Load lifters on the Granite Gear Crown 60 V.C. Ki and other backpacks

everything that Nathan said, yes.
and i would say he put it quite succenctly, if i knew how to spell it.
Nathan even has the weight ranges broken out correctly.

note ; it can hurt quite a bit to figure all that out.

"If you're carrying around 25 lbs or less, then lots of packs will work and frame height and load lifter angle aren't that important."

While I generally agree with Nathan's load vs. frame/LL correlations, I have to say that for me (and others with a bad lower back?) any pack that in use hangs from my shoulders and weighs 10 lbs or more will have my back in spasms within a couple hours. The pelvic girdle is THE support structure for the torso and the pack. If my pack does a good job of transferring the weight directly to the pelvic girdle, and in a well designed and fitted pack, load lifters are an essential part of that, I'm a happy hiker all day long. If it doesn't, I'm in pain.

Alina, if that was me in the photo, I would be fairly confident that the pack wouldn't work for me, but only some hours on the trail with it loaded would tell the tale. My advise: Load it up, hike up and down for 2-4 hours and evaluate it then. If it sucks, return it and get something with a longer frame.

Stephen,

Good point, and something I left out. I actually prefer a beltless frameless pack for weights under 10-15 lbs. For 15-25 or 30 lbs I prefer a pack with a belt, and a frame that is at least even with the tops of my shoulders. At those weights and that frame height load lifters act more like load snuggers than lifters, as all they do is bring the pack closer to your back.

In the vein of everyone is different, my shoulders will start to hurt with a belt-less pack at 5 lbs or so. A book bag with 2 liters of water, snacks and two windbreakers had my shoulders hurting after just an hour. I always want a good hip belt and the load transferred there, even for light loads.

Hi Guys,

This weekend I had a chance to try GG Crown Ki regular torso and Blaze regular torso men’s pack (the adjustment was on the middle hole). Unfortunately the store did not have the women’s version. Both of them had 30 lbs in them. I am curious what is your opinion.
I was surprised and relieved to see that the load lifters in both cases were at 45 degrees. I think that in both case the shoulders look perfect don't they? With the Crown the shoulders were especially great. I did not feel any weight on my shoulders but unfortunately the waist was “weird”. The unpadded part of the belt was really pressing on my tummy. It was uncomfortable. Is it because the torso on the pack was too long? I am not sure how too long torso would cause such discomfort though. Maybe there is some other explanation.
Thank you in advance.

I thought I posted all 4 picture but I guess it is only 2 picture per post?
Here are the remaining 2 pictures of Crown.

Those load lifters look much better than the original pictures. I am not too sure about the hipbelt, i know its kinda weird but a picture might help to see what exactly is going on. My first thought is that the hipbelt is too small or not the correct type? I know the hipbelt on a womens pack is typically shaped a little differently, not sure if that is the problem or not. If you have the more "standard" wide hipboned female structure , then a womens specific hipbelt may make all the difference. OR if the hipbelt is too small, it will cause more pressure on the unpadded/buckle section.

I would try on the pack with the next size up hipbelt and see how that feels. Secondly would be to try a womens specific version. I don't know about this pack inparticular, but on many packs the hipbelts are interchangeable. So for EXAMPLE you could remove the small hipbelt on the pack and put a medium womens hipbelt on. Most companies wont even charge you for the hipbelt(in my experience), they usually either special order it or just take a hipbelt off another pack and give it to you.

Hope you get it all dialed in!

That looks better.

With respect to the belt, you look like you have cranked it too tight. How much weight did you have in the pack?

Both of them had 30 lbs in them

I guess I got confused with the way the pictures were posted(!).

Then yes, the belt looks like it is cranked a bit too tight. If you can't get the pack to settle in the lumbar region without cranking the belt, then the pack isn't going to work for you in the field.

I have a similar problem with my GG hip belt. Pretty sure it's happening because the padded part is too short causing the webbing to dig in when cranked tight.

Thank you.
Regarding the hip belt. I do not think that the digging in on the Crown was caused by wrong belt size as I have used the same belt for the other packs (Blaze and Crown short) and it seemed to be OK. Most likely the digging in was caused by too long torso.
Anyway, at this point I am considering between Blaze Ki or ULA packs. I am just waiting for a response from Granite Gear if there is a difference in shoulder straps between the man’s and woman’s version as the straps in the man’s version were rubbing against my arms. I could not even put my arms close to my torso as the shoulder straps were getting in a way. If GG says that the straps are the same then I will go for ULA.

It looks like the "waist" belt is actually at your natural waistline in the pictures. Is this where you position it when hiking or do you normally like it lower at your iliac crest (pelvic girdle), which helps in transmitting the weight to your hips? Knowing where you're most comfortable wearing it obviously affects the fit and sizing of the pack as the second option translates into a longer "torso" measurement.