“DYI” backpacks – how to have a hydration sleeve AND use your pad as a frame….

[Benjamin Smith]

The thread title says it all – do you prefer to have your hydration sleeve hang down outside the pad (pad directly against your back) or do some of you have the hydration sleeve between your pad and your back?

I’m currently envisioning a hanging sleeve like the ones that can go with the ULA packs – see the Relay review for a picture.

Ben

[Aaron Sorensen]

Hey Ben,
Do you really need a hydration sleeve?
If you put the pad next to you back and have the hydro pack hand over it, it will hold the pad in place.

[Benjamin Smith]

Aaron,

Thanks for replying – yours is a decent question. I know some packs (like they Granite Gear Vapor Trail, I believe) have a hydration sleeve that sits between the framesheet and the pack’s wearer. I was trying to figure out the optimal configuration. For the most part, I agree with you that there’s not much need for a sleeve; you could just stuff the hydration bladder in there. However, for refilling and leak protection, a sleeve could really make sense. In the couple of months since my post, of course, I’m leaning more towards carrying water outside the pack, either in side pockets or bungeed to the shoulder straps.

How do you carry your water?

Ben

[Dwight Shackelford]

I’m eventually going to make another g4 like pack, but with adaptations for my body and likes.

I’ve been thinking about putting a hydration sleeve inside, but didn’t know what to do about leaks. Putting it on the outside, under the pad, might be a better way to go. It would stay insulated, instead of being heated by the sun.

I know some of the smaller Osprey packs have a very curved framesheet, which leaves only mesh touching the back, and they have the ability to hang a bladder in that arched space also. However, they arch it so much, it cuts into the carrying capacity of the rest of the pack. It looks like, with the right bladder, you could carry upwards of two gallons in the arch space. Which makes me think about using them for Death Valley.

Osprey’s larger packs do not have that arch space.

Not sure how to do it on a G4. To help prevent it from leaking into the internal cavity, it would need to be a sleeve between the back of the pack and the mesh holding the pad. Might need to rig some hangers from the shoulder strap attachments.

But how to get to it. The mesh at the top would be in the way big time. You’d need to unload the pack and then bend it in half to get to the top of the sleeve.

If you had a sleeve between the back of the pack and the internal cavity, accessible from either the internal top of the pack, or the external top of the pack, that would help.

Have to do some hard thinking about how to do it externally, due to a lot of the structural enforcement for the shoulder straps are in that same area.

I have been thinking about some full-length mesh on the back that would open up the center, and fold back, and overlap with some velcro or something.

That would make an external sleeve readily accessible.

Don’t know yet.

Dwight

[EndoftheTrail]

Hi Ben:

I would vote for haning the bladder outside (i.e. between wearer’s back and pack frame).

For me anyway, I dislike slipping a bladder into an internal sleeve. When it comes time for refilling, pulling out an empty 3L bladder from its internal sleeve is easy. But once it’s filled and bulging, you practically have to repack half your backpack in order to reinsert the bladder. It’s adding yet another chore while on the trail, and not a “quick and easy” one either, esp. in the rain. Then, of course, there are potential issues with limited pack space and also bladder leakage.

Finally, given the very high pressure generated by 2 or 3 liter bladder, if a leak should occur, I don’t see how an open-ended sleeve can contain the leakage.

Anyway, good luck with your pack — and don’t forget to post pics when you are done!

[Glen Van Peski]

FWIW if you take a 3L platy and only put about 2L in it, so it’s kind of flattish, it fits pretty well just slipping it under the pad in a G4 type pad holder. The friction tends to keep it from sliding, and the pad insulates it well from your body heat. YMMV

–Glen

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