Old school MR pack. It was available in both short (7000 cu-in) and tall (7400 cu-in) and was built around their modular Adjustable Leap Frame (which was available in men's or women's). The Leap Frame was (I believe) the first MR system to feature their now signature Lumbar Wrap. It's a solid...
They're not meant to be molded but certainly can be. That bend is there for head clearance (especially with a helmet) and the length of the female load lifter buckle webbing is such to accommodate that bend.
The Guides distribute the force throughout the triglide, rather than solely on the front bar as is the case when routing the waistbelt webbing through just the triglide.
To remove the Guides, just push the Looploc and excess webbing toward the triglide's rearmost bar, tuck the folded webbing...
2" Techno Grab Tensionlock (National Molding P/N 10151) - probably pulled from a USMC Pack System waistbelt, as those buckles are difficult to impossible to find new on their own. That mod provides a setup similar to what's currently used on the USMC FILBE pack belt and what is being pushed on...
Nice modification. This is similar to what we developed, just executed differently. Do you know the weight of each model?
You can check out the development of our frame extender here: http://www.oneirosvalley.com/llphistory.html