Stone Glacier or EXO

[Death from above]

About to buy a new pack. Pretty much down to the SG 40/56 with a lid or the EXO 4800. I've read most of the info on here, and now want specific likes, dislike, and opinions. Will be a daypack one day and multiple days in the back country the next. Sell me one...

 

[ljalberta]

Biggest thing will be personal fit! I should have a SG Evo, an Xcurve, and an Exo in my hands next week to compare myself. I can give you my initial, but untested, thoughts then, but the one I'm keeping will be based 100% on which carries the weight most comfortably for me personally. They'll be compared to a Kifaru Hunting Frame as well.

 

[Death from above]

Biggest thing will be personal fit! I should have a SG Evo, an Xcurve, and an Exo in my hands next week to compare myself. I can give you my initial, but untested, thoughts then, but the one I'm keeping will be based 100% on which carries the weight most comfortably for me personally. They'll be compared to a Kifaru Hunting Frame as well.

Thank you. I plan on visiting SG in a couple of weeks myself, but would love to hear yours, or anyone else's experiences.

 

[Two Roads]

Stone Glacier. Have 3300, love it. Wife has same, loves it. She has evo frame, I don't. Load shelf is great. Can strap it down for day hikes. Functional simplicity.
You are on target, stop in, best service, fitting and these guys really get it on innovation, performance and weight control.
I wish we had spotter pockets, only regret.

 

[Courtlandfarms]

Here is my 2 cents. I have run the Stone Glacier X curve, Krux, Exo K2, and a little Kifaru. I have countless miles and while I think both are great packs I’ll break down the pros and cons what I have found.

Stone Glacier - I love how the Stone Glacier carries weight. Load seems to sit very solid, frame is rigid and feel very little shifting. Weight is very easy to transition where you need it. I interchange from the X curve and Krux from time to time as I train with my packs 3-5 days a week, they both feel pretty similar to me. I do think the X curve fits my body a little better but am happy with either one. Saying the pack is rigid and carries weight great i feel everything about it is just that and not overly plush. I

Exo K2: the one thing I felt with the Exo immediately is its very comfortable. It’s feels to me almost like I have a memory foam belt and shoulder straps on. It’s a neat feeling having 50+ pounds and it’s just comfortable. However, I do not feel like it distributed the weight like the Stone Glacier and it being so mushy it almost feels like the weight is sagging and not lifted like the SG.

Personally I’m willing to sacrifice a little material comfort for the way the SG carries.

 

[Death from above]

Stone Glacier. Have 3300, love it. Wife has same, loves it. She has evo frame, I don't. Load shelf is great. Can strap it down for day hikes. Functional simplicity.
You are on target, stop in, best service, fitting and these guys really get it on innovation, performance and weight control.
I wish we had spotter pockets, only regret.

Thanks for the info

 

[Death from above]

Here is my 2 cents. I have run the Stone Glacier X curve, Krux, Exo K2, and a little Kifaru. I have countless miles and while I think both are great packs I’ll break down the pros and cons what I have found.

Stone Glacier - I love how the Stone Glacier carries weight. Load seems to sit very solid, frame is rigid and feel very little shifting. Weight is very easy to transition where you need it. I interchange from the X curve and Krux from time to time as I train with my packs 3-5 days a week, they both feel pretty similar to me. I do think the X curve fits my body a little better but am happy with either one. Saying the pack is rigid and carries weight great i feel everything about it is just that and not overly plush. I

Exo K2: the one thing I felt with the Exo immediately is its very comfortable. It’s feels to me almost like I have a memory foam belt and shoulder straps on. It’s a neat feeling having 50+ pounds and it’s just comfortable. However, I do not feel like it distributed the weight like the Stone Glacier and it being so mushy it almost feels like the weight is sagging and not lifted like the SG.

Personally I’m willing to sacrifice a little material comfort for the way the SG carries.

Thank for the info.

 

[Krieg Hetzen]

Another vote for the SG X-Curve. I ordered one and have been using it for pack training. It doesnt fatigue my neck and shoulders, sits on my hips well and makes the weight feel lighter than it really is. I have nothing bad to say about it after running mine 2-3 times a week since October.

 

[Death from above]

Another vote for the SG X-Curve. I ordered one and have been using it for pack training. It doesnt fatigue my neck and shoulders, sits on my hips well and makes the weight feel lighter than it really is. I have nothing bad to say about it after running mine 2-3 times a week since October.

Thank you.

 

[Fins_N_Tines]

Here is my 2 cents. I have run the Stone Glacier X curve, Krux, Exo K2, and a little Kifaru. I have countless miles and while I think both are great packs I’ll break down the pros and cons what I have found.

Stone Glacier - I love how the Stone Glacier carries weight. Load seems to sit very solid, frame is rigid and feel very little shifting. Weight is very easy to transition where you need it. I interchange from the X curve and Krux from time to time as I train with my packs 3-5 days a week, they both feel pretty similar to me. I do think the X curve fits my body a little better but am happy with either one. Saying the pack is rigid and carries weight great i feel everything about it is just that and not overly plush. I

Exo K2: the one thing I felt with the Exo immediately is its very comfortable. It’s feels to me almost like I have a memory foam belt and shoulder straps on. It’s a neat feeling having 50+ pounds and it’s just comfortable. However, I do not feel like it distributed the weight like the Stone Glacier and it being so mushy it almost feels like the weight is sagging and not lifted like the SG.

Personally I’m willing to sacrifice a little material comfort for the way the SG carries.

This is pretty much spot on to my experience. I absolutelyl love the Xcurve frame; however, i'm trying the Kifaru duplex lite right now which so far as been amazing. The Xcurve kept giving me discomfort on my front right hip. I tried everything different size belts and SG even sent me a belt with different foam. There customer service was aewsome, but so far the kifaru frame/belt fits feels much better for me. I did a couple 3-4 mile hikes with 60lbs and the load felt like 45lbs.

 

[Death from above]

This is pretty much spot on to my experience. I absolutelyl love the Xcurve frame; however, i'm trying the Kifaru duplex lite right now which so far as been amazing. The Xcurve kept giving me discomfort on my front right hip. I tried everything different size belts and SG even sent me a belt with different foam. There customer service was aewsome, but so far the kifaru frame/belt fits feels much better for me. I did a couple 3-4 mile hikes with 60lbs and the load felt like 45lbs.

Thank you for the input.

 

[wind gypsy]

Here is my 2 cents. I have run the Stone Glacier X curve, Krux, Exo K2, and a little Kifaru. I have countless miles and while I think both are great packs I’ll break down the pros and cons what I have found.

Stone Glacier - I love how the Stone Glacier carries weight. Load seems to sit very solid, frame is rigid and feel very little shifting. Weight is very easy to transition where you need it. I interchange from the X curve and Krux from time to time as I train with my packs 3-5 days a week, they both feel pretty similar to me. I do think the X curve fits my body a little better but am happy with either one. Saying the pack is rigid and carries weight great i feel everything about it is just that and not overly plush. I

Exo K2: the one thing I felt with the Exo immediately is its very comfortable. It’s feels to me almost like I have a memory foam belt and shoulder straps on. It’s a neat feeling having 50+ pounds and it’s just comfortable. However, I do not feel like it distributed the weight like the Stone Glacier and it being so mushy it almost feels like the weight is sagging and not lifted like the SG.

Personally I’m willing to sacrifice a little material comfort for the way the SG carries.

I feel the same way about these two. SG feels more rigid and restrictive on your back compared to exo but the belt stays up on my hips better than the k2 did. The K2 felt almost too plush under a heavy load to where the lumbar pad feels squished and overworked. I still prefer the K2 with a heavy load to the SO Revo frame or 2nd Gen Kifaru hunting duplex I had.

I'll say, the 4800 bag will have more convenient bells and whistles for organization than an evo 40/56.

 

[cornfedkiller]

No experience with the exo, but have been running an x-curve for almost a year and love it. It carries a heavy load incredibly comfortable and I love the load shelf. At first I wasn't sure about the comfort, but moving the lumbar pad just a 1/2" made a huge difference for me.

My only complaint about SG is that I don't love the bag layouts other than the 5900. I like having front access, some external pockets for water bottle, quick-grab items, etc. I would probably get used to whatever I used, but its just what I'm used to. I run a Kuiu 1850 on my SG frame for my daypack because I like the pocket configuration much better.

You have the right idea heading over to SG and letting them get you fitted though!

 

[Fins_N_Tines]

This is pretty much spot on to my experience. I absolutelyl love the Xcurve frame; however, i'm trying the Kifaru duplex lite right now which so far as been amazing. The Xcurve kept giving me discomfort on my front right hip. I tried everything different size belts and SG even sent me a belt with different foam. There customer service was aewsome, but so far the kifaru frame/belt fits feels much better for me. I did a couple 3-4 mile hikes with 60lbs and the load felt like 45lbs.

Update: After couple more days of testing both SG and Kifaru head to head my pros/cons list gave the nod to the Stone Glacier. At least I know now. For me the SG just checked more boxs.

 

[bojangles808]

i have used both and kept the stone glacier x curve. it fit me better with a heavy load. you wont know what fits you best though until you try them with a load. they are a little like boots, everyone will fit someone a little different

 

[Dsmiley49]

Good info guys! I think you swayed me to SG

 

[ljalberta]

Thank you. I plan on visiting SG in a couple of weeks myself, but would love to hear yours, or anyone else's experiences.

Update on first impressions. The EVO frame was unbelievabley light. Also, I usually couldn't care less for color, but the EVO shade of coloring is awful slick. Unfortunately it didn't fit my back nearly as nice as the other frames. Additionally, one needs to take extra care when strapping down the pack to ensure it doesn't barrel. If it fits your back though, then I think it's an ounce counters dream pack.

The Xcurve is the one I'm keeping for now. It simply fit my back the best out of the two SG's and really seems to lock in place. Additionally, it doesn't barrel quite as easy.

I really like the Exo as well, and I'll compare the Xcurve and Exo some more this spring during bear season as they both seems to feel real nice and comfortable with 50lbs. We'll see what works best with some heavy loads.

A couple more initial observations:

- I really like the size of the SG lumbar pads. They seems to nestle nicely in my back. (All testing has been down with 50lbs so far).
- Build quality seems to be fairly high across SG/Kifaru/Exo. I do have one issue/concern with the sewing QC on the SG belt though. I'll reach out and see what they say though.
- The Exo/Kifaru style of belt power pulls is far better to me than the SG style. The belt is much easier to adjust on the fly with them compared to the SG style.
- The Kifaru belt really is at another level in terms of comfort and fit for me. We'll see if the SG/Exo grow more on me.
- The Kifaru is in fact probably the most comfortable of all to me currently. But again, we'll see if more time to dial in and make fine adjustments changes anything.
- One knock on the SG Xcurve is the back of my head hits the top of the frame when I lean my head back. I had a similar problem with a 26" Kifaru frame, but don't have the issue with the 24" frame or the Exo. I'm 5'9" with about a 30" inseam.

Really they're all great packs, and as much as eating the shipping costs sucks, it's pretty excellent to be able to get them all in hand to compare.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I have a stone glacier 40/56 on an xcurve frame, it’s a great setup, I have a quick sheep hunting trip planned this year (5 days) and I’ll use it for that. My kifaru pack is great too though, as much as I wanted to just go with stone glacier, every time I throw on my kifaru I just can’t believe how well it fits and carries.

 

[*zap*]

SG recommends the krux frame for shorter torsos.

- One knock on the SG Xcurve is the back of my head hits the top of the frame when I lean my head back. I had a similar problem with a 26" Kifaru frame, but don't have the issue with the 24" frame or the Exo. I'm 5'9" with about a 30" inseam.

 

[renagde]

Update on first impressions. The EVO frame was unbelievabley light. Also, I usually couldn't care less for color, but the EVO shade of coloring is awful slick. Unfortunately it didn't fit my back nearly as nice as the other frames. Additionally, one needs to take extra care when strapping down the pack to ensure it doesn't barrel. If it fits your back though, then I think it's an ounce counters dream pack.

The Xcurve is the one I'm keeping for now. It simply fit my back the best out of the two SG's and really seems to lock in place. Additionally, it doesn't barrel quite as easy.

I really like the Exo as well, and I'll compare the Xcurve and Exo some more this spring during bear season as they both seems to feel real nice and comfortable with 50lbs. We'll see what works best with some heavy loads.

A couple more initial observations:

- I really like the size of the SG lumbar pads. They seems to nestle nicely in my back. (All testing has been down with 50lbs so far).
- Build quality seems to be fairly high across SG/Kifaru/Exo. I do have one issue/concern with the sewing QC on the SG belt though. I'll reach out and see what they say though.
- The Exo/Kifaru style of belt power pulls is far better to me than the SG style. The belt is much easier to adjust on the fly with them compared to the SG style.
- The Kifaru belt really is at another level in terms of comfort and fit for me. We'll see if the SG/Exo grow more on me.
- The Kifaru is in fact probably the most comfortable of all to me currently. But again, we'll see if more time to dial in and make fine adjustments changes anything.
- One knock on the SG Xcurve is the back of my head hits the top of the frame when I lean my head back. I had a similar problem with a 26" Kifaru frame, but don't have the issue with the 24" frame or the Exo. I'm 5'9" with about a 30" inseam.

Really they're all great packs, and as much as eating the shipping costs sucks, it's pretty excellent to be able to get them all in hand to compare.

I'm assuming the Exo you tried was the new K3 frame?