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Gear Weight Calculator

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Mar 7, 2008 at 10:41 am #1227676

Chris Pittman
Member

@chrys

I'm working a new web site that features a gear weight calculator. Basically you enter your gear, and the weight of each item. Then you can make as many printable gear lists as you want. The site will automatically categorize the items in a list for you and calculate the weight of everything.

I was hoping I could find a few people here that would be willing to try it out for me and let me know what they think. The site is http://www.cleverbackpacker.com. Sorry, but you have to register an account before you can get started. I'd like to know if I'm on the right track here, of if I'm just wasting time on it.

Thanks for your time,
Chris

Mar 7, 2008 at 3:28 pm #1423426

Brian James
Member

@bjamesd
Locale: South Coast of BC

Sounds awesome!! I can't wait to try out your site!

Brian

Mar 7, 2008 at 5:39 pm #1423435

Sam Haraldson
BPL Member

@sharalds
Locale: Gallatin Range

Chris –

I've spent about fifteen minutes entering some data into your site, preparing a test gearlist and what not and I must say you are onto something here. I could see this as being a very valuable tool for backpackers.

I'm going to continue testing it as I've already begun to see some possibilities for improvement. I'll try to keep some notes and provide them to you with suggestions.

Keep up the good work!
Sam

Mar 7, 2008 at 6:15 pm #1423442

John Haley
Member

@quoddy
Locale: New York/Vermont Border

Most of my gear was not among the "big Name" products that were the options. I therefore gave up entering.

Mar 7, 2008 at 6:38 pm #1423443

Andrew Richardson
Member

@arichardson6
Locale: North East

Chris-

My girlfriend and I are working on the same thing! We've been learning how to code though so you beat us to it. It's pretty much the same idea as yours!

It's nice to see a working model. When we finish ours we'll put it out and then maybe we can collaborate and together create a really valuable tool for calculating gear lists.

Nice site so far!

Mar 7, 2008 at 8:13 pm #1423452

JW
BPL Member

@litetrail

Cool, I'll try it out. I have one built already too, but have not made the public interface yet. It allows unlimited categories with subcategories. For example, category: Base Weight and then subcategories: Shelter, Sleep System, Food Storage, etc.

Here's a link to the output of what I call the "Gear Closet" to a "Gearlist:" Three Season Gearlist

Mar 7, 2008 at 8:21 pm #1423453

Luis Ramos
Member

@luisramos
Locale: Maryland

I like it, very nice – however where are these brands

McHale Backpacks
Hilleberg Tents
Titanium Goat
Stephenson's Warmlite
Gossamer Gear
Limmer Boots

I tend to buy from cottage shops and would like to
see them as brand options

Mar 8, 2008 at 11:20 am #1423496

Jason Brinkman
BPL Member

@jbrinkmanboi
Locale: Idaho

Love it. Can't weight to get my list all loaded.

Mar 10, 2008 at 8:29 am #1423701

Chris Pittman
Member

@chrys

Thanks for all the input so far folks. I'll take all the suggestions I can get.

I have already added the brands mentioned by Luis. I'm slowly building the list. Can't believe I forgot Gossamer Gear though; I love their stuff.

One of the challenges with this site is how to get all your gear in there. Being able to browse gear is a useful way to do it. But I wanted users to have the option of entering gear that I didn't have in the database already. I'm trying to work out the kinks. But, I think there is going to be some manual entry required no matter what. I wouldn't say I enjoyed entering all my gear, but I don't get new gear that often so its easy to maintain once done. Any thoughts on how to simplify the process?

Thanks for all your help everyone.

Mar 10, 2008 at 1:16 pm #1423745

Christopher Chupka
Member

@fattexan
Locale: NTX

I am about 3/4 of the way through. I added a couple of comments in your forum.

Very cool, thanks for all the work.

Are us early users going to be grandfathered in for free when you start to charge? :)

Thanks

Mar 10, 2008 at 1:50 pm #1423755

Chris Pittman
Member

@chrys

I don't have any plans to charge for membership down the road. I'm hoping advertising will pay for hosting costs; so you are stuck dealing with some ads. But I'll try to keep them to a minimum.

Mar 11, 2008 at 1:25 pm #1423913

Jan Rezac
BPL Member

@zkoumal
Locale: Prague, CZ

Surprisingly, I've developed my own web-based tool to manage gear lists too. I use it for almost a year, but I never got to finish all the details like nice frontpage and some help, what will be needed to make it public. I'll see how the other possibilities work for me and if I find my approach better (well, I designed it to fit my needs…), maybe I'll force myself to put it online.

Apr 4, 2008 at 11:27 pm #1427230

canyon steinzig
BPL Member

@canyon
Locale: Nor Cal

Really cool. I entered a bunch of my stuff. IT would be super cool (for the laziest of us) if somehow people could enter not just brands but individualitems (under tarptnet for example all his items drop down for selection… with weights!!). Like I said lazy and I certainly don't want to enter all that data.
This is just a super cool sevice because now I don't have to recalculate every time I switch out an item. Thanks
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