Installing stays in G-4 pack?

Adding stays to a pack is not hard. The difficult part will be getting the back panel in under the machine to sew it, now that you are all done. You will have to decide if you can work with sewing the panel or tear one of the side panel seams open to access things. The stays go in a channel created by sewing webbing to the back panel. one inch flat webbing will fit a 1/2 inch alum. stay. One inch alum "flat bar" is also available at hardware stores and should fit in 1 1/2 inch wide webbing. You need to reinforce the bottom end of the channel by sewing that end of the webbing channel to the back panel a few inches up from the end and accross the webbing end. You then double the webbing back to form a pocket for the bottom of the stay to slide into. You need to look out as the webbing channel passes thru the shoulder area. You might have to start and stop it so that you don't interfere with the shoulder straps. At the top end, you sew in a webbing and velcro tab to hold the stay in place. Scott

I just hacked up a Mariposa Plus and was able to sew at the very bottom of the pack.

I think the G4 is a little wider, so you may be OK, depending the arm on your machine.

I'd call Grant, and see if he'd let you have one of the stays from a Mariposa Plus. That would be easy to add. I keep telling him it should be an option on the G4.