Kifaru frame hitting me in the rear!

[Beartown4710]

One more suggestion. The bottom of the lumbar pad on my Late Season created a small pressure point on the top of my butt, right where the stays transfer their weight to the pad. I was using composite stays, normal bend. Turns out that curve profile was wrong for my back - the bottom stay tips were pointed inward towards me, creating a pressure point. I swapped out for aluminimum stays, then (after first tracing their original curve in case I screwed up), began a trial and error process of custom-bending to match my back. The most significant change I made to the profile, which relates to your problem, was to bend the bottom 3-4" of the stays away from myself, thus rotating the lumbar pad more upright to engage over a larger area such that, when reaching down to feel the bottom of the lumbar pad, I could confirm there was 1/2" or so of daylight between the stay tips behind/inside the lumbar pad and me. Major increase in comfort. NOTE that this anecdote is specifically related to an internal frame pack, but I experienced the same problem to a lesser degree with my Duplex frame (the severity of the pressure point was masked, in part by the thicker lumber pad) and I went on ahead and swapped those stays out for aluminum as well. I really like the flexibility you have with aluminum stays to make a custom fitted frame; the disadvantage is that you need to make small adjustments to bend amount/location/radius and then re-insert the stays and re-fit the pack with each change. This takes awhile - longer if you are a perfectionist.

 

[larryschwartz]

Most of what I was going to say has been said already, but to summarize:

1. The hip belt should be positioned so that the middle of the belt cups the top of your hipbone/pelvis, meaning that the top of the belt will curve over top of your hipbone and the bottom of the belt will fit into the concave portion of your hipbone. Unfortunately, most people think that the bottom of their hipbone is actually the top because that is where most of us wear our belt in our pants. The buckle of your waist belt should be positioned right on top of your bellybutton, or just above it if you are wearing it at the correct height. Yours looks to be a little low.

2. Load lifters do not lift any of the load, they lift the top of your shoulder straps off of your shoulders. They also only work if they are used with a waist belt, which is what is actually holding the weight. With a good waist belt the only thing you need the shoulder straps for is to keep the pack from flopping backwards off your back and banging you in the butt. Follow the Kifaru directions on how to tighten up the various straps and you should be fine. Basically, you want to get your waist belt positioned correctly, loosely tighten down your shoulder straps, and then use the load lifter straps to pull the shoulder straps a bit up off of your shoulders.

3. I can't speak to the stays but everything they said makes sense.

Larry Schwartz

 

[SHTF]

You're belt looks like it's riding a little low to me. Like it needs to be elevated a hair to grab the tops of your hips. If you raise the belt up how does the lumbar pad feel in the small of your back?


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I third this also you need that Lumbar pad right in the center of your back at the base of top of where your but starts. Definitely riding to low. Ive had my fair share of pack fitting issues over the last few years. That was one of my issues also.