McHale dyed cuben packs.

Never really looked into the Mchale packs, but took a look at his website and they are things of beauty!!

Question, why do you want to attach an empty bear canister to the back? I could see a pack being able to carry a bear canister full of food on the back as useful, but I must be missing something here.

"Question, why do you want to attach an empty bear canister to the back? I could see a pack being able to carry a bear canister full of food on the back as useful, but I must be missing something here."

You don't want all the weight of the food that far away from your body, and you want the pack bag size as small and close to your back as possible. So while you are moving your food is in the pack and you place it in the cannister once you stop to camp.

makes sence about the bear cannister, i guess that the food packs up smaller by itself in the backpack rather than just putting the food in the cannister in the backpack to begin with…

nm

I'm just curious why use cuban hybrid? Is it better than other fabric choices? Are you really saving that much weight?

nm

Todd and Bobby,

Both are beautiful packs… you are going to love them. Of course you already know that since you got use a demo.

McHale packs are incredibly comfortable, well built, and of course works of art :)

The cuben Dan uses are different hybrids. Not really lighter than most of the other fabrics he sells, and incredibly strong. The laminates are used to mitigate abrasion damage, plus he has figured out how to dye them too. Keep in mind that Dan has tested and experimented with cuben for several years before bringing it to market.

I sometimes carry my old Garcia bear canister on the top of my pack.
To keep it securely strapped I did the following:

MATERIALS:
> 4 polymer 3/4" D rings (REI)
> Gorilla duct tape (Lowe's)

FABRICATION:
> Split the Gorilla duct tape so it will fit inside the D rings.
> Hold the 4 D rings in place according to your pack's lash points with 4" pieces of tape.
> tape the D rings with long duct tape strips all the way around the cannister TWICE. (That should be only two circumfrential wrappings of duct tape, one for each set of D rings.)

Now you have 4 lash points on your bear canister.

hybrid cuben McHale LBP-34

nm

Per HMG (& cubic tech), it can be dyed but that haven't found anything that's colorfast yet. "It" being the outer nylon or poly and not the cuben.

Meaning that it will wear or discolor over time?

Dan has been dying dyneema/spectra material for years and likely has a system that works well in regard to holding the color (my dyneema LBP-34 has held its color well).

Thom, I was speaking of the cuben. I had no issue with the dyed spectra on my pack.

The hybrid cuben may be different in regard to dying but as difficult as dyneema/spectra is to color I would guess Dan has it figured out.

It's been a while since I got mine, but when I ordered it Dan said that the dye was basically painted onto the Dyneema fabric, and does on occasion start flaking off. He might have found a new dye since then, but it's possible that the only thing on his packs that isn't durable is the dye.

:)
It makes the packs look a lot older than they really are though, which can be a fringe benefit, because the sorts of people who would steal packs generally won't steal the ones that look really beaten up. Dan warned me about the coatings on them; if you're not careful when you clean them, you can easily take them off, which I think reduces the fabric's water resistance. Given their cost, no one who isn't serious about getting out into the wilderness, so McHale packs tend to get used… so they look dirty and well-used, even though under the patina of grit they're as good as new. :)

Rakesh (or anyone else), do you have any pictures of yours flaking in spots?

"generally won't steal the ones that look really beaten up"

I wish that were true! Long story.

"I wish that were true! Long story."

Well, I did say "generally" :(

Mine isn't showing any flaking, so I don't have any pictures of that. Mine also doesn't have any coloring though, which may have something to do with it.

Just to be clear though, it's the dye that Dan said flakes off sometimes, not the fabric's coating or anything like that. Whether or not he's solved the issue of the dye coming off I don't know. I think my pack looks fine without the color, so I'm a happy camper… when I get to go camping.

"Nick, is this hybrid cuben stronger than the spectra?

FWIW, HMG had some blue packs for sale recently so this hybrid cuben can definitely be dyed."

I don't think any fabric is stronger than Spectra/Dyneema. Its used for bullet proof vests and Ursacks :)

I think the Cuben Dan uses has Spectra in it. Also the lamination make it more abrasion proof. Apparently Dan also has some Cuben with a type of outer lamination that allows him to dye it. Dan has many kinds of Cuben in stock, so no blanket statements.

Regarding the dye… Dan is not soaking materials in dye, he is applying a colored coating on the Spectra. Not sure what is process is for Cuben, but I would guess it might be the same. None of the "dye" has come off my LBP. But I suppose that dragging it across granite could scrape it off. My encounters with rocks, brush, and trees has not phased the pack or the color coat.

Below is a new hybrid cuben Merkebeiner now up on the McHale site. "The fabric of the pack is dyed Cuben Hybrid CT9 with a lighter Cuben for the rear pocket (… stripped of pockets form it is 2 lbs., 1.8 oz. – that's still with its 1/2" padded foam back, twin stay 7075-T6 frame…)."

The blue HMG packs seen recently are not cuben, they are VX21. I bought one from the swap a couple months ago.

New from the McHale site;

"Here's a Cuben pack with Full Spectra Kangaroo and bottom that's headed for the PCT. It is CT22 Hybrid Cuben which is about the same weight as 210 Dyneema X grid."

Anyone understand the different variants of hybrid cuben out there? I'd love to know the situation with different weights of polyester and cuben linings.

From this thread and the McHale site, we see references to CT9, CT13 and CT22 hybrid cuben fabrics, and references to weights of 3.4, 3.6oz & 4.2oz per yard. We are told CT22 weighs about the same as 210D Dyneema grid, and McHale's site says CT13 is 3.6oz stuff. Perhaps CT9 is likely the 3.4oz stuff and CT22 is 4.2oz/yd unless Dan's using more than 3 variants. Maybe the last number refer to denier? (90D, 130D, 220D?).

HMG doesn't give very much info on their site, but the word on BPL is that it's 3.3oz. Zpacks uses stuff they claim is 2.92oz/yd (99g/m2) and uses 50D polyester. ULA has hybrid cuben that spec'd slightly heavier (102g/m2), which works out to 3.0oz/yd2. From ULA, this 3.0oz stuff has the code CT5K.18/wov32.c. The first half of that is easily understood but 'wov32' is a mystery because 32 seems too low to be denier.

I got a sample of the stuff from ULA and there's no perceivable difference in the polyester between that and HMG's stuff.

It's all magic.

Or Greek.