Packing an Ohm

Well, the pad will take up the same amount of room no matter how you put it in there.

Too thick of padding against back in the Ohm makes it less comfortable. Spread the pad out burrito like, or on two or 3 sides of the pack only or such, leaving a thin foam layer against your back. Then pack your sleeping bag loosely first, with stuff on top.

The looser it is packed,and more flexible the backpanel, the better it conforms to your back, and the more comfortable it is. The tighter it is packed, the less comfortable it will be.

If you have to really jam everything in there to fit it, which makes it firm and balloons outward against back, then it is really too small of a pack for your gear, and you would be more comfortable with a different pack in my experience. Thats why I have 2 packs. My circuit is more comfortable than the Ohm above 20 lbs because it fits to the back better, in addition to the hipbelt.

That pad is too big to fit in an Ohm in my opinion. I have found that the burrito configuration doesn't work well since the bottom of the pack is slanted, this tends to push the pad up away from the pack bottom. I would recommend either strapping the whole thing to the top and using the foam back pad that comes with the pack, or cutting off a few panels to use as an internal frame and strapping the rest to the top.

Personally I use a short neoair folded up inside a thinlight as the back panel in mine. A torso-length ridgerest also works OK folded in 4, but it takes up like 30% of the volume of the pack.

I gave up for now. I cut out a piece from an old Ridgerest that was identical to the foam pad it came with. Bit more padding. Strapped my Z-Lite to the top as usual.