Trousers/backpack waist belt

I wear a nylon belt on my pants, hasn’t bothered me so far.

I had a pair of Railriders with nylon web belt that fit me strangely and kept being pulled down when I wore a pack. With many other brands and a nylon web belt (Ex Officio, OR, Arcteryx, Mtn HW, REI, etc), I have not had that problem.

I would say try clip on suspenders or try a different pair of trousers.

I’ve always struggled with this issue. A couple of things I do to mitigate discomfort are to make sure the pants waist is close to my size so there isn’t too much material to bunch up, and wear spandex underwear with a wide waist band. Road cycling shorts can work well too as most of them don’t have waist bands.

I wear tights. No belt needed.

I ended up using shorts with the integrated nylon belt attachment. The belt only goes partway from each side of the front of the short. So no added extra bulk on the side of my hips and lower back where the pack would previously dig into the belt. Ended up cutting off the integrated belt because the shorts fit me so well. It was redundant to have. Tried the full nylon belt before that and still was too much bulk for me in that area.

I don’t use a belt but don’t have waistband “scrunching” problems.  I hike them up (pun intended) and cinch my pack hip belt.  The shorts are sized to my waist but after a few days they loosen a little or a lot  depending on calorie deficiencies for the trip.

If it gets too loose I use a small piece of guy line on the two front belt loops.  Just loop it through and tie a bow.   Looks funny without the pack on but I don’t really care.  Function over form is my MO in the backcountry.

My wife and I have coined a phase/word that refers to seams and belts lining-up underneath ones backpack waist belt: Toxic seam alignment, or “toxi-seam-ia”

A few years ago, Dave Chenault posted this on his blog, an MYOG solution of sewing the waistband of some board shorts to his favorite pants. A little while later, I happened across a secondhand pair of exactly the same, but factory-made– Patagonia’s “Board Pants” (as opposed to board shorts–no idea of the real name). They are awesome: adjustable, yet super low-profile under a hipbelt, with no belt loops.

If you search for Patagonia nylon pants on eBay and just look for this kind of closure on the thumbnail pics, you can find them from time to time. Like this one (not mine, not affiliated with seller).

I don’t get sore spots (North Face Paramount pants) but the partial nylon belt they use in those pants does loosen up under my pack’s waistbelt, which means my pants gradually (over a couple hours) get pulled down as I walk. Used to be annoying but now I’m accustomed to it. I bought a new pack this year (an Ark Haul), and I’m wondering if the Arc Haul’s two-strap waistbelt will have the same pull-down effect. I’ll be backpacking next month so it won’t be long before I know.

When I hiked the PCT I used a piece of shock cord and cord lock as a belt. This (along with not buttoning them) allowed for faster removal of my pants. And it was comfortable.

Back in my army days we would eschew a separate belt and just put the pack hip belt through the first two belt loops in our pants.  There was then no podssibility of the waist of our pants falling lower than the pack belt – but our pants had very wide belt loops.

So, you could sew wide loops into the waist seam of your pants and do away with a belt altogether as well as the oroblem of drooping pants – use the pack belt to keep your pants up.

I’ll have to try that Sean. Thanks.