New External Frame

http://www.vargooutdoors.com/ti-arc-backpack.html#.UvoGY2-YYdV

While it looks interesting (it is titanium after all!) and if the price is right I may try it, it has not convinced me to abandon my own explorations in frame building. The 30 pound weight limit is concerning.

As an aside, how does one determine weight capacity/limit? The old army alice packs were rated to 70 pounds but every former infantryman knows one could double that.

My latest ventures have been modified-for-length alice packs. I gave three away and hopefully will get some performance feedback soon..

Vargo seems to always get close but then misses the mark. At 2lbs13oz this thing is a tank. I think my old kelty external framed pack weighed less.

It looks cool I'd be intrigued to try it out too.

P.S. Thanks for posting a link to Vargo. It just reminded me how much I wanted the Tiad XE stove, windscreen, and 750ml pot of theirs... $$$$

the triad works only marginally, trust me I have it.

Yikes! 2 lbs. 13 oz. is like an off-the-shelf REI pack. My trusty G4 is just 13 oz. by itself. Also, titanium doesn't get you anything here. Ti and aluminum weigh about the same and a pack frame doesn't need the extra strength ti offers. 2 lbs. is a lot of water, a down bag, a couple days of food.

New-old school! If they used LW bag fabrics they could probably slash the weight quite a bit. My hunch is the waist belt is the limiting factor WRT weight capacity--it appears flimsy in the photos. Frame flex could come into play, but impossible to tell.

Based on my experience with bicycles, it's hard to leverage much weight savings using Ti versus Al. The real benefits seem to be in strength, ride comfort and responsiveness, but it's all rendered moot by CF, which saves oodles of weight. (The oodle is an obscure metric unit of measure--you might could look it up.)

If somebody truly desires to resurrect ex-frame packs (which have a lot of benefits) they need to invest in the moulds required to fashion the frame from CF. Not out of the question for one of the larger makers.

cheers,

That's what I've found with cooking pots. Ti may save you an ounce at most, at a fairly high cost, but should you want to do real cooking instead of boiling water, you really want aluminum which spreads the heat a lot more evenly.

I take a Ti pot for boiling water and an aluminum frypan for cooking fish. A Ti frypan just doesn't do the job!

My own experience with external frame packs is that they zig when I zag and throw me off balance. Fortunately, none of the resulting falls were serious. I'll never use one again! Internal frames move with me instead of against me. They can make an external frame pack out of unobtanium that weighs nothing, and I'll still not touch it! Your Mileage May Vary, of course.

ZPacks uses a carbon fiber frame for one of their cuben fiber packs. No, I haven't tried one. From the looks, it's basically an external frame pack and certainly lighter weight than my 29 oz. internal frame! It will lighten your bank account, too!

I like external frames when I am playing sherpa for the kids. Much easier to load a huge volume and still carry it comfortably. That frame does look interesting, especially the lumbar plate. I think that wings would work better. The weight of less than 3 lbs is impressive, but the weight limit is very small. And, that is probably because of the hip belt. For a hip belt to hold more weight, it is hard to get one that is lightweight itself.

It's a nice looking pack. Yes, my old Kelty was probably almost this light...wish I still had it.:) I am surprised by the 30 lb load limit...seems unreasonable to me.