I really want to modify my Zpacks Hipbelt Pockets

LOL, thanks Gary, and that’s quite an honor coming from you!

As a fellow MYOGer you know, when a project catches my fancy I just…….can’t……….let………….go!!

However, I would not say this is the only way to do it. It would be cool to see somebody else come at it from a totally different angle. If this didn’t work, there’s no doubt I would try something else — I had some other ideas queued up just in case.

Gary, When it comes to MYOG, doesn’t everyone want to be more like Bob?

Bob,Given that you already have these “other ideas queued up”, do you think you can actually let it go?  Don’t you really want to share?  :)

Well, this really is some piddling stuff compared to the guys and gals who make their own sleeping bags and their own shelters Etc. Makes me want to learn how to sew!

More later on the alternative ideas. I’m out doing some honey do stuff today.

Not having modified the hip belt pouches, I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but I can see how a similar addition to Zpack’s shoulder pouches may be useful, too. I keep a camera lens in one and find it a little fumbly since the pouch doesn’t stand open very well. A zip tie hoop near the top of the pouch might be worth a try.

Shawn, in that case it might be better to use a 20-oz water bottle with the top and bottom cut off, inserted as a ‘sleeve’ into the shoulder pocket. What makes that pocket a bit annoying is the elastic cord in the small outside mesh pocket.

I’m out the door in a few minutes to hike — checking back in tomorrow evening.

Bob, I hope you had a good hike.

<span style=”line-height: 1.8;”>That’s an excellent idea. I can think of a few bottles that might work well. A polycarbonate liner and some padding in the bottom should keep my smaller lenses happy. </span>

Terrific!  have you tried putting the reinforcement in the inside of the bag?

Art

Hi, Art,

I’m not exactly sure to which post you’re referring, but in my previous photos the pocket is turned inside-out to tape in the zip ties and then back outside-out for normal usage, so yes, the reinforcement ends up on the inside.

I did a quick overnighter yesterday and this morning (back early so my heat-intolerant pooch doesn’t suffer in the heat today!). It was the first actual trip where the modified pocket was used and I am quite happy with its function.

Sorry, you are way ahead of me.  i did not follow the pictures as well as I should have. i see now that everything is on the inside.  Brilliant.

Art

Your video is way funky, Bob. I have to go out and buy some zip ties now. Or, maybe I could use some scrap titanium rods…?

That’s…not a bad idea either….using wire…though …it would cost more, and it would also weigh more…

Hey Gary, you know how I wasn’t cheating? — I was holding the phone cam with the other hand, lol!

Perhaps there are more ways to do it. I don’t have stash of Ti wire, so I await your experiments with that material. Maybe somebody who’s really good with a sewing machine could do some sort of zig-zag stitching over a plastic stiffener.

@JCH above… I thought also (credit to the other person who mentioned the plastic cutting boards) about using a piece of plastic on the perimeter — with and without some sort of glue, such as 3M Super 77 — to shape the pocket, and also some of my silicone strips with 3M adhesive on the back, although those would need to be much wider and heavier than zippies. And also looking at the vectors of the zipping action, perhaps a V- or delta-shaped plastic support running from the bottom center of the pockets to the corners (sort of a slimmed-down version of Dan’s cardboard tests above).

But I stopped at the zippies+CF tape because this gets it done with minimal engineering. ;^)

Bob, I have some more cuben tape on order and will be making this customization…your vid sealed the deal :)

Bob, thanks for the video. You’re making it difficult to put this project off.  : )

Shawn I think you’re going to like it.

I’m very much looking forward to some pics of your shoulder pocket mod for the lens. I’d give that a whirl myself but I don’t really need that capability.

Ok…my original post was talking about modifying zpacks hipbelt pockets. Well….I have some more to modify.

I was graciously given the same hipbelt pockets shown in this review ->

https://backpackinglight.com/zpacks_dyneema_x26/#.VQJQ-YY8LCR

Zpacks basically stuck a dyneema drawstring stuff sack as a hipbelt pocket. They were given to me…because…well…they were awful. The drawstring was super hard to use and very hard to actually close decently b/c the dyneema is too stiff. And, it would leave a hole at the top no matter what. Thankfully zpacks fixed the problem and no longer offer this style. Again, its just a stuff sack with two loops of grosgrain sewn on the back so you can attach it just like any of the other zpacks hipbelt pockets.

So…again…wanting one handed operation hipbelt pockets, I thought about the best way to handle it. My first solution…is to use some pin buttons that I got from Enlightened equipment. They put them on elastic grosgrain, though it wouldn’t have been my first choice for this project (normal thin grosgrain would have been fine).

Now, I should have taken a picture of this, but I also added a stiffener to the drawstring channel…for half the length of it. I took one of my 14″ zipties (used in the mods shown earlier in this thread), cut it in half, taped them together with tape, and stuffed that in the drawstring channel. Now…when its closed, the top half has a stiffener so it keeps the fabric more or less flat (otherwise, the ends would flare up and be open.

Here is a quick vid of it in action ->

https://goo.gl/photos/voAZSKCEZ3nqu2LF8

Of course, this was more of a proof of concept..if I kept tweaking the placement of the push pin or cut away fabric from the drawstring channel that wasn’t being used, I think it would work “cleaner”.

I’m not saying these are better than zpack’s pockets, just different. They would be easier to make though…there are plenty of stuff sack templates out there so can be done yourself much easier than making something like zpack’s pockets. For people that absolutely hate zippers, its an option.

Well, I had some leftover cuben tape and zip ties and after seeing Bob’s results I decided to try this mod.  It came out a bit sloppy IMO, but works great.  1 Cuben pocket done, 1 cuben + 2 dyneema pockets to go…

Thanks Bob!

Drew, I also found there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to doing it neatly. That tape can be quite tricky to handle in longer lengths.

But when you turn it back outside-out the boo-boos all disappear anyway. ;^) Yours looks super!

Got my cuben tape recently and just did my two hip belt pockets (hybrid cuben). Works perfectly.Thanks everyone for sharing what you did, made this really easy. To build on the ideas discussed here, some things that made it go smoothly for me:

• I used a thin strip of the cuben tape as you showed, Bob, to center the zip tie, that really helped.
• One order of cuben repair tape from Zpacks is exactly enough to do two pouches. After snipping 4 thin strips the cuben tape is about 52″, cut into 4 long strips of 13″ each is exactly what you need (one 13″ strip for each side of the zipper of one pouch, so 4 such strips for 2 pouches).
• Looks like I got the same zip ties as you did Bob (Home Depot?), and those are ribbed on one side and smooth on the other. I put the smooth side facing up to adhere to the cuben tape, as someone said earlier I think the smooth side will adhere better giving it more surface area.
• You definitely want to fill out the pouch from the inside to hold the pouch in the squared-off shape it was built into. I used two unused kitchen sponges on the bottom and then 4 Jell-O boxes on top of that to fill out the inside and give it squared edges and corners to hold the pouch’s shape. It wasn’t a perfect fit but worked well.
• I marked the centerpoint of everything and lined it up easily, working from the center out. A silver Sharpie mark on the center of the pouch, another silver sharpie mark on the center of the zip tie. and a black sharpie mark on the center of the 13″ long strip of cuben tape.
• After affixing the zip tie, I peeled half of the 13″ strip of tape, until it was just past the halfway point I marked earlier. I then cut the backing off of this so it wouldn’t get in the way, leaving half of the 13″ strip peeled and half unpeeled. This allowed me to manage the cuben tape easily as I did one side at a time without the tape for the other side being exposed. Once half was affixed I peeled and affixed the other half.
• With the pouch turned inside out, the zipper pulls are now on the “inside”, it’s a little tricky to get the zippers closed but you do want to do that so that the pouch holds its squared-off shape. I also found it a bit of a challenge to try to line up and affix the tape on the same size that the zippers were, so whichever side I was going to work on I first moved the zippers to the other side so that the line along the zipper on the size I was working on was straight.
• To tie down the little grosgrain loops at the end of the zippers I just used the same little piece of Z-line that has the mini cord lock on it intended to hold the pouch to the belt. I took off the cord lock (saving back a bit of the tiny amount of weight this mod added) untied the cord, and looped it thought both loops on the pouch and then through an attachment point on the belt and re-tied it.
• My earlier question about whether there would be any issues using the cuben tape with a hybrid cuben pouch was not that I wondered if the tape would stick to the inner cuben, I knew it would do that, but since the fabric is “floppier” than the gridstop I wondered if it would be harder to work with to get the tape on straight. Filling the pouch to get its squared-off shape takes care of that issue.

Thanks all, this is one of those little things that makes life on the trail just a little bit easier, I appreciate it!

Adding another big “Heck Yeah!” vote.  Just completed this mod on the DyneemaX pockets on my Arc Haul. Followed Mr. Moulder’s instruction to the letter. Easy Peasy, and everything works perfectly.

I simply ran the stock cord-and-lock attachment system through the end of zipper tabs, i.e. the cord goes through the pocket attachment loop, then through the belt attachment loop, then through the end of zipper loop then around the cord lock. Hope that makes sense.  Works the charm.

I assume ZPacks has seen this thread…I wonder how long before they incorporate this design mod into their production? :)

To give an update, I finally received my order from zpacks so I just finished modding 4 hipbelt pockets.

I did try not tying the end zipper loop to the hipbelt…and did notice that it was better than when I used duct tape instead of CF tape, but, it still wasn’t sufficient for one handed operation. The zipper loop was still necessary.

And…I know that I bought those kydex strips “for science” to test them out…but when it came down to it, I chickened out and just used the zipties. The width of the kydex strips discouraged me…I wanted as much adhesion as possible on the mod. And since the really thin kydex didn’t seem any stiffer than zipties, I didn’t see any benefit.

Now….I could use even thicker kydex, but that would add more weight, and a lot more hassle, but if it was stiff enough, it could make it so tying the end zipper loop to the hipbelt unnecessary. That would be ideal…b/c I do notice that the pocket becomes a bit “compressed” since the middle of the pocket side is now cinched somewhat tightly to the hipbelt, so its not as “roomy” as before.

@hjuan99 – The advantage I discovered by using the stock attachment cord and just routing it through the end zipper loop as well is that it is easily adjustable. Slacken it off when I want to fill the pocket, or cinch it up to compress the pocket…compression straps for the pocket!

Yep…I did the same thing when reattaching my hipbelt pockets this time…just used the same original loop.

I can “uncompress” the loop, but if I do it too much my ability to close the zipper gets hindered.

I mentioned 36″ cable ties earlier. If more rigidity is desired, I think they’re worth a look. Check in the Electrical & HVAC sections of your local home store. They’re also pretty handy for other jobs.

Shawn, please do try it with those and let us know how it works.

And also the lens pocket with the shoulder pouch.

@jringeorgia yep my zippies were some off-brand that I got in a local hardware store and not the GE brand I normally use, and they were not smooth on one side. However, the way the tape ‘captures’ them I think they’ll work okay… so far fine, anyway.

@pastyj-2-2 hey, mate, I think yer gonna love ’em, lol! The most usage I’ve got on any one pouch is about 10 days (incl dayhikes and 2-3 overnighters) but I’ve made it a point to give them more than normal use with no problems thus far. What we need is for some thru-hikers to field test it. Maybe Joe V will pass around a few to his buddies in Scotland if they go there again this year.