Load Transfer

First of all, the filled pack should be as rigid as possible. Fill it and really tighten the compression system down tight. The contents of the pack should act as a structural member. Pack to make the pack as small in diameter and as long as possible. This will keep the load close to your back and will help transfer the load onto the hip belt.

Generally you don't have load transfer with a frameless pack since they have a minimal belt or no belt at all. If the frameless pack does have a belt it's probably designed for load stabilization and not transfer.

Zpacks added padded hipbelt pockets to their webbed belts and recently added winged belts to their line of options. These are designed to transfer weight. As stated, pack it tight.

Dear all-

I am mostly thinking of back on my first lightweight trip on Outward Bound when they told us to make a tube out of our foam pads and pack the rest of our gear inside the tube so that the load transfers better. I have always preferred to pack the pad in such a way that the whole thing lies flat against my back. I always thought that the tube method would inevitably waste some of the packs volume, and the pack also seemed to conform to my back better like that. I don't know if load transfer has anything to do with it, but I have been told that it does.

Let me simplify my question: what the heck is load transfer and why do I care?

Jed

Hi Jed,

Load transfer means supporting the weight of your backpack on your hips, rather than your shoulders. Almost everyone finds it easier to carry weight on their hips, rather than supporting it on their shoulders.

In order to get maximum load transfer to your hips, you need as rigid an object as possible (a frame) connected to your hipbelt. You then need to strap objects to this frame as tightly as possible.

Think of the frame as a simple pole coming out of the top of the hipbelt (like the spine of your back). If you want to use the pole to carry things, it must be a rigid as possible and you must strap things tightly to it. If the pole is bendy or things are not strapped on tightly, then the objects will not be well supported (and the weight will end up on your shoulder straps instead).

So, in order to get good load transfer in a frameless pack you need to create a frame as best you can. The easiest way of doing it is to use your pad. The most effective way is to roll your pad as a tube, and put it in your pack and fill it up with your gear like a burrito. Why? Because your pad is more rigid that way. (To see why, get a piece of paper and make it into a cylinder with a bit of sticky tape, then see how much weight you can support on top of it when you stand it on its end. Try supporting the same weight with an unfolded piece of paper held vertically! Cylinders are much stronger. So are corrugations or other types of vertical folds, for that matter.)

Having said that, you may find that you can "get away" with using your pad flat against your back (not made into a cylinder). Because the pad will naturally curve anyway (due to the constraints of the backpack) it may have sufficient rigidity without needing to be turned into a cylinder. You should experiment and find what works best for you and your load… the key point is that you don't want the pad to be able to bend much (if any).

The other thing you need to do then is to strap everything to the frame tightly… ie. use your compression straps! Otherwise the weight is not connected to the frame properly, and not connected to your hips.

To sum up, you need a *rigid* connection between your hipbelt and the objects in your pack. Make yourself a stiff frame with your pad and attach your gear to it securely!