After having bought several used arc blasts….and after using them, I have fully decided that cuben hybrid is not durable enough as a pack material. For the slight weight penalty, I think dyneema X is a better option.
So, I contacted Zpacks (who are great to work with by the way) for the viability of having them create an arc blast out of dyneema. No problem. I would simply need to buy 2 linear yards of dyneema x from thru-hiker and have it shipped to zpacks. (including shipping, $63), and zpacks would refund $45 off the price of an arc blast. So….getting one in dyneema X was actually going to cost me about $20 more than a cuben hybrid one. Plus I would have to pay retail price.
Well…I bought a MLD exodus on the swap a while ago. I really like the construction of the pack, lots of nice, well thought out features. However, it only took me 1 overnight trip with a rolled up ridgerest as a virtual frame to decide, though while comfortable, it had awful breathability. It was a cool spring hike, and anytime I would take off the pack I would have a huge, wet perfect rectangle covering my whole back, even though not a drop of sweat anywhere else on my body.
I emailed zpacks and yep…..if I sent in the exodus, they could add an arc blast frame to it for….$50. Awesome. Thus, my Frankenstein pack was born ->
Zpacks detached the hip belt, added some grosgrain, so it cover the bottom attachment points of the arc blast frame. I didn't actually ask them to do this…I was going to just use a zpacks lumbar pad to cover the area, but I think this works well.
I had zpacks add the same loop of grosgrain to the bottom of the pack that they add if you buy an arc blast with a lumbar pad, in case I wanted to attach one. This would keep the lumbar pad from riding up.
By adding the arc blast frame, once you compress the frame it would decrease the torso length by about an inch. So, for $5 zpacks detached the shoulder straps, and reattached them by adding grosgrain in the zpacks style to be the "tall" arc blast setting. Also in this picture you can see that I had zpacks add load lifter straps for $8. However….I wouldn't do this again. They are attached to the extension collar, with great workmanship, but the collar doesn't have enough tension to make the load lifters useful.
I also had zpacks add base straps for $9, though they used grosgrain instead of a linelock with glowire like they did on the arc blasts that I had previously….and the grosgrain wasn't long enough to fit a rolled up ridgerest (if I was hiking with my son that uses it). I'll probably cut this off. So I simply used two zpacks linelocks with sewn on loop and cow hitched it to a loop on the exodus. Now I can easily take the ridgerest on and off and use it as a sit pad for breaks on the trail like I did with the arc blasts.
Like I do with all of my packs, I add two small loops of shock cord…one on the shoulder pad, and one attached to various loops on the bottom of the pack with a small piece of vinyl tubing on it, which is a copy of the osprey exos trekking pole attachment system.
All in all, I think adding an arc blast frame to an exodus is a much better idea than MLD's suspension system using an inflatable klymit pad. It costs about the same, weighs slightly less (depending if you bring along the bulb and whatnot, but the arc blast frame added about 3 to 3.5 oz), has much better breathability, is more durable, and takes no pack volume from inside your pack.
In the title…I did say this could be the perfect pack. Though….a few wishes:
1. I wish the exodus side pockets had more of a front slant to them to make reaching water bottles easier. Its not a deal breaker, and I have a zpacks shoulder strap pocket for a water bottle now (which by the way, after trying several I think this one is the best).
2. If I knew zpacks was going to cut off the hip belt, I think I would have paid to have them simply replace the hip belt with an arc blast hipbelt, though I'm not 100% on this. The arc blast hipbelt is easier to attach hip belt pockets to and makes a more positive connection to make it easier to both open and close a zippered hip belt pocket. But I still like the Exodus hip belt…they are comfortable.
