this is a follow up to this thread
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=6&f=10&t=278476

First of all I love this pack. It does exactly what I wanted it to, that is to be used as a 'scout' type pack for me as I
explore all the trails of the CVNP

The packs I was using were a HSGI Moose pack ( whick is just a day pack, and has no suspension at all ) and a medium
Alice pack with frame, and I had 20lbs in them, and they both were not doing it for me.

I did a two mile hike with 12 lbs when I got it to check my initial adjustments. Yesterday I did eight miles with 22lbs in it. I had to do a little tweek to it and it was all good. Today I did six with 25lbs and no back or shoulder pain AT ALL!

My only real complaint is that it's small. The info provided on all the web sites that sell it ( I'm sure provied by camelbak )
list total volume at 2501 cu in, but the spec sheet that came with it says 2100 cu in, and just looking at it, my gut says 2100.
It does have plenty of pals on it to add pouches if wanted. a Kifaru back pouch with dock and lock fits really well on the
back, so it might not be that big a deal, but I got it based on that it was 2500, maybe someone that in the know can expand on that

here it is next to my Grizzly, please note that the grizzly is nowhere near full



I REALLY like how they use coyote for the straps, webbing and tube cover, and not that very lite tan they use on their other Multicam packs


it's got the same 'sorta pals' on the bottom like the grizzly


the "Admin" pouch on the right


the "bottle" pocket on the left fits a standard canteen. both pockets have the same insulation that the reservoir pouch has.
a canteen does not fit in the admin pocket, but a flask size canteen does.


all opened up


To adjust the yoke, you pull out the yokes framesheet, and use it to slide between the yoke and the pack to separate the
hook and loop, and set the height of it to your torso. ( it comes with full instructions that are pretty much the same as the
grizzly, except the grizzly came with it's own 'tool' to adjust the yoke )



DO NOT pay the $270 price for it that it's listed at on a couple mail order army-navy stores.
there are two places that have it for right at about $200 ( hint skd and T.W. at pt )

I know I suck at posting pics...just been way busy....


TimW
Phoenix

BB-

I want to give you credit for doing great reviews on gear! Great detail and honest opinions for us "lessers" without your experience.

Thanks,

RD





I've had the Griz on my wishlist since you did that review. Problem is it's been hard to justify the $$ since I only get into the deep woods 2 or 3 time a year nowadays... (Hint: Don't get too old or too busy - it sux)

Can you compare this pack to the US Issued SDS 3 Day assault pack?
Also, do you think it would still feel as good with pouches mounted to it with other items in them?

I don't have one of those packs, so I have no clue
adding extra pouches and stuff is next on the test list.

Love the pictures and nice layout.  Been looking at packs recently and this was nice to read.  Thanks

Thanks for the pics BB868.  I like this pack.

If you get a chance, stop by and you can paw mine.....

Can you post a picture of it loaded but open so we can get an idea of what it can hold?

anyway you can do a quick pic of it next to a BFM and a Motherload for size reference ?

Here I put on two TT canteen pouches and a Kifaru back pouch. It had a total weight of 30lbs, and I did'nt have
any problems with it. The pack body was not full. In the back pouch, I had two pair of BDU pants in it for a weight
of 4lbs 6oz.
Now I think that the canteen pouches ( with full canteen in them ) is a bit much for a load out on the
'door' on the side. it was a bit of a bitch to zip them back up. Some sort of low-pro pouches like TT's horizontal
and vertical accessory pouches would be best.

what would you like to see in it ?

here's another neat feature. you can place another bladder in the pouch in the pack body, and it has it's own
port holes for that bladder ( the main bladder has 4 port holes ) here it is with a 2L in back, for a total of 5L.

Well, actually a list of common loads you're able to fit in it I guess would be fine. Thank you for the pictures btw, among the first non-marketing ones I've seen. I really want to pick one of these up, the design looks great. Combined with the Mystery Ranch designed harness it should make a nice larger daypack.

Motherlode, easy day....I don't have any BFM in stock at the moment.  I can compare to the Motherlode, MULE, HAWG and an Eagle 3-Day easily enough.  I'll try and get all those snapped tonight.

Looks to be a nice pack.  Makes my 25 year-old external frame pack look like a dinosaur.

Wow, thanks for the pics!  Can't wait to get mine!

Alright, I took a guess.
I have in it: a pair of bdu pants, a bdu top, 2 t-shirts, 3 boxer briefs, 4 socks, a polypropylene top and bottom, and it zipped up fine.
there is still the lid pouch, which does fit a pair of bdu pants.
now the side pockets, when the pack is stuffed, lose volume. I was able to fit two mre 'dinner' pouches in each one though.
In that case you might just want to put a larger pouch on them since you would not be using them much, or at all. The TT zipper pouch fits nice.



it weighs 22lb's in that set up.

Just received my TriZip, and it looks great!  It's a step between a full size ruck, and the issue 3 day assault pack.  I see this pack getting alot of field time when applicable!

Anyway you can take a pic of it next to the 3 day? do you know what the ci of the 3 day is?

No big deal, I'm just still trying to figure out what size it really is.

No biggie.  I plan on adding a couple of pouchs to keep some of the non-essential seperated (the TT ones look good, any others I should look at?) from the main compartment.  I have no idea what the ci of the usgi 3 day is.  I can't wait to try it out.  If there's anything else I can do, please post up.




EDIT: Shit, forgot the pics Now click free.

I've talked to my rep about this...I get the impression he believes the same thing, and the only reason I can come up with for continuing to use that flesh-toned webbing is that they're trying to use it all up before buying the ACU stuff.  At least the solid foliage green webbing they used to use on the ACU Camelbaks can still be used on the FG packs, whereas the only item they really use the flesh-toned version on is the MultiCam.  I still think the Coyote Brown color would have been a better choice, but they didn't consult me when designing the packs. :)

I found this review online as well: http://www.weaponevolution.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9881

It has a picture that includes both a Trizip and a IIIA pack....

Hmmmmm........

between chR15 pic's and the one's in the link, maybe this pack is 2500ci

I am still using the shit out of it

mostly I use two bladders in it ( for the weight ) and its about 20 or so lbs.
for shits and giggles I next want to load it up 3-day bug out style, a bit over 30lbs to see how it goes

My rep at Camelbak says this:



So, BBB it should be good-to-go.

I finally took some pics of the Tri-zip, compared with the other 500-series Camelbak packs so you guys can a feel for size.  Once I get them resized for reasonableness, I'll be starting a new thread, since I also compared the new 500-whatever with its 1000D brother....i.e., Motherlode 500 vs Motherlode.  The only one I didn't do that too was the BFM as I didn't have a standard BFM to compare.

Same here. I've been looking at the those packs and want to see inside the different compartments and pouches. Plus you can get some pretty good deals on the old 1000 series packs right now. Colors are pretty limited but at the right price...

The "inside" and compartments are basically the same as the originals.  The only additional pockets added are a fleece-lined sunglasses/IPOD/etc pocket, and taking a picture of black fleece inside a pocket is pointless, as it only shows a black blob.

All the "admin" pockets are organized as previously.  There might be a mesh zippered pocket inside here and there, but they're not substantial redesigns at all.

per your IM
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=6&f=10&t=253612&page=1

what are they using, dark matter
thats way more then I can handle

and yeah, do that pic thread. there have been several questions about their new line in the survival gear fourm...but post it here

Never seen the inside of the original packs, most sites that have packs for sale don't do a very good job with picture. If anyone has a link that would be cool. Feel free to skip a shot of the fleece lined pouch, sounds like a waste of fleece to me.

Most vendors have neither the time, equipment, resources or skill to create pictures that go beyond what the manufacturer provides.  I can tell you that the time, equipment and training investment for the shots I have taken for my website were quite substantial for a one-person operation, but at that time it was the only way to get pics of the products at all.  

For the Weesatch pics I have, it took about a 40 minutes to set up and shoot 3 or 4 angles, multiple exposures each, then another 15-30 minutes to import, edit/adjust, combine and export the pictures for the website. Now multiply that by the hundreds of products that most retailers carry. Small online retailers just generally don't have that amount of time to devote to it.

While taking random, garage-floor pictures for forums like this is do-able (though can take some time to edit the pics), these types of pictures are wholly inappropriate for a website trying to project a professional retail image.

If manufacturers took internal shots, you can be assured that the retailers would post them up to show them.

Once you've done the set-up a couple of times, you get a feel for how the equipment works, how to take best pic views, etc.  Let me tell you the first 3 or 4 items I took pictures of for my e-commerce site was painfully time consuming.  While they've turned out better than stock/mfg images, they don't always show more of the item.

Bump from the dead.

I'm seriously considering buying one of these, but i'm also looking at the BFM.  Did anyone ever get around to comparing these.

I'm kinda on the fence with the zipper down the middle.

you don't have to use the middle zipper, I don't. I just use the top two to un-zip, then use it as a top loader.

Here's the side-by-side pics I took of the ones I had in stock, along with some specs.

Camelbak Comparison

My 3daypack from MR has molle loops on the padded belt, 2 x 3 on both sides of the belt.

I just got an MR 3 Day Assault Pack. NO webbing on the "Wing Belt".
Hmmmmm
Did you order up a li'l custom work?

from what I read about, you ask for it when you call in your order, and its no extra cost. I can not confirm this, but there
was another pack I was looking at, and was going to put more effort into finding out, but I'm not there yet, as I got a lot of
stuff to sell off first.

again, I'm not sure about the wing belt, but I belive there is a 'standard' one, and a more fancy one.
FWIW, the webbing on the belts is only three rows, and yeah, I'd still want it vs not at all.

Well the only thing I did extra on the order was to do the "waist belt upgrade", which I guess means they put in the extra padding along with the molle straps

so how is the upgraded waist belt. do you feal it's more a load bearing type belt, or a regular belt with extra padding?
I'm hoping and guessing it's more a load bearing type, but would like to know.

Well the belt is very padded , about 3x of the wing belt which it appears to cover.  I can't see how it would be more load bearing since it doesn't replace the wing belt (just noticed that when i took the pics , but I must say it is the must comfortable waist belt that I have ever worn.  

First, thanks for posting those pics.

I guess what i mean by more load bearing is ( aside from design ) is does that bitch "lock-in" around your waist, and
you can feal the weight of your load on your hips, and none on your back, like it does with my grizzly.

heres a pic of the griz's belt and the tri-zip


the tri-zips belt is more of the generic 3 day pack style, which is not really load bearing at all, as it seam to do a more
50/50 with the weight of the pack.

now I can and do make it really tight to start with, but after several miles starts to kinda sag, with the griz that does not
happen at all, and the load stay off my back, and thats what I was hoping happens with your set up, as thats what I am going
to get with my next MR pack.

One? I have 4.  Oh wait...you mean personally owned.... :)

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