Hip belts on daypacks

you need to put it on with some weight in it,, a decent shop will have sand bags to put in so you can see what its like, bivouac shops have them... comes down to how much weight you will have in it and how it feels with that weight in it.. shop around. I hate narrow belts on packs, when its like a thin seat belt, the edges can dig in and create friction between your clothes and skin... personally i'd steer clear of it... macpac are doing some new things with their designs, may just be some theory someones come up with about not needing a decent belt... i always prefer a decent belt on all but the smallest of packs... look at their AMP series instead, made for adventure racing.. on the lightweight side but the material is still pretty resilient. i've got the amp 12, its only 7 litres though, i find its a great pack, good for summer walks... i find their normal range of packs are overkill for the material they use for day walks unless you're doing some serious bush bashing. i had a 24 litre i think it was and ditched it for black diamond packs which you can't buy in nz.. better harness system, more flexible and comfortable... theie AMP series though have been tried and tested with mountain racers and been out there for years.. http://www.macpac.co.nz/packs/packs-endurance

izogi - i'd put money on B.

So would I. That makes no sense at all.

Possibly a clue is in them categorising it as a 'daypack', distinct from their trek/hiking range, which include the Heaphy 25 & Amp 25 ?. Weight bearing is supposed to be on the hips. Suggests the Vented 30 is not so much for heavy-load tramping ?. Drop them a line ?. ps. My pack feels much lighter when I tweak the hip belt to take the weight off the shoulders. Shoulders are supposed to be for stability/pack alignment.

I have a 20l pack that has little more than flat string for a waist belt. Its too high to be a hip belt and that pack was never built to take much more than a jersey lunch first aid kit and parka. It also folds down to the size of a 2 minute noodle pouch so can fit in my real pack if there is a short day walk from tramping destination. The belt stops it swinging round but thats all it really needs I would expect though that as soon as your carrying a proper pack that a hip belt should do at least a fair portion of the load carrying. In saying that though some expert was quoted on this forum a year or so back stating that hip and chest belts are only put there to compensate for poor shoulder harness design. I dont know how old the article being quoted was

Thanks for the thoughts. Yes what drew me to that line (in the Macpac shop) is that I'd be using it 80% of the time for suburbia and around town or mixed up types of routes. For this I like the zips (instead of lids) for easy access, and you don't tend to get them so much in more specialist tramping/hiking daypacks. I'm after something a little over 25L because I have a heap of stuff I just tend to carry around everywhere and then like some space for whatever other random things I might acquire during a day. AMP might be alright except they seem to lose the zips when they get larger. The Macpac staff explanation didn't really add up to me, but I didn't feel like pressing it. I guess I was just curious if people actually find that hip belts are genuinely less useful with daypacks. I'm repeatedly surprised at how few normal people seem to actually use them, but I guess if you've never immersed yourself in backpack ergnomics then hip belts probably just seem like an unnecessary annoyance anyway. :) Anyway, I went for a quick walk around town today. I didn't find anything which looked perfect for what I want, but am leaning towards grabbing one of these. http://www.torpedo7.co.nz/products/D5BGYRR07/title/deuter-futura-28-daypack I had an older model of the same thing about 10 years ago and it worked out well. It's just a shame that I can't get it locally. As far as I can tell there's nobody stocking Deuter stuff in Wellington right now. I've had enough outdoor stuff fail under warranty that I quite appreciate being able to just drop things into the retailer nearby and let them figure it out.

have a look at bivouac and the osprey models...

Another one to consider - have a look at the 'Airzone' models from Lowe Alpine http://www.lowealpine.co.nz/contents/en-us/d9_Lowe_Alpine_Packs_for_Hiking.html I have the 35l model - it's a very comfortable pack and is big enough to carry everything you need for a Winter day out. The hipbelt is lightly padded but nice and wide so it doesn't dig in, and I like the way the airzone system holds the pack away from your back. FCO have Deuter stuff....although most of it has probably been sent back to Oz by now (did anyone else notice how most of the good stuff disappeared before the closing down sale started) :-)

My smallest day pack is an old Salomon "XHiking" model. With it I find the hip belt is a big help. I also added a light chest strap which is an improvement for when skiing, jogging etc. With both belts done up the pack and load feel like part of your body and its great to wear.