Thank you for the kind words.  I gave out the easy way to perform the task.  The better way is to use large diameter brass grommets through the foam padding, as the large ones grip better. and won't pull through.  A bit of rubber cement on all surfaces is essential..  Your suggestion of high quality (hard to find––look for high thread count) duct tape is very useful addition, and should be incorporated regardless of method of attachment.  Well done.

Ah, yes, the commercial copy of the SPEAR vest.  I have one, bought at a closeout price of, IIRC, about $60 or so, as pictured with all the pouches.  Not badly made as far as I can see, although I have not tested it thoroughly.

Some useful features of this vest are the MOLLE compatbility, and the fact that the upper  chest PALS webbing is angled, a very useful feature if one mounts ammo pouches there.  It is not GI, but I have never seen a thorough test of this item and so can't eval it on that account either.  Mine appears to be well made with good stitching with nylon thread through nylon webbing/fabric, FWIW.

If it is available cheap enough, it might be worth considering, although that is a judgment call.  If the vest is offered for $45 with all the pouches––or even most of them–– you might want to consider it.  As a stand-alone platform, you would most likely be better off with some of the GI Fighting Load Carying (FLC) vests.  Mebbe not.  Mebbe buy both and then decide what you like best.  Having angled ammo pouches is a very nice touch, for sure.

FWIW, the commercial SPEAR vests seem to be sized to fit a rather large torso.  If you are something less than an XL coat size, mebbe not for you.  Try it on and adjust before deciding.

Best of luck to you.

I saw there' s a local 'Military Surplus' type store a few miles from my place that had the Commercial SPEARs vest in their store.  They were asking $145 for the vest & all the pouches...  The place is honestly designed & 'geared' more toward the Airsofters & Paintball commandos, but hey, I swing in there now & then to browse the over-priced chi-com copies & the authentic USGI surplus stuff.

That threw me off a fair bit - and as you mentioned, they're sized rather large.  I wear a L/XL size coat / parka in the winter, and that vest setup was HUGE on me...  Even cinched up it was still much too big for me...

That was when I noticed the price tag.  I remembered on the OldGrouch site you could get a Molle Rifleman's vest with pouches for under $50 bucks, and an LBV-II for even less!  This place also has a Molle Rifleman's vest with pouches, but they're asking about $110 for it.  

I only shop there looking for the occasional deal on something that's priced below value or for the occasional inert 'paperweight' rounds, etc...

I'm still convinced that for the $$$, it's tough to beat an old modified LCE setup!

Hard to argue with free, but if you get MOLLE shoulder straps, waistbelt, and MSS carrier, you will update the old green tick to where you will think you have a $300 pack.  Look for Enforcers Hellcat conversion threads.

I did a large and medium ALICE, so I'm sold on the conversion.

My unframed ALICE med pack has GI LC-2 shoulder straps, which are woodland camo straps much like the ones in your pic.  About $15, IIRC.  Of course, it has the Enforcer-suggested mod of a hollow copper tube inside the pouch into which the pack frame would go, which prevents the unframed ALICE from hunching inwards at the top.

AFAIK, the MOLLE II waistbelt, packframe shoulder straps and MSS carrier you want are mostly in Woodland, with a smaller number in 3-color desert camo.  The Army shifted over to ACU a while back, and this pattern will likely be the most numerous eventually, if it is not so already.  If you want to, you can use some dark green Rit due to dye the ACU or Desert stuff to match the OD green tick.

Nice looking gear.  As you say, it will be of interest to the AK crowd, and does, in fact, appear to be comfortable.  Also nice to see that the Russians have finally adopted ILBV-era/type gear.  It will be interesting to see their MOLLE rip-offs in a few years.

Since the pouches pictured are a bit loose for AR mags, you will want to make sure that your AR mags have full length dividers between each of them, or else they will definitely rattle like the devil.  Rubber bands around the closed end of the mag, made from bicycle inner tubes, will help a little, but are no cure.  If mag height is a problem, install some foam pads in the bottom, made from GI sleeping pad material.  Make sure to include drain hole to match that in pouch.

I'm a big fan of the USGI ALICE Large Pack w/ Frame.  $24 bucks at Mills Fleet Farm, and you've got a sweet pack setup - especially if you make some comfort modifications!

What I mentioned in my previous posting about mods, I've picked up this pack which I quickly turned into my winter BugOut & Camping ruck.

As anybody that's ever worn an old ALICE pack with frame, the frame is pretty solid Aluminum, with an 'Okay' kidney pad, but the shoulder & back/spine area can grow uncomfortable and downright painful after a full day of hiking!

(ALICE Frame removed from Large Pack)


Two areas of concern are the top cross bar on the frame, where it may sometimes rest upon the back of your neck/shoulders!  No biggie at first, but after a while of bumping into your neck, that bar starts to HURT!  The second area of concern is the vertical center support bar...  It's normally out of the way, but if you ever have to bend forward, or drop down onto one knee while wearing the pack, if your back/spine bends enough, it'll hit that bar, and send a painful jolt up your spine!

SO, the solution - to pad it.  With WHAT???

Simple, you can use any closed-cell foam padding, but most soldiers usually utilized the OD Green Milspec foam sleeping pad.  A few guys would get together, measure out what material they needed, and 'Sacrifice' one foam pad for the team!

In this case, I DO have one OD green sleeping pad, but I don't want to chop it up!

Back in the day when I was starting out with my Preps, I used to care about the opinions of others who claimed "Don't wear anything Camo or Military Surplus..."  Some JBT types might see that, become suspicious, stop you, and search you...  You know, because you MIGHT be up to no good!

Well, I've come to the point where I just don't give a cr*p anymore about that!

SO, I'm going to sacrifice my BLUE closed cell foam pad for the purposes of pack modifications!  (Can see the old pad in the first pic)

First step is LAYOUT, then mark it with a Sharpie, and CUT!


Now get some OD GREEN 100MPH tape...  Actually I think the .MIL tag on this said 90MPH tape, so I guess it's lower quality!


The tape IS NOT ONLY there to make my 'blue' pad a darker tone - it's also there to further close off foam cells for better water resistance, and it also gives it strength so it doesn't TEAR as easily as if you just did this with a plain OD sleeping pad & 550 paracord.

You can also see that I cut two holes in the 'Top' area to allow my Pack Straps to be strung thru the pad as well!

Wrap it all up, all the way around, and you're done with the hard part!


Now take a pliers or vise-grip, a framing nail, and a heat source (I used a propane torch) to heat up the nail!


Align your frame pad, fold it over wherever you're going to attach it (Sometimes using a C-Clamp helps to hold it in place while you work), and then JAB that hot nail thru the pad!


Make sure to WIGGLE the nail around to ensure the hole is wide enough for the 550 Paracord to be strung thru it!  The above two pics were a bit out of sequence, but you get the idea!

I first started at the TOP of the pack...  Fold, heat, poke, thread, & tie-off!


Keep all of your knots on the OTHER side of the pad - so it doesn't look so ugly & messy, and so you don't have knots poking you in the back while hiking.


Rinse & Repeat for the other parts of the pack - in this case I have it also wrapping around the horizontal support bar in the middle of the frame.


I also have it tied off around the bottom of the Vertical center support bar.


Here's the finished padding from the other side.


Now that you have it at this point, if you want to get rid of the 'Shiny' surface of the 100mph tape, take it outside, and give it a light spritz with some FLAT OD Green Krylon can!

Then it's time for reassembly...

String your straps down through the TOP of your PACK, and THEN try to re-string the straps onto your frame!  Trying to put the straps around the frame bar while the frame is inserted into the pack flap would be a P.I.T.A.!


Do that for BOTH sides, then insert the frame into its corresponding part of the pack, reattach & adjust your straps the way you want them, and YOU'RE DONE!


Now you've made your ALICE ruck MUCH more comfortable...  And it didn't hardly cost you anything more than a buck (if you already had this cr*p on hand ahead of time like a number of us do).

I'll have to say, one of my favorite things about the Large ALICE pack is the Radio Pouch inside the main part of the pack...

Measuring approximately 12" x 9.5" x 5" it's a pretty versatile internal compartment feature...

Hope this helps some people find a cheaper & easier alternative to make their ALICE packs more comfortable than spending $20 to $35+ on newer shoulder straps & back padding, etc...

All right folks, here's a tip for those of you running a Meduim ALICE without frame.  

First of all, use Enforcer's trick of installing a tube in the top of the frame pocket, which will prevent the pack from collapsing around your shoulders–– there's a post above about just this mod.

Second, get some GOOD shoulder straps, either the woodland GI LC-2 units (with sternum strap) or aftermarket unit from Tactical Tailor or similar.

Now then, the only thing needed is a waistband to help keep the pack where you want it when running/jogging, etc.

Easy, quick, NO-SEW raf method.

Obtain GI pistol belt with QD release.  Obtain 4' or so of 550 cord.

1) Don full pack, and adjust pack straps to fit properly.  Observe where D-rings on bottom sides of pack are located, and make a mental note of where they are located on your body.

2) Adjust pistol belt to fit around your body at the place you noted.

3) Lay pack on ground, back of pack (shoulder strap side) up.

4)Lay pistol belt on top of pack over D-rings, belt centered.  Give some thought about which side of the pack the opening latches of the buckle might be.  Some folks use left hand to open buckle, some the right.  I favor left hand, as my right (strong) hand might be occupied.

5)Run some 550 cord thru the grommets of the pistol belt, and one end thru D-ring.   The loose ends of the 550 cord go through the belt away from where your bod would be, leaving just a single 1-1/2" of 550 cord laying against your waist.  You want to always have the 550 cord under tension, no matter how the pack is filled.  Go at least one set of grommet holes away from where the D-rings fall on the belt, but don't over-do it.  Tie off, but leave some extra so as to accomodate the differences between a fully-loaded and partially loaded pack.  Naturally, you will sear the ends of the 550 cord, and use your fingertips to mold the still warm nylon into semi-pointed ends to facilitate threading, and to eliminate un-ravelling of the cord itself.

6) You now have a GI-quality, adjustible waistband on your pack, which will also accept ALICE and MOLLE pouches if you like.  Most likely this belt will ride higher than your LBE belt, so your capacity is increased.

Worthwhile additions:  

A Kovach clip, otherwise known as a pistol belt extender.  This device has a male and female QD device on either end, and snaps into your belt, giving you about another, instant 5" of girth for winter clothing.  Easier than adjusting the belt, trust me.  Wrap it around the belt and snap it to itself for stowage.  You can get the two GI types of QD belt closures, look around.

Pistol belt pad.  Snaps to PB, and makes things easier for your bod. Adds some floatation.  Well worth the slight expense in comfort added.

Final note:  IF you have the materials and ability to sew webbing, an alternative to the above would be to use some 2"  nylon webbing with an appropriate fastex QD buckle.  Note that the ALICE pack, without the frame, has a buckle and loose strap near bottom, which are doing nothing.  Sew onto the 2" webbing a couple of 1" D-rings at the appropriate spots, and utilize the existing ALICE straps and buckles to affix pack to waistband.  This is a lighter, more elegant solution, but if you have to buy all the stuff and have things sewed, the pistol belt version will probably be cheaper.

Y'all install a pistol belt pad, and you'll have a few extra inches of belt.  I'm here to tell ya, a pistol belt pad is a wonderful thing as far as comfort goes.  Adds a bit of bouyancy in water ops, but that's not the main point.  Try a store-bought one, or make your own from a strip of GI sleeping pad closed-cell form.

As a milsurp collector for over 30 years, I know enough to say that nothing is impossible.  I've seen––and have–– too many prototypes and one-offs to categorically say that anything has ––or has not–– been produced, at least on a limited basis..

That said, and civvy copies, and protypes  excepted, I am not aware of any widely-issued GI,camo large ALICE rucks.  Not saying they don't exist, but i've never seen one.

If you find one, snag it, do some research, and sell it on EBay.  If it's the real deal, it'll fetch a good price.