Stay placement help

Wish I could help. Here's a bump, maybe someone will see it.

My preference is for pack stays to go nearly to the bottom of the hipbelt, and then the hipbelt to be attached below the stays. So the stays "hang" off the bottom of the belt. I think this offers the best weight transfer. I would put them just far enough above the hipbelt so that the foam padding of the hipbelt protects you from the bottom edge. Are you planning on sewing the attachments through the foam of the hipbelt? I'd recommend doing so, as hipbelts that are a sleeve with foam inside tend to rotate around the foam unless they are sewn together, especially at load-bearing areas.

Hi Nick, Thanks for posting. Great advice on having the stays rest a little bit above the bottom of the hipbelt. I hadn't thought of that but it makes perfect sense. Not sure I understand your question, I was planning on just creating a sleeve with Velcro for the hipbelt. The stay channels would actually be sewn inside the pack and wouldn't nest into the hipbelt. I hope that makes sense. Thanks again!

Yeah, I was just thinking you'd have some sort of sewn connection between the hipbelt and pack. With a sleeve like you're describing it probably won't matter, although if you're putting velcro on the hipbelt and pack I would put the hipbelt together and sew the velcro on through the hipbelt and foam. But not a big deal either way with that design.

https://youtu.be/nKX3m8BnovY?t=1m50s The Exped Lightning packs have a socket at the bottom of the hip belt for the stay. The belt is connected to the pack body via a large velcro flap that wraps up from the bottom edge of the back panel. Works great.

Two issues, which may or may not both be relevant. First, how you're attaching the stays to the belt. If you're putting a pocket on the belt itself for a direct connection doing so at the bottom edge is highly recommended. It avoids torque which can create a lumbar hot spot. If the stays are in a separate sleeve this is less crucial depending on the amount of lumbar padding and where/how the belt is sewn on. Second, you want the stay to be a bit above the bottom of the pack to avoid as much as possible rubbing between the stay and the ground when a fully loaded pack is put down, picked up, and dragged. Rubbing of this kind under load will burn through burly reinforcing fabric surprisingly fast.

Thanks Dave, I'd sew a pocket on the belt for direction connection with the stays but I don't think my machine can handle punching through the ULA hipbelt. I think my best bet is to mimic ULA's technique for securing hipbelts. I'll definitely have the stay channels terminate higher than the bottom of the pack. The proclivity of the stays to wear through the fabric when rubbing with the ground is something I hadn't thought of. Thanks again to all for the great advice!

I thoroughly agree with attaching at the bottom of the belt. I've done it two ways: one is a sleeve/pocket that ends just slightly above the bottom of the belt, and the other is to have a velcro strap attached to the belt and a looploc attached right at the bottom end of the stay sleeve. The second I found slightly superior, but heavier and significantly more complex to construct, so I no longer do it that way. A second point I would bring up is the distance between stays. Anything over 6" center to center seems too much to me (as an average size guy at 5-10 and 160).