rucks (although my 20-pound plate does slightly jostle, mainly due to its rather narrow dimensions).

In “standard” plate pockets, depending on what I’m doing, the Yes4All plates move around a little bit…to a lot bit (the latter when I’m running or maintaining a faster pace). I notice this less in my bags with frame sheets (which, thankfully, most of them have), but in those that don’t have them (such as my particular GORUCK Bullet and my Tasmanian Tiger Essential Pack), they have the added negative of bouncing into/against my back on each rep.

Regarding dedicated “standard”-sized ruck plate pockets…I wish I could tell you, but I can’t; the Yes4All ruck plates either fit so badly that you’d never want to use them or simply don’t fit at all (literally can’t strap the pocket shut).

Overall, these are above average if you have a bag with “long” pockets, but are “not so good”-to-“unusable” if you have a bag/vest with “standard” pockets.

Rucking: 77.5 (90 in “long” plate pockets/60 in “standard” plate pockets)

Dynamic Movements

There isn’t too much difference here between how the Yes4All ruck plates hold up during rucking as opposed to how well they support more “dynamic” movements (anything from ruck swings and ruck thrusters to ruck/vest-weighted pull-ups and running).

If you have the right plates for the pockets in your bags, these will serve you just fine (although the sub-30-pound plates do move around a little more in “long” plate carrier and vest pockets during this kind of activity than they do during “pure” rucking). If you try these in “standard” pockets, everything is a bit worse.

Plates slip out more during swings and move a bit more during presses because they’re just not as snug in “standard”-sized pockets as they need to be.

I know that these types of movements are a bit more niche and many ruckers just want to walk and, at most, shuffle a bit. However, for those who are looking to participate in official GORUCK events or similar types of “use your ruck as a gym” type of training, these aren’t the plates the plates for it.

(For those who like analogies using these for these purposes is like having mis-matched plates on your barbell at best or like trying to stick standard weight plates on an Olympic barbell).

We won’t spend much more time here trying to explain how bad of an idea these plates are in these circumstances; the next section will do a much better job of clarifying when these plates actually work (even though, for the most part, they don’t).

Dynamic Movements: 70 (85 in “long” plate pockets/55 in “standard” plate pockets)

Compatibility

We’re finally here!

As you can probably discern by now, the Yes4All ruck plates can fit into a very wide collection of ruck plates pockets and sleeves…they just won’t necessarily fit all that well compared to most others…

Let’s look at this as a “good news/bad news” type of situation. First the good news:

If you have a ruck, vest, or plate carrier that accepts “long” plates, you’re in pretty good shape with Yes4All. Looking at the GORUCK Plate Carrier “Long”, that has a ruck plate pocket with the dimensions of 10″ width x 15.25″ height X 1.5” thick we can see that all of the plates 20 pounds and up will fit with the 30, 35, and 40-pound options (which are almost the exact sizes as the GORUCK “long” Ruck Plates) fitting almost perfectly.

The 20 and 25-pound options fit height wise, but will move around a bit due to their being a bit more narrow than ideal. The 10 and 15-pound options are going to be pretty much all over the place.

In contrast, take the pocket of something like the GORUCK GR1 (11-11.5″ wide x 6″ high) and you can see how most of the Yes4All plates aren’t really acceptable. Besides the 10 and 15-pounders, the 20 and 25-pound options are too skinny and move around within the pocket. The larger options are “better” options, but their longer heights makes them more likely to slip out of unsecured pockets.

If you have gear that has a padded and velcroed ruck plate pocket (like the Rucker, Rogue Echo Weight Vest, or GORUCK Plate Carrier) that only accepts standard-size plates, the 10 and 15-pound plates will probably fit (but will move around constantly) while the larger Yes4All options will be too tall for the pocket to close.

Overall, these plates are some of the least compatible options out there. Do your research (and assess your annoyance tolerance) to ensure that these will, in fact, fit your gear!

Compatibility: 80

Coating

Honestly, I think ruck plate coating is a bit overrated of a concept. Charging significantly more money for plates with “superior” coating is something companies can obviously get away with, but I don’t think anyone has been sold on a ruck plate because of how “pretty” its coating is.

As it is, we have to call ’em as we see ’em and award points (or knock them off) where appropriate… and Yes4All saves its customers a bit of money by not having the nicest coating out there.

If you look on Amazon, it describes the plates as being “powder coated” but I really don’t think this is the case. Just look how they stack up against GORUCK Ruck Plates (which are powder coated).

If you dig a little deeper and review what Wal-Mart has to say about the plates, I think you get a description a little bit closer to thAe truth:

“Constructed of heavy-gauge cast iron and covered with a Black paint coating finish…”

As someone who has swung on a lot of powder-coated pull-up bars and bars that have simply been painted black, there is definitely a difference between the two substances; the powder-coated options are much nicer.

…to revisit my opening point of this section, though, if your plate is staying inside of your bag 95 percent of the time (or more), the coating really doesn’t matter. I’m never handling my plate and I seriously doubt the Yes4All plates are going to corrode much faster than other options.

The coating is definitely cheaper (and less pretty!) than other options…but you’ll survive.

Coating: 80

Price

I’d be willing to bet that at least 80 percent of people who end up purchasing a Yes4All ruck plate begin searching for ruck plates online, come across this option, quickly do some comparison shopping, and hit “buy”.

This entire process probably lasts less than 5 minutes and there is absolutely no research done regarding plate dimensions or other significant qualities (you’re reading this right now…so…welcome to the esteemed 20 percent!)

…and you know what? I can’t really blame them; the most attractive quality of these plates is the price tag; a 45-pound Yes4All ruck plate is going to run you a little more than 1/3 as much as a similarly priced and sized GORUCK ruck plate!

Remember, at the end of the day, we’re talking about lightly coated ore that is marginally shaped/cut into a quasi-rectangular shape. It’s not hard to see how the company could still be making money at these prices.

In absolute terms, it’s almost impossible to beat this price point for a dedicated ruck plate. However, for the reasons we’ve discussed at length above, you might be sacrificing in the not-so-precise realm of the “price-to-fit” ratio.

Regardless, the Yes4All ruck plates can be beat on price from time to time (depending on whether or not Signature Fitness is running a sale on their plates), but these situations are few and far between…

Price: 95

Customer Reviews

With well over 3,000 reviews (almost 90 percent of which are 5-star reviews), it’s safe to say that there are a lot of people who are really satisfied with their Yes4All ruck plate.

Granted, it’s difficult to find too many other retailers that have a significant number of reviews for these plates (even Wal-Mart only has, like, 12), but we’re willing to gamble on at least some of those 3,000-plus Amazon reviews being legit reviews.

When we look at customer review scores, though, we focus on more than just the collective score(s) and, instead, spend the majority of our time perusing the negative things people have had to say. Most notably, we try to identify trends that may indicate common, underlying problems.

Although there aren’t that many 1 and 2-star reviews for the Yes4All ruck plates, there were a number of people who complained about the plates not fitting into their (I assume “standard”-sized) GORUCK plate pockets.

I guess they should have read this review before purchasing!

There were multiple people who also indicated that their plates were up to 10 percent lighter than advertised (ex. a “20-pound” plate was actually 18.2 pounds; a “30-pound” plate was 29 pounds). Who knows if this is that common among these plates, but it is something to potentially keep in mind.

Overall, though, with a cumulative score of 96 and a sample size that big, I think it’s safe to say most people are pretty satisfied with these.

Customer Reviews: 96

Customer Service

For the sake of full disclosure, I’m adding this section here…but not scoring it.

I honestly can’t think of an instance where anyone reading this wouldn’t be ordering these from Amazon, but in case you, for some reason, want to reach out to Yes4All directly (there is an actual company behind these plates, remember!), you’re not likely to get a response.

I reached out to get some information about the plates. Pretty simple stuff. Never got a response.

Normally, this would be a big red flag and I’d knock a bunch of points off…but…let’s be real. You’re never e-mailing Yes4All for compensation about some chipped $25 plate.

No harm, no foul.

Customer Service: N/A

Who are Yes4All Ruck Plates really for?

There is one selection of ruckers who should seek out Yes4All ruck plates.

There is another that could get some use out of them.

…and then there is everyone else. Let’s take a look at who’s who:

Those who have “long” plate pockets

As we saw in the “Compatibility” section, these plates (especially the largest ones) will fit “long” pockets pretty well. I’d say that if you have a bag or vest with these pockets and want to save some money, have at it: you are who these plates are really for.

Those looking to “top up” their bags

When I first got my Yes4All ruck plates, I made the “mistake” of ordering a 10-pound plate. These are the least compatible of all options and their rather diminutive size doesn’t really make up for their shortcomings.

I have found a use for mine, though: if you have a larger bag with an internal pocket that is at least somewhat robust, you can use the smaller Yes4All plates to “top up” or to complement your existing load. I have placed mine in my Rucker – Long Range’s “upstairs” pocket to better distribute heavier loads. It works well enough.

Not for serious ruckers with “standard”-sized pockets

If, after reading this and conducting some of your own research, you have concluded that you have “standard”-sized ruck plate pockets, you know that these plates aren’t going to fit.

If you’re serious about rucking (and by this, I mean you’re doing it/going to do it multiple times a week for miles-long stretches), you owe it to yourself not to get plates that won’t fit.

Trust me on this one.

How we reviewed the Yes4All Ruck Plates

Truth be told, these are the very first ruck plates we ever got our hands on. Way back when we started rucking, these were not only the cheapest plates we could find, but were also the easiest ones to get shipped to us.

Without exaggeration, we have spent over a thousand miles under these plates (kinda strange to think, considering the tone of this article!)

Also, we still regularly use these in our Rucker – Long Range’s “long” plate pocket and, one occasion, stick a smaller one in the top pocket for 10 pounds of extra weight.

Yes4All Ruck Plate Alternatives

If, for some reason, you think you’ll be in the market for…ahem…alternative ruck plate options after reading this review, we suggest you check out these three options:

Frequently Asked Questions

You may or may not think these questions are interesting (some of them…aren’t as interesting to me…but you do you!) but you know somebody out there is wishing someone would ask. Let’s take a quick look at what’s on their mind:

Yes4All Ruck Plate…great for some…a completely unnecessary cheap-out for most…

I was kind of joking at the beginning of the article (well, and to be honest, throughout most of it), but want to be more serious as we close things out.

There is nothing inherently wrong with Yes4All ruck plates and, as we’ve discussed, in a select few cases, they actually work quite well. Don’t be completely deterred from picking one or two up if they will work for you. With that being said, please spend some time researching your bag/vest’s plate pocket dimensions to make sure that your selected plates will fit.

You’re probably thinking “who cares? It’s just a piece of metal in my bag anyways”. Well, if you ruck for a couple of miles once per week…whatever; it’s probably not going to bother you much. If you ruck 4-6 days per week for an hour or longer…why cheap out on a plate that is at best gonna jostle around in your bag or, at worst, not fit your gear at all?

You’re reading an obscure article about ruck plates; you obviously care enough about your “ruck life” to make the right choice. We want you to really enjoy this activity and to get the most out of it. If you have to spend another ~$100 at most for (one time!) to maximize the activity you’re gonna to spend hours doing each week, it’s more than worth it.