I was thinking about a Pinnacle for winter camping- high volume, light weight- what concerned w/ is w/ fuel, water, food I'd be in the 30-35# range, more if I had to strap my snowshoes on

I've read about folks using a homemade frame sheet to add just a little stiffness to the pack, read one thread that recommend Sintra as a possible sheet

anyone try this? what did you use? did you just slip it into the hydration sleeve? how well does it work?

tia

Mike

Here's one idea:

FRAME

Six Moon Designs has a frame and some individual stays that might work for you. They are both on this page:

HERE

Daryl- thanks!

carbon fiber looks nice, but the plug & play six moon stays are a little more appealing :) I'd have to get some measurements on the GL packs, but sizing sounds about right

1/10th in planking ... weights ~4 oz ...

allows me to carry 40 lbs in my mutant ....

Edited by bearbreeder on 01/22/2011 11:14:56 MST.

So elegant! Sometimes we work too hard at things. This board also provides some lateral stability. It also serves as back-up fuel for a fire so it would fit into the dual use forum. Hey, it's also a splint.

darryl ... its also a shovel for soft snow ... a platform for yr stove ... emergency stakes when broken up length wise ... in an emergency i guess i could use it as a deadman anchor for tents ... paint it orange before yr trip and its emergency trail signs material ... put coating on it and its a writing board .. etc ...

Edited by bearbreeder on 01/22/2011 11:37:18 MST.

eric- would have not ever thought of that :) is it attached to a torso nightlight?

Look for door skins, with exterior glue.

Mystery Ranch uses .06 (1/16) HDPE for their frame sheets on their recreational packs. You can find some here http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23869&catid=705&clickid=searchresults

^ thanks that gives me another option :) looks like the HDPE is more rigid than the Sintra, so you could get by w/ thinner, the Sintra might be lighter (little more porous) though?

mike ... it just stufff it in the osprey provided pad ... no need to tape it down i find

a zrest also works well

use 1/10th pine i believe it was ...

mike, i once used a plastic (ptfe?) cutting board found at REI for my frame.
using a pad much like Eric's, folded into thirds of 10" sections by 20" high it was then placed in my SMD Swift for a 6 day trip carrying 35lbs max.

id used it for what it is advertised as, a cutting board. cutthroat trout never tasted so good!

here's a link, http://www.rei.com/product/765776 although mine was definately not the 5.6 ounces as advertised. it is 7.6!
a little heavy for my taste. wont be using it again for backpacking.

the same idea can be applied however to a lighter version, but the support will be compromised. here's that lighter version: http://corplastics.com/2mmCorrugatedPlasticSheets.html
i found a "garage sale" sign at the hardware store, about 20x18" iirc and once trimmed down it worked perfectly, sandwiched inside that ccf pad o' mine.

Corrugated plastic sheet is a great idea. Some art supply stores carry it too.

thanks gents! I'll have to check the corrugated plastic stuff out- I can take a 4-6 oz hit if it helps w/ heavier loads :)

i actually tried quite a few different plastics at home depot ... i found that they worked for loads that were well packed in the 20-30 lb range ... ie where you could get by with frameless, but the plastic sheet added a bit of stiffness ... at the 40 lb mark i found the plastic concaving under the weight, especially if the load was not optimally packed

i also tried a few different woods such as fiberboard which had the same issue as plastic, balsa which was worked but was expensive, etc ... the best is ultra thin, ultralight with the grain running vertically

with what i have now .... ive carried a belay jacket, a double rack of micronuts, double of regular nuts, single of offset, set of WC zeros, set of camalots, set of link cams, 1/2 set of TCUs, extra #3/#4/#5 camalots, set of tricams, 6 quickdraws, 8 trad draws, 2 screamers, anchor tat, harness, set of rock shoes, 3 L of water, lunch, guidebook, 60m rope

for the vertically challenged ... thats something like 15-20 lbs of metal gear, 10 lb of rope, 7 lb of water, and 5 lb of other gear ... about 40+ lbs total

and i throw it in anyway i want ... and theres not a sign of frame collapse .... my knees however are another story =(

its all there except for the 3L of water. guidebook and lunch ...

Edited by bearbreeder on 01/23/2011 02:22:38 MST.

"I'll have to check the corrugated plastic stuff out- I can take a 4-6 oz hit if it helps w/ heavier loads "

The plastic is light. You would need to add a lot of layers to get to that weight. Just a couple layers bonded together would be very strong. Silicone would be a good glue choice.

Google "twinwall sheet" too.

Edited by dwambaugh on 01/23/2011 02:51:30 MST.

eric- glad you're packing that and not me, of course you'd probably say the same thing w/ a boned out mule deer :)

I've done a little more looking at the corrugated stuff and see that R2 packs (defunct now???) used corrugated plastic and put small dia. aluminum tubes in it for their frame sheet (which were removable if you didn't need them)- Ace hardware carries a wide selection of aluminum tubing (I used some on my myog grill)

some are using brass tubes too

I'm starting to see the Sintra as a possible compromise between corrugated and HDPE, firmer than corrugated, less firm and lighter than HDPE- appears you can heat Sintra (like HPDE) as well if you wanted to put any forming into it

I used a cutting board for fabrics. The Blue or green kind. Ridgid, yet still flexable enough to contour some what. Cut it to shape similar to granite gear's topoflex and drilled holes every save weight. I think it was around 5 oz.

^ I'll check those out- is the type you're talking about?

http://www.cutting-mats.net/self-healing-cutting-mats.html