Fanny packs? (And water-bottle holsters?)

Zimmerbuilt water bottle holders

Redpaw

I have the Versa. I think it’s 2 liter. The Redpaw may be 1.5 liter. I forget.  The Redpaw has a top pocket that I think can hold a small water bottle. Zimmerbuilt has a larger 1 liter bottle holder as well.

I ended up.attaching the Versa as a hip pocket. While it worked well on the sternum strap, I was afraid of leaving it behind after a break. I could attach it, but it was a little funky putting the pack on.

I’ve been tinkering with front pockets for a couple of decades and still haven’t found the system that I want. I’ve tried everything from little add-on pockets to fanny packs from 1 to 15 liters to chest rigs and messenger bags.

A bandolier with some carabiners is light, simple, and flexible, but not very squared-away, appearance-wise. A messenger bag that I can clip somewhere to my pack harness works, too.

I’m confident that there is a “best” solution. I just haven’t stumbled into it yet.

In the meantime, pick one that is about the right size, and try it.

For water bottles, I like these clips. They are light, quick-release, and secure. The best part is that I don’t even have to unclip to drink from it — the strap is just long enough to bring the bottle to my mouth for a sip.

Mine doesn’t flop around, but a shock cord could secure the bottom of the bottle if you are concerned about that.

Sockdolager makes a 7 liter  fanny pack that doubles as a pack raft seat. Hilltop makes one that’s a rolltop bag. In my opinion, 2 liter is as big as I’d want. I don’t want it hitting my legs. I did have a prototype water bottle clip that simply hooked on my belt. I carried it on my side. A little annoying, but very handy.

I take the water belt in pic below on any hike which doesn’t require a pack with a hipbelt. It balances total payload and lowers center of gravity. Allows me to carry a slightly smaller/lighter pack that way too.

I tried a dozen fanny packs and water belts over the years, but none ever seemed to ride comfortably. Then back in 2016 I bought a Nathan 650 ml water belt where the bottle is angled at 55 degrees. It’s infinitely better than vertical. I wear it on my left side directly on the hipbone with the top angled backward. That impedes way less and it just doesn’t seem in the way. And with the weight concentrated (26 oz with water) right against the body it rides extremely well. The water belt also has a small zip compartment that can hold survival essentials such as Mini Bic, Aqua Mira tabs, small knife, etc. There’s also a plethora of cottage gear pouches you could add to the water belt, but I find if the payload around my waist becomes too bulky or heavy it’s just going to flop around, and the carry becomes less than ideal.

Interesting. For the water-bottle holders, I’m looking for something that I can use for day-hikes where I only have a fanny pack (so would need to attach to the belt, not to a shoulder strap). Ideally, it would be able to hold different sized bottles (including Nalgene-size) – so I don’t think the clip thing would work. I used to have something like this:

(But ideally the loop would be lower down on the holder – like in the part that looks sewn in here – so that it wouldn’t dangle.)

But I’m open to any solution that would work with just a fanny pack.

It’s hard for me to see from the photos how the Zimmerbuilt pocket attaches – but it says it’s for a shoulder strap – so not sure it would work well with a fanny pack?

The 1 liter Zimmerbuilt water pocket shows the back. There’s just a strap sewn on in a couple spots. On those it looks like you can slide the belt through. I checked last night and my 1″ belt for my Vespa didn’t fit my older ZB pockets, but from the pictures, it looks like he changed the design. Contact him. He used to be very responsive.

Zimmerbuilt 1 liter

A half pack with removable shoulder straps I had made for my granddaughter.

Yea Aaron, that bottle holder looks almost exactly like the 1 liter by Outdoor Products. I’ve found that anything over 650 ml simply becomes a little too much for a waist belt. I’ve tried it many different ways such as the pic below with a 1L bottle holder and an attached zip pouch to 2″ wide nylon belt. The way I have it set is decent because the bottle rides on the cleft of the glutes, but any kind of really fast moving will cause it to flop around.

I get that you want 5L plus volume though. I’d add smaller pouches to an angled 22 fl oz water belt and also pair that up with a 3L shoulder sling pack. Might sound kooky, but it works great. Place the shoulder sling with lighter items on opposite side of your body from water bottle. Not like a backpack, super easy to take on and off and as long a you don’t get too heavy it rides very smooth. But I personally find all fanny packs over 2L and/or 2.5 lb payload suck, even though there are a lot of options.

In

Sierra designs Lumbar pack….has bottle holsters on both sides and is a fanny pack. You can also buy several from Amazon real cheap.

A bouncing bottle (dangling holder or stretch pockets) is distracting.

When needed I use one fanny in front and a second in back with the water in the main compartment.

The Decathlon 2L fanny pack is 1.6 oz & adds no weight burden.  This set up doesn’t impede gait.   No big difference in managing sweat

Something to consider with a fanny pack with integrated bottle pockets is the tendency for the heavy bottle to want to rotate to the back. I had a running dual-bottle pack which slowly orbited my waist as one bottle got heavier.

Good price on the Decathlon.

I think I need something more robust. I think I can get the Vice Versa for when I just need to carry my phone (and am moving fast and don’t want it swinging/weighing in a pocket). But then I need something else for when I need to bring a couple of liters of water, a jacket (which could be packed or could be strapped on; ideally there could even be elastic cord webbing on the back that you could stuff a jacket into, but I’m not really seeing that anywhere) and/or other layering, a day-hike’s worth of food, etc. (and don’t want a backpack). So probably would want a wider belt, for example, that would be more comfortable with that weight. And still not sure how best to attach the 2L of water. :)

>Good price on the Decathlon.

Their merino is itchy and their rain overmitts can spring a leak if submerged (but the price is incredible), but everything else I’ve tried has been good durable gear that gets a lot of use (wool hat, gloves, jacket, fleece top/pants, boots, fanny pack, sleep mask…).  While not UL, definitely light for the price

If you’re determined to carry 2L of water on a waist belt, then the way to go is with a (light aftermarket) Army canteen belt. The one in the pic weighs 9.6 oz total with just one 32 oz canteen, but then you could simply buy another canteen with holder (3.2 oz) to add to it. The flatter canteen bottles will ride against the body 10 times better than round 1 liter Nalgenes. And of course there are endless choices of storage pouches you can add to the belt. To drop weight you could replace the belt with 2″ wide nylon but it would require some DIY skills to install small gromets on nylon belt so as to mount canteens properly. Just go to amazon.com and you’ll see many options.

Mountainsmith

MountainSmith does make nice lumbar packs. I’ve got a 13L Day, which works as a day pack. I use the optional shoulder straps. For my long torso, it works better than most soft backpacks/rucksacks because the weight goes on the well-built belt. They also make smaller lumbar packs.

Radical Design makes even larger lumbar packs — with frames!

Timmermade has some UL concepts in belt-packs.

I have this one from Montbell , unfortunately the price has gone up, it was dirt cheap when I bought from the Japan site  prior to the website changes.

Anyway the bottle holder is adjustable and on its widest settings it does just fit a Nalgene bottle but personally I always use one of my soft bottles with it and it has worked well . It has a mesh cell phone pocket and another smaller mesh pocket that would accommodate car keys and/or a protein bar or two. If I need more a little more room than that I sometimes throw on another small fanny pack but usually just take my running vest pack or day pack in that case.

https://www.montbell.com/us/en/products/detail/1133334

I have one of these (with the bottle holder accessory):

https://www.packnw.com/all-products/ridgeline-roll-top

Many of the recommended waist packs look nice Aaron, but if you try to load them with 4.4 lbs of water (2 liters) and a pound or two of other gear, misery will ensue in short order. And every inch out away from the body the mass is placed, the more flopping around you’ll get.

Of all the waist packs I’ve seen, the one I’d attempt to achieve your goal would be the OMM Waistbelt 6L, and that’s because it surrounds at least 65% % of the body and allows you to distribute the payload around a much longer base. The supplied bottle is 500 ml, but you could add another 500 ml bottle to each side pocket and probably get a decent ride. Would total 1.5 ml. You’d have to look for 500 ml side water bottles or bags that are shorter and wider, such as the smallest Gatorade bottles. Pack weighs 8 oz. https://ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/waistbelt-6l/

You might even consider laying a 750 ml bottle horizontally inside of the larger back pocket, That would distribute the weight more evenly and give you 1.75 liters..

OMM Waistbelt 6 actually weighs 10.9 oz with bottle. Also I meant to write 1.5 L in above post and not 1.5 ml.

Many of the recommended waist packs look nice Aaron, but if you try to load them with 4.4 lbs of water (2 liters) and a pound or two of other gear, misery will ensue in short order.

The good ones don’t do that.

MountainSmith’s, for example, ride like a backpack — just with optional shoulder straps. That’s because the belts are essentially identical to a backpack belt. I routinely carry 20 lbs (10 kg) in mine, without noticing it.

Similarly, my old North Face fanny pack holds about 10L and rides just fine. It, too, has a nice wide belt. It does work better with short, wide, bottles shaped like Nalgenes rather than tall SmartWater bottles.

Military LBE (Load Bearing Equipment) belts/harnesses are designed to carry much heavier stuff than water.

Dan Timmerman (Timmermade) runs with his belt packs.

Flimsy packs on narrow belts roll and flop and don’t work well, exactly as you describe. Tall bottles are better on shoulders due to their length (and the ability to connect at top and bottom).

The clips that I showed in my first post don’t flop at all, because they are attached at the top. For running/scrambling, it’s easy to add a loop or pocket at the bottom, as I said.

Like your OMM belt, the good ones don’t tend to be featherweight. If you don’t suspend (or balance) the weight from the top, then the pack needs to be stiff.

But well-designed lumbar packs are just that: well-designed.

These were set up to use HMG belts.