MYOG hip belt questions

[MTN]

First I will preface that I like having one pack that can manage 2 night hiking trips to ski trips. I made a few packs from DP fabrics that decent loads but I use granite gear hip belt and osprey shoulder straps. When I was making these packs I always imagined that those two parts required engineering that was beyond me. Besides, I’ve always liked the Granite Gear hip belt. It is very well cushioned. My hips have never been sore, and that is after solo winter camping and having to carry my cross country skis and gear with it. That said I would like to venture to make my own hip belt with pockets sewn in. The most helpful post was from 12 years ago. I am wondering what folks are doing these days.

What foam should I use? I have the REI blue camp foam but I was wondering if I should use something denser. Do folks double up on the foam?

Should I use a plastic stiffener to distribute the weight? What plastic do people use? and what design?

I realize that most folks might think this is overkill but sometimes my base weight cannot be ultralight.

thanks

[Jerry Adams]

My pack is max weight 23 pounds or so

I use 1/4 or 3/8 inch closed cell foam.  Like the blue foam from rei

200D fabric.  Sew 3d mesh on one side because it feels better against skin.  Then sew the 200D into a tube.  Put the foam inside the tube.  Sew a row of stitches through 3d mesh, 200D, foam, 200D to keep the foam from moving inside the tube.

Sew 1 inch webbing on both ends and to the buckle.

Sew the hip belt to the pack.

This is pretty basic, probably some better way to do this.  There are other threads and articles about this

[Paul McLaughlin]

Foam – blue foam can be many things; al ot of the cheap blue stuff is polyethylene foam, whihc doe not hold up for long under the kind of compression a hipbelt gets. It i’s EVA foam, that good stuff. The polyethylene usually looks like it has a sort of skin on each face, usually shiny, and rather large open bubbles. EVA does not generally have a skin, and is very fine grained. You can get some dood foam from OWF, what they refer to as FY20, in various thicknesses. I’ve used it for a number of belts with good results; in 1/4″ fro my summer pack whihc handles up to about the high 20’s, and thicker for bigger laods. I have one pack with 3/8″ FY20 and 3dmesh on the inside of the belt, and I find that pretty luxurious at 30 lbs.

I have never used stiffeners, and I don’t think they are needed if your belt is shaped well. I make mine as conical sections, so the top is smaller than the bottom when wrapped around the hips, and I think that helps quite a bit. With thanks to Dan McHale, I use double buckles (both 1″) on my wider belts intended for heavier loads, and I think that helps fine tune the fit for good weight distrubution. Mostly I have used textured fabrics on the inside face of the belt – light cordura. The 3d mesh is nice, but heavy; maybe worth it for a pack intended for heavy loads, but not need for light packs meant for loads in the 20’s. I think I have posted more details in the past about my belts, so you may be able to find some more info.

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