Padded Hip Belt Question

[Abby]

My new hip belt here will be here TONIGHT! I am so excited. I have been hoping afor a hip belt for my Aeronaut for a couple of years and it's... almost... here...!!!

[Pokilani]

I'll be testing mine out with my A30 tomorrow!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sarah_atx]

Really looking forward to hearing how these work for you guys!

[Pokilani]

Padded Hip Belt Question

Ok, I just walked around the Madison airport and the hip belt doesn't work well for me on the A30. The attachment points sit higher than on my DLBP, so it sits more around my waist than my hips. The downside here is that the belt is now too big for my waist (compared to my hips) so it doesn't distribute the weight that much. It does a teeny tiny bit, but I'll report again when I walk through DTW. For reference, I'm 5'1" and my pant size is a Small or 2/4. I am wearing a light merino sweater and vest so there is a little extra bulk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tpnl]

You could also try to hook the hip belt to the same connection point that the shoulder straps attaches to (where the shoulder strap attach / release buckle is at the bottom of the bag). It takes a little bit of work to get it on but I find it makes the hip belt work for taking the weight of my A30/45.

Hope this helps

Cheers!

[GrussGott]

@tpnl, is it stabilization or does it actually transfer some weight to your hips? I use my A45 for a grocery ruck during city travel and with gallons of water, beer, and all of the other stuff it obviously gets heavy on the shoulders and wondering if this would help me out.

Thanks!

[moriond]

I'm pretty sure that @tpnl's solution transfers some weight to the hips. The problem is that some of these solutions don't scale well if you are not his size. I haven't tried this arrangement yet.

moriond

[tpnl]

@GrussGott

Yes, when I hook up either of the hip belts (1.5"or the 1" gatekeeper version), the actual weight is transferred. I can actually loosen the shoulder straps to the point where they are just for stabilization and all the weight is on the hip belt. It also still feels comfortable. Note that this only applies if you DO NOT attach the hip belt to the normal A30/45 waist belt loops but instead attach it to the same loop that holds the bottom attachment point for the shoulder straps (see my earlier pictures - 2nd post of mine).

Now, as this is not an internal frame backpack, YMMV depending on what you are carrying. If what you are carrying acts like an internal frame - ie structurally rigid and runs the length of the A30/A45 (full packing cubes, laptop, etc), the hip belts work well to transfer the weight.

Note - Possible new bag hack is to make an internal sheet frame to the A30/45/TS/WS to facilitate even better weight transfer - now that we have some nice padded hip belts to transfer the weight to: I might be tempted to cut a makeshift frame made of flat plastic (from a Hardware or Craft store) and put it in the backpack strap pocket to make the bag more rigid so the weight is transferred evenly.

I have tried both the 1" and 1.5" hip belts. For comfort and max load transfer, I prefer the 1.5" version (same one used for the Brain Bag (BB)). This is because the padding is a bit wider and the fact that the way the attachment point is on the bag prevents any twisting that would normally occur due to the size difference between the 1" bag loop and 1.5" gatekeeper on the hip belt.

The 1" hip belt works great too but I would more use it with the A30 - mainly because I do not necessarily need the extra padding of the 1.5" version as the A30 would not hold as much and it also looks more proportionally correct with the 1" hip belt on the smaller bag (just personal taste).

This is just my observations and "feel". If there is a more scientific method to test the load transfer, please let me know and I can try it in the future.

Hope this helps

Cheers!

[ThomGault]

Can anyone else provide their experiences with the padded hipbelt and A30? Preferably on 5'6"-ish folk?

[Lodd]

As an alternative way to attach the hip belt to the Aeronauts, perhaps attaching it directly to where the shoulder strap attaches to the bag will make it more "load bearing"... What it looks like all attached:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16855[/ATTACH]
...

Just reviving this thread since I'm interested in a padded hipbelt for the WF. What @tpnl has done here looks great for the A45. Could I ask if anyone has tried the same for a WF? And how well did it work?