Made from 1 running yard of 1.44 ounce per square yard Sil Nylon 2nds I found several years ago. The main body of the pack has a 2750 cu in capacity.

I added an Ion type like zipped lid instead of an extension collar as well .... and I like how it turned out.

Still playing with the compression system.

Edited by flash582 on 06/14/2008 20:34:22 MDT.

Mark,

VERY nice pack!!!!!!

Love the ripstop sofa, too:)

Todd

Very nice -- love the zipper top(!) -- but aren't you going to show us the backside -- straps and all?

A few more pictures to tantalize .....

Edited by flash582 on 06/14/2008 21:03:07 MDT.

Great work Mark

Looking good. What kind of foam (any?) did you use for the shoulder straps? I'd love to know how the string works instead of webbing to connect the straps to the body.

Edited by willspower3 on 06/15/2008 09:35:16 MDT.

The cord is Spectra cord and I tie a type of Prussic knot to make it adjustable when there is no load on the pack. A Prussic knot is a type of friction hitch, the simplest friction hitch is to tie half an overhand knot then tie a half hitch over the back of the knot.

Wikipedeia has a great discussion of prussics if you're interested.

Remember ... this pack is for 20 lbs or less .... so it's not that hard to adjust. Pull down on the strap itself to relieve the load on that side of the pack then slide the knot where ever you'd like.

Simple and effective.

The cord is passed through sewn in loops of grosgrain webbing. The only question in my mind at the moment is how the slightly abrasive cord will wear on the grosgrain webbing ..... but I'll let you know after my Glacier trip in late July.

You can always use flat cord instead ....

The straps have an overlapped slit on the bottom, about 4 inches from the top of the strap, so I can stuff the straps with my extra socks, or hat, or bandana, or whatever for padding. I made them extra wide to carry load better when unloaded. You can also slide a piece of foam in with no problems if you'd like.

All in all, I'm amazed at how well it works.

Edited by flash582 on 06/15/2008 10:08:54 MDT.

Mark, thats a great looking pack!

Is that a 1L nalgene canteen in the back pocket? looks like the cap is modified. can you tell me how much it weights?

The 1.8 L canteen comes in stock at 2.1 ounces.

I've modified it by adding a solar lantern cap ..... they just came on the market. It's 2.5 ounces but replaces my candle lantern, my flashlight and my spare batteries.

All for NO volume change. It's a 2.5 ounces (weighed) that I think is worth it's weight in gold.

Thats one cool looking lantern! Do you think it is powerful enough for night hiking?

I looked at your gearlist to see what water purification you use. You dont need a wide mouth for Aquamira - so I guess that you are using wide mouth in order to use the lightcap?

Have you looked at mUV water purifier? check out reviews at backpackgeartest.org I contacted them a few days back to enquire about the upcoming redesigned model:

Huzefa, Thanks for the inquiry. We have taken all the feedback from our initial users and redesigned the unit. The internal battery has a greater capacity and there will be colored lights to tell the user the status of the battery. Green, orange and red indicators to tell you how much battery is left. These are only two of the changes. Mostly internal upgrades that the user will not see but will make the product more reliable. Parts have to be purchased or manufactured, which mostly has been done. Now we are waiting for the evaluation of the pre-production runs before we take them to market. We estimate it will be about four to six weeks yet before we are ready to put them on the web site. The excessive silver coating that you refer to affected a very small percentage of the units but this also has been addressed. A small amount of silver deposit is inherent with the use of the bulb and does not affect the efficacy of the UV light. We hope to be able to offer these new units at close to the same price as the previous ones but that has not yet been determined.
As to size, the light portion fits easily into the mouth of a two liter soda bottle. Hope this answers most of your questions. Please be patient a little longer.
Darleen, Customer Service.

Huzefa, Yes, the new unit will have the LED lamp function like the previous one.
Darleen, customer service

Your current setup:
1oz Aquamira
1.9oz 1.8L nalgene
2.5oz cap, latern

Alternatively -if 2L soda bottle has the same mouth diam as platy -other wise ignore all this

1oz 2L platy
2.4oz mUV/LED
0.04oz 3.0V @ 50mA 4.5 x 1.5" flexible solar panel

http://www.flexsolarcells.com/index_files/OEM_Components/Flex_Cells/pages/Flex_Cells_Individual_03_MP3_37.php

You can fit solar panel on your cap and it could be a fun project! And you could save almost 2oz!

Good idea ..... I may start playing with this next .....


Hummmmmmm

For this summer's trip, however ... I'm using Aquamira tablets .... 0.7 ounce per pack of 24.

Tablets 0.7
Lamp 2.5
nalgene 2.1

Edited by flash582 on 06/18/2008 16:17:00 MDT.