EXO K4 Now or Wait for the EXO K4X

[CoryM181]

I wonder if they've ever thought of making straight stays for us No Ass guys. Ive always felt like the shoulder area was pulling away from my back with exos

 

[Harvey_NW]

I wonder if they've ever thought of making straight stays for us No Ass guys. Ive always felt like the shoulder area was pulling away from my back with exos

The earlier series weren't as bad, but I definitely understand and felt that with the K4. It takes some fiddling with a load, but once you get it dialed in it's comfortable. IMHO if the pack feels like it's pivoting on your lower back and pulling away from your shoulders a bit, as opposed to bearing weight on your shoulders and collar bone splitting your sternum, it's physically doing its job.

 

[CoryM181]

The earlier series weren't as bad, but I definitely understand and felt that with the K4. It takes some fiddling with a load, but once you get it dialed in it's comfortable. IMHO if the pack feels like it's pivoting on your lower back and pulling away from your shoulders a bit, as opposed to bearing weight on your shoulders and collar bone splitting your sternum, it's physically doing its job.

I could see that but I didnt really care for that feeling, felt unbalanced to me (I've owned k2-k4). The sg krux fits me so much better but the bags and the way the load shelf operate are not great. I'm hoping more company's offer different shaped stays in the future

 

[Lawnboi]

Screw Black Friday. This thread has dozens of guys dumping their never used k4, with the volume that’s coming I bet you can get a real deal!

 

[Idaboy]

Losing 2lbs in a pack is like a 30% weight reduction. If you can reduce everything by 30%, that's substantial. Or maybe having 2lbs less weight in your pack allows you to bring a slightly heavier sleeping pad and get better sleep because of it.

? 30%...if a 6lb pack, not following this.

But I'm all about cutting weight down, if it doesn't impact function or comfort....I like exo packs but seems like they could be a little lighter, looking forward to the X version and people's experiences

 

[Movadius]

Losing 2lbs in a pack is like a 30% weight reduction. If you can reduce everything by 30%, that's substantial. Or maybe having 2lbs less weight in your pack allows you to bring a slightly heavier sleeping pad and get better sleep because of it.

With all due respect, this is a bit of a flawed way of thinking. Losing 2lbs of pack weight when your total carried weight in the pack is 30lbs for example is a 6.6% reduction of the weight on your back.

Whether you can "reduce everything else by 30%" is irrelevant to the discussion of whether turning your 6lb pack into a 4lb pack is "worth it", because you can still "reduce everything else by 30%" regardless of the weight of your actual pack.

The question you should be asking yourself is, does reducing my pack weight by 2lbs (or total carried weight 6.6%) produce a noticeable enough difference in my level of fatigue/discomfort to offset whatever features/function I sacrificed by switching packs.

If your 4lb pack has all the same features, function, comfort and weight carriage as your 6lb pack, then its a no brainer. But if the 6lb pack fits you better or makes the weight feel lighter on your back due to better suspension or frame or belt, etc. Then you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Your goal should be making your pack actually feel lighter/less fatiguing on your back, not just lighter on paper.

 

[gtriple]

? 30%...if a 6lb pack, not following this.

But I'm all about cutting weight down, if it doesn't impact function or comfort....I like exo packs but seems like they could be a little lighter, looking forward to the X version and people's experiences

If your pack itself weighs about 6lbs, then this K4X should be about 30% lighter. +/- a couple of ounces.

With all due respect, this is a bit of a flawed way of thinking. Losing 2lbs of pack weight when your total carried weight in the pack is 30lbs for example is a 6% reduction of the weight on your back.

Whether you can "reduce everything else by 30%" is irrelevant to the discussion of whether turning your 6lb pack into a 4lb pack is "worth it", because you can still "reduce everything else by 30%" regardless of the weight of your actual pack.

The question you should be asking yourself is, does reducing my pack weight by 2lbs produce a noticeable enough difference in my level of fatigue/discomfort to offset whatever features/function I sacrificed by switching packs.

If your 4lb pack has all the same features, function, comfort and weight carriage as your 6lb pack, then its a no brainer. But if the 6lb pack fits you better or makes the weight feel lighter on your back due to better suspension or frame or belt, etc. Then you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Your goal should be making your pack actually feel lighter/less fatiguing on your back, not just lighter on paper.

No disagreement on the “same features, function, comfort…” part. Exo wouldn’t release a pack that has significantly less functionality for the sake of weight.

I didn’t say anything about total pack weight. Just about reducing the weight of a single item by 30%.

 

[Movadius]

If your pack itself weighs about 6lbs, then this K4X should be about 30% lighter. +/- a couple of ounces.


No disagreement on the “same features, function, comfort…” part. Exo wouldn’t release a pack that has significantly less functionality for the sake of weight.

I didn’t say anything about total pack weight. Just about reducing the weight of a single item by 30%.

Yeah, I should have clarified I wasn't disagreeing that the empty pack would be 30% lighter. I was just pointing out that empty pack being 30% lighter is going to be less than a 10% overall reduction in your actual carried weight in most scenarios. It was your line about "If you can reduce everything by 30%, that's substantial." that I was mostly responding to, as that statement is still true even if you don't touch the pack weight so it's not a selling point for the K4X specifically. It's an independent variable.

I guess I've seen too many less-context-aware people buy into the advice to chase weight savings at all costs and end up with packs that aren't as comfortable or adjustable or have less robust suspension and then wonder why their 30lb load feels worse on their back than their 32lb load used to. Though I see that more often in backpacking forums, so I probably didn't need to spell that out here. Especially in the context of an Exo pack.

Point taken good sir

 

[Bobrobheimer]

Yeah, I should have clarified I wasn't disagreeing that the empty pack would be 30% lighter. I was just pointing out that empty pack being 30% lighter is going to be less than a 10% overall reduction in your actual carried weight in most scenarios. It was your line about "If you can reduce everything by 30%, that's substantial." that I was mostly responding to, as that statement is still true even if you don't touch the pack weight so it's not a selling point for the K4X specifically. It's an independent variable.

I guess I've seen too many less-context-aware people buy into the advice to chase weight savings at all costs and end up with packs that aren't as comfortable or adjustable or have less robust suspension and then wonder why their 30lb load feels worse on their back than their 32lb load used to. Though I see that more often in backpacking forums, so I probably didn't need to spell that out here. Especially in the context of an Exo pack.

Point taken good sir

This is definitely true. I am sure Steve agrees and won’t come out with something that doesn’t carry weight as well. I did a demanding death hike sorta thing a few years back and ended up using my exo frame with a dry bag even though my pack weight was less than 20lbs. I could have saved lbs using a light weight fast packing style pack (as some of my friends did on this trip) but in training I just found the exo to be comfortable even after extended durations of wearing it while the other lighter packs would start great but after hours and hours would bug my back.