Just watching this my shoulders and hips and the backs of my arms remembered all the pain from using a pack like this to hike the West Coast Trail 35+ years ago!
Coming from the era of before the pack you found - yes - there was no such thing as a “size” in packs. There were big packs, and small packs, but it was about how big the bag was - not the size of the frame. Any given pack has a single size frame.
My Kelty from that era does have a padded hip belt. The straps at the bottom thread UP and through the belt loops on the outside of the padding. You can put the padded hip belt anywhere along the frame. Without it, ALL of the weight hits your shoulders making for a miserable time. With a properly adjusted foam hip belt, the shoulder straps take very little of the weight. They're more for keeping the pack stable than load bearing. They're also intended to be top loaded. Not the best, but good when carrying lots of weight, like for photography, hunting, survey work..... LuxuryLite came out with a much lighter external frame in the 2000s. It's a sub 2 lb pack. The hip belt is separate with a hook on the back where the frame rests. The top of your shoulders get zero weight with that system, and the weight is centered on your center of gravity at around hip level. I use my LuxuryLite for doing trail maintenance with the chainsaw and gas can on the lower shelf and my overnight gear above that.
Some of the old school packs were great. Jansport D series with amazing ventilation and wrap around hip belt was my desert beast. I could hall enough water to cross the Tonto and I rigged an umbrella to the frame extension. This was in the 90's.
The purpose of the external frame backpack design is to move the weight of the pack from your shoulders onto your hips, which reduces shoulder and back fatigue. But you would need to fasten the hip straps to enjoy that advantage.
That's the purpose of just about every modern-designed internal frame backpack. Even if this hip strap had fit me, it would have done almost nothing to comfortably transfer the weight to my hips since it was just webbing. Modern packs do this way more effectively.
Wow, thanks for the blast from the past! I had an old McKinley, it was great, put many, many, miles on it. When comparing how I feel today backpacking with the newer packs, versus how I felt back then - I swear, the old external frames were better! (I'm sure age has nothing to do with it ;-)
I modified a similar pack years ago. It was a vintage canvas Boy Scout featherlight pack. It was never the most comfortable but I love that thing. Still take it out with me from time to time. I remade the straps and back supports with some extra padding and it’s not too bad now. Only pack I haven’t broken 🤷🏻♂️
Reminds me of my Sears Hillary packpack from the 70's. Big improvement over the frameless rucksack I started with in Scouts. Begged my dad to get it for me. In those days, water bottles did not exist. You carried a canteen or two on a canteen belt and they hung on your sides. We always used military style web belts with metal Army canteens.
I liked external frame packs, what I grew up with so many external lashing options that looks like the exact pack I had except the color yeah... back in the day it was ONE SIZE... and could be a bit uncomfortable you really need the hip-belt could drill some holes, deburr & remount the belt for a smaller size definitely not for smaller people
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Just watching this my shoulders and hips and the backs of my arms remembered all the pain from using a pack like this to hike the West Coast Trail 35+ years ago!
😂
Coming from the era of before the pack you found - yes - there was no such thing as a “size” in packs. There were big packs, and small packs, but it was about how big the bag was - not the size of the frame. Any given pack has a single size frame.
My Kelty from that era does have a padded hip belt.
The straps at the bottom thread UP and through the belt loops on the outside of the padding. You can put the padded hip belt anywhere along the frame. Without it, ALL of the weight hits your shoulders making for a miserable time.
With a properly adjusted foam hip belt, the shoulder straps take very little of the weight. They're more for keeping the pack stable than load bearing.
They're also intended to be top loaded.
Not the best, but good when carrying lots of weight, like for photography, hunting, survey work.....
LuxuryLite came out with a much lighter external frame in the 2000s. It's a sub 2 lb pack. The hip belt is separate with a hook on the back where the frame rests. The top of your shoulders get zero weight with that system, and the weight is centered on your center of gravity at around hip level. I use my LuxuryLite for doing trail maintenance with the chainsaw and gas can on the lower shelf and my overnight gear above that.
Trail maintenance is a great excuse to use an external frame!
I LOVE those backpacks, started with one and I plan on making a dyneema one in the future!
Sounds like a rad project!
Some of the old school packs were great. Jansport D series with amazing ventilation and wrap around hip belt was my desert beast. I could hall enough water to cross the Tonto and I rigged an umbrella to the frame extension. This was in the 90's.
As a scout in the late 70's early 80's I used a Camp Trails Centuri backpack. I thought it was great at the time.
Thanks for letting us old folks relive the painful memories of childhood hiking 😅
🤣🤣🤣
The purpose of the external frame backpack design is to move the weight of the pack from your shoulders onto your hips, which reduces shoulder and back fatigue. But you would need to fasten the hip straps to enjoy that advantage.
That's the purpose of just about every modern-designed internal frame backpack. Even if this hip strap had fit me, it would have done almost nothing to comfortably transfer the weight to my hips since it was just webbing. Modern packs do this way more effectively.
@@Terradrift the hip straps can be replaced with better ones on external frame backpacks. That was one of the advantages of this style.
Wow, thanks for the blast from the past! I had an old McKinley, it was great, put many, many, miles on it. When comparing how I feel today backpacking with the newer packs, versus how I felt back then - I swear, the old external frames were better! (I'm sure age has nothing to do with it ;-)
Could this be a case of "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"?? 😅
I modified a similar pack years ago. It was a vintage canvas Boy Scout featherlight pack. It was never the most comfortable but I love that thing. Still take it out with me from time to time. I remade the straps and back supports with some extra padding and it’s not too bad now. Only pack I haven’t broken 🤷🏻♂️
We support keeping good gear in use!! Love seeing older gear on the trail!
Still use external frame packs for packing fish.
Reminds me of my Sears Hillary packpack from the 70's. Big improvement over the frameless rucksack I started with in Scouts. Begged my dad to get it for me. In those days, water bottles did not exist. You carried a canteen or two on a canteen belt and they hung on your sides. We always used military style web belts with metal Army canteens.
Sounds like my first backpacking trip, too. 😅
I liked external frame packs, what I grew up with
so many external lashing options
that looks like the exact pack I had except the color
yeah... back in the day it was ONE SIZE...
and could be a bit uncomfortable
you really need the hip-belt
could drill some holes, deburr & remount the belt for a smaller size
definitely not for smaller people
You could definitely do some customizing to make it more comfy!
I had a really cheap one of these style backpacks for Boy Scout camps, I HATED it.
They're...not the most comfortable...and certainly not designed for small humans (including children).
With the crap there selling now, these packs are becoming very popular.
They're certainly durable!
@@Terradrift and fixable in the field.