finally ordered a rucksack...

[Hiltonizer]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=260414867624

German "Bundeswehr" surplus pack... ebay'd for $45... looks hard to beat.

Anyone know anything about these? for the price, I had to bite.

I checked out a bunch of stuff at KTP and online over the last few weeks... nothing I wanted to bite on so far.. good looking stuff seemed rather expensive... anything in my price range looked like it might be cheap chinese crap.

Gonna be testing a bunch of recently purchased gear in the Maine woods next month... i'll update this post with pictures and testimonials on this bag, and some other gear.

 

[coastie]

Friend has one. Not a lot of padding, hip belt sucks and not a lot of space. He switched over to a commercial internal frame.

 

[Hiltonizer]

bag came Monday...

seems very durable... which was exactly what I was looking for.

As coastie said, padding is minimal at best, and the hip belt is nothing more than just an unpadded belt.

it's 65l, which seems to be perfect for a "get your ass in the woods and survive" bag.

due to the lack of padding, it may suck to load up with 50+lbs of gear and hump for several miles... but for the $50 after shipping and its durability, I'll make that sacrifice and try to add some after-the-fact padding.

 

[codenamepaul]

ALICE

 

[Hiltonizer]

Got it loaded up for a test run over the weekend:

Plenty of strapping to affix external gear... adding a few more things since this pic.

As previously said, the padding on the straps leaves much to be desired, especially for a guy my size. Going to have to tape some extra padding to the shoulder straps to bring it down further.

I took it for maybe a 1/2 mile trek just a few hours ago in the area, just to get a feel for the balance and weight points. It keeps everything quite stable as far as weight distribution, though again, it desperately needs extra padding for the shoulders.

It's been pouring out, and it seems far more water resistant than I expected. Nothing got moist on the inside as everything seemed to bead right off.

So far, i'm happy for the $40. We'll see if that stands if I make it back alive after this weekend

 

[RickG]

I have always found that if you put the tent on the top of the pack and the sleeping bag low that it seems lighter on your back. Looks like a good size pack though.

 

[Polibious]

+1 as an AT hiker, keep heavier items high and close to the back.

 

[wolf223]

ALICE

+1

on the bag, looks good and will fit your purpose, but if you are moving more than 4 to 5 miles at a time, you may want to consider a pack w / a frame, to distribute the weight better.

ALICE pack can be had for short money w / frame, since we transitioned to MOLLE.

we I deployed, we used our ALICE with certain components of MOLLE.

funny shit. i just googled ALICE and it seems they have gone down A LOT - like less than $50 bucks...

 

[zenprop]

You definatly need to loose that sleeping bag. You can get a backpacking bag that is a fraction of the wight and stuffs down to a quarter of the size. you then have the size and weight freed up to cary a sleeping pad.

That tent looks huge. Is it a 4 person? Anyway, if you get some stuff sacks you can always loose the original packaging and getting into a smaller sack or 2 (fly and tent body seperate). It is the first thing I always do with tents.

Other than that, looks good, especially for 50 bucks. I think these 2 little tips will make your load much more enjoyable to haul.

 

[Hiltonizer]

You definatly need to loose that sleeping bag. You can get a backpacking bag that is a fraction of the wight and stuffs down to a quarter of the size. you then have the size and weight freed up to cary a sleeping pad.

That tent looks huge. Is it a 4 person? Anyway, if you get some stuff sacks you can always loose the original packaging and getting into a smaller sack or 2 (fly and tent body seperate). It is the first thing I always do with tents.

Other than that, looks good, especially for 50 bucks. I think these 2 little tips will make your load much more enjoyable to haul.

got back today.

you're definitely right on those two fronts. I ran out of funds to purchase anything additional, so was left with a crappy bag and no compression sack.

The tent is a 2-person, 3 season Marine Combat tent. Definitely too big/heavy for backpacking.

I also brought more clothes than was necessary I think. In the bag is also a wool blanket which was clutch. I used the sleeping bag as a pad and the wool blanket was more than adequate this time of year.

Definitely need to work on lightening the load.. and my firesteel skills. (resorted to a lighter and a bunch of birch bark)