MYOG Pack — Modified Ray Way design in white VX07

MYOG Pack — Modified Ray-Way design in white VX07

Hey all,

Wanted to share my most recent build, and my first pack. Hopefully this will be of interest to all the followers of the prophet Jardine out there. I purchased his Ray Way pack kit, size 2200ci, large shoulder straps in blk/grey/grey and made a version of it using his plans with some tweaked features. The finished pack weighs 12.1oz (need to get a photo on the scale later).

1. Made the whole pack body out of white VX07 I had on hand. I did use the grey pack front panel material provided (coated ripstop nylon) for the extension collar, and I used the provided material for making the straps.
2. Added a small mesh pocket (low stretch) to the left shoulder strap. This is a perfect fit for sunglasses, chapstick, sunscreen, trash or a bar. Ray/Jenny’s strap design doesn’t leave much room for pockets.
3. Angled the side pockets to allow for access with the pack on.
4. Added a bunch of grossgrain loops to the backpanel for shock cord lashing.
5. Substituted the two non-adjustable grossgrain straps on the sides for a single row of grossgrain loops. Pictured, I have it set up with a simple shock cord tensioner.
6. Simple roll down closure, no draw string as in Ray/Jenny’s design.
7. Different top strap (no V on the front panel side, combo haul loop/top strap on the back panel side)

I found the instructions very clear and thorough. I used MARA 70 thread and a microtex needle. The whole build took about 30hrs, but that included the time designing the additional features. If I were to do it again, I could do it in 15hrs or less. I think the most tedious and difficult portion of the build was the shoulder straps, once you finish those the larger panels come together quite quickly and the pack starts to take shape. All in all I’d highly recommend this kit as an intro to pack making — I feel it gave me a really solid basis for what I’d change in the future and how I’d approach pack design.

Looks great, especially for your first MHOG pack. How did you attach the shoulder straps to the upper back panel?

Thanks, Lester!  By the way, I still love the pack you sold me back in March!  Your gear is an inspiration.

In Ray’s design the shoulder strap is built around a continuous webbing that is a 1.5″ grossgrain daisy chain attached to 3/4″ webbing running down to the adjuster buckle.  The foam casing is attached via the daisy chain sewing.  The grossgrain has excess that is sewn to the main back panel, with rectangular reinforcement patches on the interior and exterior faces of the back panel.  The grossgrain webbing feeds through the most exterior reinforcement through a slit which is sewn around to restrain fraying.

Looks good! I like the use of the lighter nylon for the extension collar…something you sometimes see on mountaineering style internal frame packs but for some reason rarely on ultralight packs? Makes plenty of sense to me.

Thanks, Adam.  I think the nylon I used and Ray provides is a 70D coated nylon ripstop like this:

http://www.owfinc.com/19oz-Silicone-Ripstop-Blk/productinfo/RIPC1.9BLKSIL/

I’d definitely consider using again for this purpose, since it can roll a bit tighter and less bulky than the VX07 or hybrid DCF and appears plenty weather-resistant.

Nice looking pack, well done

I just make the extension collar out of the same fabric, vx07 or whatever.  Any weight savings is negligible.  It’s probably more waterproof to just have the same fabric, no extra seam there.

I made a pack from 1.9oz silnylon, from owfinc.  Not really strong enough but I used it for a couple seasons.  Not the most waterproof.

That looks really slick and has given me some good ideas for when I start working on  my own Ray Way backpacking kit.  How much weight do you think came from using VX07 vs the provided fabrics?