Anyone have experience with McHale packs bear can lid straps?

Yes, I’ve carried a canister outside of my McHale.

A week’s worth of food in a large canister is going to be the heaviest item in a pack, and placing it at the top of the pack isn’t the best weight distribution option. Also, during the day when hiking, I don’t need access to my canister. I can carry any snacks or lunch in the top lid or even in a hip pocket.

So, in my opinion, it is best to put the canister inside the pack. Vertical works best for me because I don’t want or need a huge diameter pack, which would be required to pack it horizontally.

Also, the few times I’ve strapped on the canister, I didn’t need the volume of the extension collar and kept the canister fairly low at the top and actually compressed/reduced some of the main pack bag area volume. But keeping it lower this way didn’t affect how the pack carried, since I wasn’t carry a huge amount of weight in total. It did make it more work to pull out a windshirt, or a puffy for a rest stop.

So why did I buy the strap option? First I considered the questions you asked, then decided to get the option in case Dan retired and it would no longer be available. I don’t worry about him retiring because the McHale packs I own will outlive me.

My Bump (32″ circumference) fits a Bear Vault 450 and 500 vertically. My LBP 36 can carry a BV 450 horizontally, but not the BV 500. A 39″ or larger circumference would just be too much volume for me.

Of course you could just buy two different size packs :-) but that would be silly to buy a second pack to only fit a canister horizontally IMO.

Thank you Nick. I’ve read your fantastic write-ups and I’m in the same boat.  My other gear is minimal such that the pack would be compressed way down and the horizontal can would be low too.

Can you fit a bearikade can vertically in your LBP 36 without a shoe horn? I just need enough room on the sides for my cheapo old navy flip flops on one side of the can and a UL fleece on the other, but I don’t want to barrel out the back so much that it negates the great design.  I also dont want to feel the side of the can on my spine, negating the whole point of the frame stays.

Thanks,

Paul

I don’t know the dimensions of the Barricade. I suspect the circumference is similar to the Garcia and the BV, both of which are well under 30 inches versus my 36 inches for my LBP. The LBP has a nice Evazote foam pad, so no problems, just pack other stuff around the canisters, but don’t over stuff forcing a really tight fit.

Of course, you can try things out with the demo pack.

Bearikade’s are 9″ in diameter and have sharp corners. Fyi.

So the circumference of a bearikade is 28.26″ and it ought to fit just nicely inside any of the  LBPs, 36″-39″.  I guess I’ll see firsthand soon enough when I get a demo.

I carried a Bearikade Weekender vertically in a LBP36.   As Doug mentions, they have sharp corners – my biggest complaint with the Bearikade as I have more than one pack that bears some scars from it’s sharp edges.

That old black Garcia bear canister pictured in Paul’s photos is like mine.

But to keep my Garcia in place I used Gorilla brand duct tape to tape on 4 plastic D rings, two per side, spaced about 8″ apart so I could run straps through them. Just split the tape in strips wide enough to fit through the D rings. It always worked well when I needed to strap it on top of my 3 season pack.

That McHale setup could still let you canister slide out on one side or the other.

The canister isn’t going anywhere. The ends of the top lid keep pressure on the ends of the canister with the two external adjustable straps that secure the Summit Lid (brain) in place. Plus most people have soft items at the top of the interior of the back which also helps. In the second picture I did not use the straps around the BV500 canister. I’ve carried it this way without it shifting. If carried in top of a pack, like an external, it might be a problem.

Rest assured, when Dan McHale designs something — it works.

Keeping your heaviest item (food) at the very top of a pack might be more of an issue for weight distribution.