One Pound Frame Pack

Lightweight Internal Frame Packs: a State of the Market Report – Part 1A: Testing Overview and List of Packs Tested – Backpacking Light

There wasn’t a single pack tested in Roger’s article from 2010 (above) that exceeded 1300 cubic inches per pound of empty-pack- weight..  The 1 pound frame pack posted here has 4000 cubic inches per pound of empty-pack-weight.  Am I reading this correctly?  I knew my pack was light but this difference seems too extreme.  I must be missing something.

Hi Daryl

Yes, you may be missing a bit. The packs tested were all commercial products available to the general public. They would have to be slightly more rugged if the vendor does not want to be inundated with warranty claims.

Whether the pack described here would even be taken on by a retailer – I suspect not.

Cheers

Roger,

Your explanation makes sense.

Make Your Own Gear allows one to make gear that is good enough for the user but not everyone.  I only include the features that I want and I don’t need to beef it up to protect it from the abusive/careless user..

My pack has no pockets, isn’t waterproof, and isn’t attractive.  When I wear it to buy groceries people often think I’m homeless.  I’ve been waved in to the free church dinner a couple of times.

So the pack works for me and my wife but I need to remind myself that it is just a pillow case hanging from some sticks.

WARNING

I suggest you only consider building and using this pack, or one like it, if you are ready for the trials, tribulations and uncertainties of home made gear.  This pack has worked for my wife and me but I don’t know if it, or one like it, would work for you.

And things can and do break.  Both of the vertical spars on my wife’s pack frame broke at once, in the airport, on a trip to New Zealand.  She had to repair it in New Zealand.  The struts on the pack posted here are stronger and it has been years since I had an item fail but you never know for sure and things do wear out.

On the other hand it can be fun fooling around on the bleeding edge of technology.

it is just a pillow case hanging from some sticks.
Cackle.
But if it works (for you), then it is not stupid.

free church dinner
Actually, a bit sad as a society if that is needed.

Cheers

Daryl,

I asked about your front bag because your method of hanging it – from the load-lifters – was a revelation to me. Very smart to hang it at the furthest points on the frame from the axis of fore/aft rotation at the back of the hipbelt. Very little weight is needed in a front bag when hung from the load-lifters to prevent backward lean of the main packbag.

Normally, that backward lean is countered by hunching our shoulders forward; and where the shoulders go, the neck goes. The fact that you don’t even need your shoulder straps when using your front bag suggests a great postural gain from such a simple design strategy. In my opinion, your pack with front bag might offer the highest ergonomic/weight ratio in the backpack universe;)

Stumphges,

My experience with the front bag has been very positive.  It only takes about 5 pounds in the front bag to make a big difference balance wise.

I also made a pack for a friend of mine who has a phd in physics.  He calculated that about 5 pounds is all that would be needed to balance the back pull of the pack.  I don’t know how he calculated that and I’m more into actual experience.  Found it interesting, however, that we came to the same conclusion with two different methods.

There was a paper looking at using front bags to balance backpacks for school age children. They measured postural distortion in different conditions and found that a front bag at the chest weighing 50% of the backpack eliminated distortion. Had they hung the bags from the load lifters (and of course there were none) they could have used even less.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Oh-Yun-Kwon/publication/5367037_Changes_in_neck_muscle_electromyography_and_forward_head_posture_of_children_when_carrying_schoolbags/links/00463519eb5f0116cf000000/Changes-in-neck-muscle-electromyography-and-forward-head-posture-of-children-when-carrying-schoolbags.pdf

Stumphges,

Thanks for the child pack study.  Interesting.  I see kids in my hood walking to and from school with those packs filled.  They look heavy.

With the younger, shorter kids the day packs, proportional to their height, look like full size packs on adults.

“When asked where to buy tubing for the top bar of the frame my answer has been “I don’t know”.  I have always used tubing I have collected over the last 45 years.

To improve upon this useless answer I just ordered some tubing from tentpoletechnologies.com.

Will see if this works.  Stay tuned.”

Well the pole arrived and it fits perfectly.  Very tight.  Easton .625 diameter 7075-T9 18″

Can be cut/shortened for any size cross bar.

Photos are from my recent expedition to Safeway.  This 30 pound load is typical for these expeditions.

Hi Daryl

Chuckle. Reminds me of when our car broke down and we had trouble getting a replacement part for it. Once a week Sue & I took the early morning bus to the shops with empty packs, and came back an hour later with full ones.

Cheers