Tutorial: How to Adapt a Smaller Shoulder Harness to Seek Outside's Backpacks

[Valerie E]

I bought a Seek Outside Unaweep Divide 4500 backpack, and (not surprisingly) the shoulder harness was FAR too wide and long for my female 5’5″ short-torso’ed frame.  [This was also the case for a Six Moon Designs Fusion I purchased, and I adapted a women’s Osprey to fit the Fusion.]

I decided to post the tutorial in case anyone with narrow shoulders was considering a Unaweep (but decided against it because of the wide harness).  With a similar adapter, you can use any harness you like…

The Divide retro-fit was going to be tricky because the attachment system for the shoulder harness necessitated a certain width of the harness.  I decided to use a Deuter Slim Line (SL) harness, because I know that they fit me perfectly.

Since the width of the Deuter harness was a few inches narrower than the Divide’s attachment profile, I decided that the best approach would be to create and “adapter panel”, which would attach to the Divide exactly as the original harness had done, but would also allow me to attach my SL harness to the back of the pack.

Materials:  Nylon (mid-weight) fabric, triglides and 1″ webbing (supplied by pack manufacturer), .20 sheet styrene, 1/2″ wide plastic stiffener, grosgrain ribbon, and thin foam (for padding).

Cut cut 2 identical adapter panels, wide enough to carry the triglides that attach to the Divide.  Below is the basic adapter panel, with the triglides and webbing already sewn on.

On the second adapter panel, sew the webbing to which the Deuter harness attaches onto the right side of fabric; then sew a “channel” out of grosgrain (I used pink for visibility) into which your stiffener will slide.  

Attach a styrene sheet (or plastic sheet — any type of stiffener you have on hand) to the wrong side of one of your panels.  Slide the 1/2″ wide plastic stiffener into the channel, and tuck the excess grosgrain back into the channel.  Attach thin foam to the wrong side of the other panel.

Sandwich the two panels together, and sew the grosgrain (neatly pressed in half) along the edges of the panels, sealing them together.  Attach the adapter to the Divide, using the same method as the original harness, then attach the Deuter harness to the adapter.  Voila.

 

[alan genser]

since no one has lauded your efforts, let me say; that’s slick as slug snot.

[Stuart .]

Valerie / @wildtowner, I’m considering the Divide myself, for family sherpa expeditions and winter trips. What was it about the Divide that worked for you, and made you decide it was worth replacing the harness altogether?

[Valerie E]

Stuart — for me “the holy grail” of packs is a rain-proof UL pack that can handle a wide range of weights comfortably.

I don’t do many short trips, and I try to get out for a multi-week trip each summer.  Inevitably, on a long trip, you’ll encounter conditions where you must carry 5L of water for a day or two, along with 6 days of food.  That’s really heavy (beyond the max. of standard UL packs), and I hate having that much discomfort periodically throughout my trip.  Plus, I am often carrying a bear canister, which adds an extra couple of pounds and is bulky, too! But I don’t want to carry a 6lb pack, just because my loads will be heavy 20% of the time… enter the Divide (I hope).

The consensus on Seek Outside’s packs is that they handle heavy (up to 60lb) loads really well.  I can’t even lift 60lbs, but occasionally I’ll have about 40lb (if I’m doing a water cache, or a long water carry far from a resupply point).  By the time I’m a day or two from my next resupply, my pack will only weigh about 20lbs (incl. food & water), but I want a pack that’s comfortable ALL the time, not just when my load is minimal.

I have a 300 mile trip coming up soon, and I’m hoping that the Divide will be the pack that I’ve been looking for.  It has all the basic features I want: water”proof”-ness, mesh back pocket, good waterbottle pockets, reasonable weight. (It lacks hipbelt pockets, but I got one from Chris Zimmer.)  Based on the pack’s reputation, I felt it was worth spending a few hours figuring out how to make a substitute for the “guy-harness”, which stuck out over the ends of my shoulders (!).  If it turns out not to be comfortable for me, I can always sell it, and the new owner can purchase a brand new harness from Seek Outside.  But I’m hoping that I’ve finally found my “holy grail”… :^)

Edited to add:  In reference to Dave’s post, below — good idea, and I’d probably save an ounce, but for now, I’m keeping the Deuter harness intact so that I can still use it with my MYOG pack (built on a Deuter back panel).

[David Chenault]

Missed this last month, nice work! It might have been simpler, and certainly lighter, to cut the individual straps off the Deuter harness and sew them to a bit of fabric thus making a Seek Outside copy with different dimensions. I like my straps to be a bit more angled than Seek Outside, and I’ve made a harness for use on my Revolution frame. Of course, this requires permanently altering the harness, and getting the angles exactly right and symmetrical is a bit nerve wracking at first.

[Curt Peterson]

Any pics of your mods, Dave? I’ve copied Valerie’s concept (nice work, by the way!) in case I am going to need to modify the stock harness. I’m anticipating the stock harness will have the opposite problem for me – too small. I have a couple ideas on how to use my favorite shoulder straps with this setup, but I’m definitely interested in what others are doing with success.

Just ordered my first Unaweep a couple days after a year of trying to decide how I wanted it configured and my usage. Pretty excited!

[emily s]

hi valerie!

thanks for the great tutorial and info on this mod. super smart! i sent you a PM with a question about it :)

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