Here's my latest waist belt for use on my frame pack. It weighs 52 grams.







Notes:
(1) Most of the components are well tested but this particular combo has not been tested. We'll see.
(2) Body is made of heavy duty leno mesh with adhesive backed insignia cloth around the edges and on the back sides where the hardward is connected.
(3) End caps fit the bottoms of Skyshark 400 carbon fiber wrapped spars that form the inverted U shaped pack frame.

If you look at the last photo you will see a faint white line. That's the shape I want for the belt. It is easier to work with rectangles, however, so I just assume that shape but leave the extra fabric. Edging a rectangle, for example, is much easier than edging curves.

I forgot to add that this belt replaces the padded belts that I used for decades. Those belts weighed 6-12 ounces each.

This new belt feels as good as the older padded ones (to me) and I sweat less under it than with the old padded belts.

52 grams! There you go again Daryl.
Am curious. Have you ever thought about connecting the belt to the pack more towards the belt's center, so it can swivel a little with your hips? Just wondering.

Samuel,

I've fooled around a little with a central connection to the belt. Nothing turned out well enough to write home about. I even bought a pack with a vertical spar (flat aluminum)that ran down the center of the bag and connected to the center of the belt. Didn't like it at all and gave it away. If for no other reason I don't like hard things (carbon fiber, aluminum, fiberglass, etc.) riding anywhere near my spine. Just seems too risky to me.

The belt on my pack connects directly to the bottom of the inverted U pack frame spars, not directly to the the pack bag itself. So I'm constrained by the position of the parallel vertical pack frame spars which are 12" apart.

My loosey goosey carbon fiber frame already seems to walk with me (swivel) as I walk anyway.

Just about everything on my backpack design is working well for me(gee it only took 15 years) so I'm primarily motivated to work on weight reduction while preserving the current level of functioning. Backpacks are mysterious creatures. Change one thing and you may have changed everything. Some of my experiments have gone so badly that the pack didn't even feel good on the way out of the woods when it was at its lightest.


Daryl

Edited by lyrad1 on 11/05/2012 20:28:05 MST.

Thanks, Daryl, for your reply.

Agree, as to having anything hard near the spine. That's part of what drove me to suspended mesh backband packs.

And if you have found something that is comfy and works, especially at such light weight, you make a strong case for not fixing what's not broke.

My therapist suggested I show some of the the waist belts that preceded the one shown in this thread. Here's a group of about 20. I've done multiple trial and error experiments with most of them. (two photos):








Those of you who have a few myog projects under your belt can probably relate to this. For those of you just starting...be warned. As another poster said "it is a slippery slope to madness".



On the positive side the belt in this thread is as comfortable as any of them shown here (for me) and it weighs less than 2 ounces. Some of the ones shown weigh 12 ounces or more. So there is a pay off.....sometimes

Daryl,
A few years ago, Osprey made removable belts that were contoured and could be heat molded to individual shapes. They can still be found in some of the shops.

I used to ragpick the shops for contoured belts with mesh on the inside, so that when a pack project came up, there would be good choices available.

Here's a pic of one of them on a prototype that didn't quite make the cut:



(Please excuse the clutter - too many projects going on at once.)

Can't remember where I picked this on up. But like it for the mesh on the inside, the contour shape, the horizontal seam that encourages the belt to contour over the hipbone crest, and the recessed middle that prevents anything from coming into direct contact with the base of the spinal cord.

Avid MYOGers may notice that the belt is upside down on the pack! When correctly installed, it would form a nice conical shape over the hips.

Samuel,

"could be heat molded to individual shapes"

Nice feature. I also liked the recessed area near the spine.