Arc Blast repairs
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Today, I finally got around to making some repairs on my Arc Blast pack. The needed repairs were to restore higher water integrity, as well as strengthen areas that were damaged by carrying a bear cannister on the JMT.
I figured some damage would occur, and it did. As long as I was making repairs, I snapped some pics that may help others know what to expect.
If I hadnt noticed trace of water in the pack (outside of liner), or decided to turn inside-out for close inspection, i would not have realized the extent of wear. It certainly wasnt visible on the outside.
All repair was made by simply overlaying Zpacks self-adhesive 1.43 oz cuben patches. This appears to me to be the same material Zpacks uses in reinforcing areas and sealing stitches on this pack.
There weres 5 wear areas, 4 were basically center top and bottom edges of the bear cannister, and another was due to one of the exterior struts rubbing thru the fabric from the outside. In the worst areas, the cuben was worn thru to the fabric leaving a pinhole. Best way to see these was to put head in pack, and look at a bright light and see the pinhole.
The main wear area, where the bearcan rode on top of the cross-strut near center of back. It peeled back about 5/16" of the reinforcement that was there , I had to trim that off:
the opposite side, bottom of cannister, pinhole can be seen (dark spot) :
The wear-thru from strut on inside, several pinholes. These also visible on outside of pack.:
Typical repair (over worst area here):
Repair/reinforcement is as easy as it gets. Anyone who has carried a large bearcan and hasnt inspected the inside of the pack, might be a good idea to do so. I had a piece of foam taped around the cross strut to reduce damage there, and there was no external damage to the pack. I dont think my cannister actually pushed down on the strut, the stuff under it held it just slightly above it, but the pack wraps around the lower edge of the cannister and wear occurred there.
Might also be a good idea to pre-emptively laminate the contact zones if you plan to use a big cannister as well. Its really not easy to wrap the cannister in something and then put it in the pack.
The strut wear thru holes were odd, because there was nothing on the cuben side in that top corner. My foster pot was there, and it did not contact the corner, it bridged the corner with a gap behind the strut.
The total wt addition, was very tiny.
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