How should my backpack fit?

Pics would help. Generally, your shoulder harness should pretty much hug you. Most of the weight should be on your hips/lower back, not on your front shoulders, back shoulders, or spine.

While this pack is sitting a bit low (I adjusted it a bit shortly after on the trail, I was climbing back up the trail to let my wife get a pic for Gossamer Gear,) notice that it is tight against my shoulders and very tight, almost compressive, against my hips. The 3 layer pad shows the extra flex in the middle of my back, almost no weight there.

I have food, fuel and gear for a week out. The pack isn't full…

Guessing you played with the load lifters as well?

The conventional wisdom is that the shoulder straps should be nearly horizontal between their attachment on the pack bag and the top of your shoulders. If you look at the photo by James, you can see this. With some people, that needs to be more perfectly horizontal. With others, not so much. A lot depends on how your shoulders are built.

One slightly complicating factor is how widely your shoulder straps are set apart. If you have wide shoulders, then the straps probably need to be widely spaced. For a smaller person with narrow shoulders, then not so much. If you have wide shoulders and put on a narrow-strap pack, then it might pinch a bit on the sides of your neck.

Sometimes these are tricky to get right the first time, but when you finally get it adjusted to be right, you will know it.

–B.G.–

Here is another example just for reference. Not a heavy load but i think it can help illustrate some. This is a ULA circuit with S Straps.

Hope that's a bit helpful

I'm guessing that the phone that Carlos used was by Apple.

–B.G.–

Apparently, I cant upload any pictures. That's swell.

James Marco, my pack definitely doesn't fit like that. But the attachment points are not on the top of the bag like yours are.

Yeah Bob it was an iPhone. Does that cause challenges with pictures here? I am new to the smartphone world.

Every bag will be a little different depending on the design. Also I adjust the hip belt and strap position some depending on weights

Carlo, my pack looks like that from the side as long as I have the shoulder straps pulled tight. Basically the straps are then pulling on the front of my shoulders. When I loosen them enough to not have pressure there, it forms a gap behind my shoulders. The load lifters don't help as they only pull the pack to the shoulder straps.

ok so now it worked for some reason. Anyhow the one picture shows the gap and the other is when it shoulder straps are pulled tight enough to remove the gap but are then too tight against my shoulders.

The first photo shows the way that is most normal for most of us.

–B.G.–

You want you shoulder straps where they attach to the pack to be at, or slightly above, your shoulders on a UL pack.

Yours are a couple inches below.

You may be really tall and need longer pack, wearing the hipbelt too low, or have the hipbelt not at the very bottom of the pack (velcros in place).

When the shoulder straps are below your shoulders, the pack will lean away from the back, put weight on shoulders, and require load lifters to transfer the strap force higher on the pack where it has leverage to pull the pack close to back.

If the torso length is right, load lifters are not needed at all.

You r load lifters are inneffective for two reasons, the pack needs to be packed so they have something firm to pull against, and they are too low without it packed.

Make sure hipbelt is all way at bottom of velcro adjustment zone. And make sure the top of your hipbone is in the middle of the hipbelt. If you want to wrar belt lower than normal (under gut, as some do), it requires longer torso.

Pack the pack fully with 25 lb weight.

So what do I do now? This pack fits the same as the Osprey pack I used to own. I ended up just selling it because it never seemed like it fit that well. But I have nothing to compare it to and the backpacking shops around here cant even get a consistent torso measurement on me. May as well be asking some fool at McDonalds.

Well this may be an issue then. As you can see from the pics, I have a fat stomache. I cant wear the hip belt with the clip right at my belly button. So I wear it below. Its a little bit lower than it should be but with the adjustment on the hip belt placement, shouldn't I be able to get it to fit anyhow?

I just tried wearing it with the hipbelt much higher. the shoulder straps still wrap around my shoulders and down a few inches. So idk.

A little below shoulders is tolerable because load lifters can compensate, and ula torso isnt really adjustable.

Adjusting a too long pack by moving the belt up is what they allow for, but that is really bad because the low hanging pack then bumps into your arse. On the circuit, the al center stay digs into tailbone if you do that. So, what ula has is really three torso lengths, that either fit you well enough , or they dont.

My circuit is a med, my torso is 19.5", despite ula claims of it working to 21", id say its really 1/2" smaller than optimum for me. Adequate, but i have a custom pack with perfect torso length, and its worlds more comfortable, and needs no load lifters. It neber puts any wt on shoulders, and doesnt lean back and pull against me either.

Ill mess with it some more over the weekend and see if it fits any better. I mean it is comfortable even if there is a gap but id prefer it to fit correctly. Ill see what I can do though. Well im out for the night. thanks for all the help everyone.

Your pack fits a lot like mine generally do, so I'll postulate two possibilities from my own experience. First, I'm a little bit stoop shouldered and your pics make it look like you might be, too. (Don't take that as a slam–Tim Duncan looks that way, too!) I need my pack to lean back off my shoulders a tiny bit or else it pulls back on my shoulders. It's simple geometry. Second, I'm taller than virtually every pack I've ever worn. That means I've never had pack straps at the level folks are saying is right, and I've never had load lifters that were high enough to lift the load. So again, the pack tips back a bit. I don't know how tall you are, so this may be irrelevant.

The tip back doesn't bother me at all as long as the pack isn't too rigid. External-frame packs are never comfortable.

My shoulders do stoop and the more times I try the pack on, the more i can tell it's going to lean back and pull on the front of my shoulders. Even if I have the shoulder straps loose, it still leans back. So maybe I need a pack that I can bend the stay to match my back. Idk at this point. Or maybe I should suck it up and buy the osprey atmos ag (which fit nicely).

"James Marco, my pack definitely doesn't fit like that. But the attachment points are not on the top of the bag like yours are."

Not to worry. Everybody prefers to carry a load a bit differently. (I have very broad shoulders. I measure out to a medium, but nothing fits me across my back, I get large.)Like I say, maybe 3/4" to 1" low as it sits in the pic. this puts the shoulder mounts about 1/2" above my shoulder height. As B.G was saying, this is about average for a frameless pack. About 30-40% of the pack weight is on the shoulder harness. With a total pack weight of around 18 pounds (including food, fuel and water,) this means about 6-7 pounds is on the harness/torso strap…mostly this just stabilizes the pack so it doesn't shift/move around. The rest of the weight is on my hips. Again, in the pic, it is about an inch low on my hips.

Anyway, the extension collar is used mostly for two weeks out. I drop in another 6"dia bag of food that runs across my pack for two weeks. This means that the pack is overloaded. That doesn't really bother things. For anything up to about 25 pounds, the hefty three layer pad seats into my lumbar keeping things comfortable. This "wraps" the weight around my hips: Left, Lumbar, Right. It helps stabilize the pack a little better and lets me carry the larger proportion of weight, there. I try to add about 4oz of weight to my shoulders for each additional pound. The low center of gravity adds to overall hiking stability on climbs or when hopping across streams.

The thin padding is not a problem. Nor is the thin hipbelt. In the picture, all the weight(about 18pounds) should be balanced across both shoulder straps(about 3 pounds on each,) sternum strap(about 1 pound,) and the three sided hip belt (about 4 pounds at each point.) Ideally, this distributes the weight around your whole body without interfering with your breathing, your arm, leg, hip movements, and, the torso twist associated with each stride. I like to think of a vest of weights wrapping my upper body, but all connected at the hip. This pretty much emulates the way your body would put excess fat, except for the chest area.

Weight on your chest can be hard to breath around. Your diaphragm will cause your chest to expand. Even a few pounds there will feel too tight. If you have sharp shoulder blades, you might need a little space at your shoulders to prevent pinching off your breathing. The sternum strap placement is one area I disagree with. It is often set low over your chest/sternum area. I believe it should be set higher, just over your clavicle, to prevent interference with your breathing.

I don't care for front pouches or water bottles on my shoulder straps due to an old neck/shoulder injury. But, my overall stance is nearly vertical, anyway. The slight forward lean simply keeps my pack frame (foam pad) in contact with my back/lumbar area. All these tricks mean I put my pack on, but don't feel any need to take it off again for the next 10 hours. I usually grab a candy bar, drink, water treatment, from my side pouches or hip belt pouches. I almost never take the pack off and set it down. 15-20mi days are common. No big deal, I stop take pics, watch animals, go slow and smell the roses. And I am careful, I am almost always out solo.

The attachments are not really at the top of the bag. They are at the just at the top of the pad keeper. Like I say, I was only headed out for a week and it wasn't full. A second food bag would have helped fill it, but I really didn't need it.

So I tried messed around with positioning the pack up a little higher as well as loosening the load lifters. I can get the straps pretty much horizontal from my shoulders but there is still a pretty big gap. I've concluded the problem is the curve of my upper back. Just below my shoulder blades, my back goes forward. So no matter how I adjust things, there's always a gap and the straps always pull against my shoulders. If I tighten the shoulder straps they actually start spreading apart to where it feels like they could slide off the front of y shoulders. The sternum strap is also almost at it's limit. I don't have abnormally broad shoulders or a big chest. I'm 6' 205#. You can see in the pics I have a belly and man boobs but nothing too crazy.

So does it seem like my curved back could be the issue? Should I maybe get the circuit with the bendable aluminum stay? Or maybe the osprey with the mesh back panel.

Steve I would go back to the initial instructions ULA sends out with a new pack.

The recommendation is to not have the load lifter and pack super snug and close to your back like mine pictured unless you are in a tight more technical area where you need more control.

If you allow a little more space it will transfer the weight down to the hips and relieve the strap pulling some. I would try that and walk a couple miles to see what you think. But make sure you have your actual gear Inside to get the best simulation you can.

If you want I can send you a picture of the initial instructions so you can start fresh.

Edit. You can also call ULA and they can assist you in trouble shooting. They are very good at this.

Like I say, everyone wheres a pack a little differently. If you need a small gap to keep it comfortable, so what? If it drops a little, so what? If it rides best a little high, so what? YOU have to carry it. If you cannot get it to be "comfortable" it really doesn't matter. You will hate the pack. Adjust it how it fits…

Delrin and carbon are not adjustable. They are pretty much set. It looks like the back is sitting on your shoulder blades, I would not worry. Just take it out for a couple days. If it doesn't work, then it is time to send it back. ULA makes some good packs. Or there are other manufacturers. Take your time and be sure, though.