Replace backpack hip belt with another brand?

This probably won’t be relevant but my old Mystery Ranch pack used hard plastic stiffeners in its hipbelt which sucked because it dug into my hip flesh so I cut off the plastic wings (see pic) and slid in an old and much more comfy Kelty hipbelt back behind the MR’s lumbar pad—works great.

Here are the hateful stiff hipbelt wings on the Mystery Ranch pack—after getting cut off.

I bought a Camelbak camouflage hunting backpack (3,500 cu. in.) that had a wimpy plastic “frame sheet” and an unpadded fabric waist belt.

MY MODS:

1. add two 1″ wide, pre-curved aluminum stays (from Lowe’s) and a connecting top 1″ bar with stainless bolts through the fabric and plastic frame sheet using s.s. washers and Nyloc nuts.
2. cut off cloth waist belt
3. seam rip the vertical seams on each side of the lumbar pad and have shoe repair shop bar tack the upper corners of the lumbar pad to help transfer weight from the pack to the new REI Ridgeline padded hip belt
4. slide REI aftermarket padded hip belt in behind the lumbar pad and buckle on the hip side straps to (thankfully) existing plastic ladder buckles on the pack
5. Luckily the REI belt had no padding in the center area that was exactly the width of the Camelbak lumbar pad! The fit is perfect. Also this new belt had “pull-to-center” style belt webbing for easy tightening.

Now I have a pack whose weight is transferred to my hip belt and thus to my hips. Great for back country skiing W/ emergency overnight gear and mainly used for training hikes with 30+ pounds of weight. Used 3 – 5 times per week for training hikes for the past 6 years and still going strong!

REI sells a number of hip belts, including Ospreys. Some can be bought a little cheaper on E-Bay.

https://www.rei.com/c/hip-belts?ir=category%3Apack-accessories&r=category%3Apack-accessories%7Chip-belts&origin=web

Thanks everyone for chiming in. @Tipiwalter, that belt looks super comfy. Well done. @scfhome (Sam), those are two of the belts I was looking at. I think the REI belt is similar to the one they use on their new/improved Flash packs, which I recently tried on and it was very comfortable.</div>

Thanks again, guys!

-Michael