Pinnacle or Quest – GoLite? Others?

Jake,

If you go with a pinnacle and need to carry a little more weight you can make a frame sheet and slide it in the sleeve where the back padding is. I did this with my jam2 for a little extra support.

Both of those packs are great choices, I personally prefer the simpleness of the jam2 or pinnacle. You can also remove the frame and lid on the quest to slash weight.

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Jake – I use Kyle's approach and added a 6 oz frame sheet to my Pinnacle for carrying a mid 30s lb max load. I created this hybrid for packrafting trips in which I have the heavy load going in, use the raft for transport during the middle of the trip, and have a mid 20s lb load going out.

If I was going to backpack every day with a load in the 30 – 40 lb range I would use my Quest because of its superior comfort derived from the more heavily padded and ventilated back, lumbar and waist band.

Hi Richard,

What material did you use to make your pinnacle framesheet?

Thanks!

It worked great for me with loads up to 35 lbs while backpacking and climbing up to 5.8. Like the others I needed extra stiffening for hipbelt transfer, but got it by rolling up my sleeping pad and putting it in the Pinnacle's pad pocket.

Daniel,

The 6 oz frame sheet is made of corrugated Polystyrene with thin vertical aluminum dowels.

Richard,

Thanks for the tip on the Jam2 framesheet. By the way, where may this material be purchased. Appreciate it. Thanks.

I have the precursor to the Pinnacle (the Trek) as well as the Quest. I also put a framesheet in my Trek (corrugated poster board), but found the lack of hip padding to be an issue. Sooo I put some pipe lagging on the hipbelt, but by this stage it was almost as heavy as a Quest so I gave in and haven't looked back. The Quest is superbly comfy with heavier loads, and the hip pockets are a nice bonus.

I will look at the Vapor…

I also like the idea of possibly taking the frame out of the Quest… I wonder if I can replace that with my pad… hmmm

I was planning on using my pad for more support in the Pinnacle- if I go that way. I could just tell from pictures if it could support 22-30 pounds with good support. I do have a detachable waist pad from my MS pack. Perhaps I can retrofit that on… hmmm…

Based on this and thinking a bit too much *smile*, I think I probably need a summer pack and a fall/spring/winter pack…
I have a MountainSmith Spector pack that is giant (5500) but weighs only 4lbs 5 oz (a lot in perspective, but you can not beat the weight for a large pack + support).

– Jake

John – Most art supply stores or sign shops carry this material.

Yeah, I have tried replacing the Quest framesheet with the same posterboard material. It worked "OK", but if I cinched down on the load lifetrs too much it just bent the top of the pack forward. I'm thinking about adding some CF tent poles (from my broken Nallo set) to the set-up to stiffen things. Not sure yet how much weight this will save over the stock framesheet, but I'll let you know…

Stiffening, to avoid bending the poster board, can be done by inserting five small diameter 7075 aluminum rods through the vertical corrugation poster board channels. The rods also allow you to shape the poster board to conform to your back profile.

Look around your neighborhood. Most election signs you see this time of the year are made from that material.

I have the large Pinnacle. I did 26 lbs plus 8 lbs of water (34 lbs) for two days with no problems. I cinched the hipbelt down pretty tight. I used the stock pad.

I wasn't doing large elevation changes (just some hills).

I think the Pinnacle is rated for up to 40 lbs.

Hey Richard, where would we find 7075 that small in diameter?

1/8" diameter 7075 wire fits through the channels and it only weighs 0.0145 lbs per foot. You can get it from a local company that sells aluminum stock. An on-line source is http://www.alcobrametals.com/round.htm.

I removed the lid and the aluminum stays and the pack drops to 53.3 oz. Still no 32, but I am going to test it and see how it does… it felt OK when I tried it earlier. The only issue so far is that there is a LOT of room… I could probably take 2 zrests IN the pack! So I will see how this works for a bit, and then see about one of the other packs, if I want to drop another 20oz, but for $150, I'll hold off for now!

Ya MS was NUTS to dump this line… I wish I had a Ghost as well!

– Jake