Gear Modifications

[bigphoto]

Im wondering what kinds of modifications people make to their gear to make it more functional and/or lighter?

For example, do you cut straps off packs? Swap out manufacturer's components?

How much of a weight reduction have you been able to achieve? And what mods really made a huge difference functionally (perhaps even at the expense of adding a little weight)?

And have you ever made mods that you later regretted?

[Christoph]

I have an older kelty Santa fe pack. I cut the straps off the top (is supposed to double as a fanny pack type thing). Seems nothing is within reach unless you remove the pack so I made a small pouch up front to hold a camera for quick camera shots. That's about it for the pack. The rest little odds and ends like not taking the 14 stakes my tent came with (only taking 6 & it's still perfectly functional), added a quick release to the top of the tent so I don't have to tIe it. Just little things to make it easier and last longer.

[tarditi]

I have a army surplus ECWS sleep system and cut the draft tube off of the patrol bag - it's now a great ~45 degree bag and packs down MUCH smaller. Is a little lighter, too. My buddy did a similar thing but also cut off the zipper - ultralight now.

[BirdBrain]

Where do I start?

Pack: Cut off every strap, loop, divider, zipper, water bag sleeve, and left brain behind (many would agree). Bag is now a glorified rucksack with superior suspension. Kept back and side mesh pockets.

Cook set: 7 gram eCHS, no pot stand (use lip of grease pot to rest on dyi 2 piece cone), cut down pot gripper, replaced lid knob, and use 2 loop shock cord in x pattern to hold kit together instead of stuff sack.

Sleep system: No stuff sack for bag or pad. I keep air pad in Big Agnes bag sleeve. Whole thing gets segmented rolled and stuffed into pillow attachment sleeve of bag. Resulting blob goes in trash compactor bag 1st.

Tent: Replaced stuff sack with jimmyjam cuben fiber sack. Replaced stakes with gutter nails. Replaced stuff sack for poles with shock cord loops.

Water filtration: Covered those mods in Sawyer Squeeze thread. http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...=1#post1960815

Food: Studied calorie densities. Now carry 1.3 lbs at 3000+ calories per day all repackaged in ziplocks and stored in jimmyjam cuben fiber food bag. Covered food in Calories thread. http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...=1#post1959866 Use pint size freezer bags instead of quart size. Larger size not needed. Smaller size allows for smaller dyi reflectix cozy and smaller spoon.

That is enough for now. There are a bunch of mods to tiny items like watch and light and lighter and storage for Bronners etc that would really tip the non gram weenie over. I think I have done enough damage..... but I might be back to cause more.

[Jedeye]

If it's not necessary it gets cut. And that means everything - I once ripped a embroidered logo of of a piece of gear. My Ti cooking pot had two handles that came together to make one, so I removed one of them. Foam sleeping pad cut down to bare minimum. Turned my mummy bag into a quilt(that was a decent weight and space saver!). For the most part modifications only make a small difference - it's learning what you don't need that saves a lot.

One way I like to think about cutting down gear goes back to the toothbrush. How much weight do you save cutting a toothbrush in half? It's not much, perhaps .25oz? I'm not really sure, but whatever it is I cut the weight of my toothbrush by 50%! If only I could do that with every piece of equipment!

[fastfoxengineering]

Once the ultralight craziness sets in.. you can become really really really critical about your gear. Not necessarily a bad thing because you learn more about that piece of equipment, it's function, and how to apply it.

But for beginners, cutting extra long pack straps is a great place to start. It truly is dead weight. There is no benefit to having material on your pack that is never utilized. You then begin to apply that elsewhere. I cut the hydration pouch out of my pack. I'll never use it. It weighed 1oz.

When you begin to apply that to EVERY little item in your pack, it adds up to a surprising amount of weight. A few oz's might not matter to some, but some of us cut weight as a hobby.

I remove the inner cardboard roll out of my TP rolls. it's lighter and packs easier. it's also not "insane". doesn't take more than 5 seconds.

Why carry the container the dental floss comes in when you just need the roll its wound on?

Trim, trim, trim and keep all your trimmings. Throw it on a scale. It may surprise you. So far mines been about 8oz's.

[Sandy of PA]

I have shortened large Neo-air to save weight but get the width I need.

[HeartFire]

I modified the new Granite Gear Blaze pack -I took off the line locks and cords for cinching the bag down, and replaced them with webbing and buckles. The bag is a PU coated nylon, so the cinch cord in the neck is 'sticky' and doesn't cinch up easily, so I opened it up and lined the cord channel with silnylon - it now functions much more smoothly. I absolutely hate the contoured foam pad in the back, so I replaced it with the pad out of my old nimubs ozone that was falling apart. I didn't like the new belt, so I modified the old belt to work with it.

So, more or less, I have a nimbus ozone frame with a new blaze bag on it! I don't think I lost weight, may have added a smidgen, but it works, and that's what counts in my book. If it were 3 oz lighter but gave me a headache to use it - well, that wouldn't be worth it to me.

[gcobb1990]

Good question! I've been curious to see what other people do too. Cutting things can have a huge impact when done consistently. Every single thing in my pack has been modified. I cut the edges of the neoair xlite narrowed, the edges of my platypus, all pack straps were shortened, zipper pulls were replaced with a thin string, attachment for straps for my quilt were cut, matches in a tiny baggie rather than box, all tags cut, straps for trekking poles sewed and cut, headlamp headband cut, and of course toothbrush cut . I carry a 5" iphone charger instead of a long one, use a thin trash bag rather than trash compactor bag, use the thin plastic bottles over the heavier gatorade bottles. The only regret I've had is looking back at old pictures and seeing all the useless crap I carried

[BirdBrain]

spice_time_4_pack_food_coloring_00559.jpg
These bottles can be bought at your local dollar store for.... wait for it.... a dollar. Empty the contents. Pry the insert out (comes out easy with thumb nail). Fill and replace insert. I use the caps as color codes to tell me what is inside. It is a bit creative, but works for me. Yellow is for sunblock (I think color of sun). Green is for DEET (I think nature's pests). Blue is for Dr Bronner's (I think B for Blue and Bronner's). Red is for hand sanitizer (I think Red ... Pink ... P is for Pink and Purell). It is a bit of a stretch on the colors, but I am never confused. The Yellow and Green say in my smalls bag. I never use either. The Blue and the Red get topped off at every resupply.

[Walkintom]

I usually seek gear that meets my desire rather than trying to mod it. More often than not, I eliminate something entirely instead of modifying something. Not always possible, of course, but it does really help me determine need vs. want.

That stated, I have removed brain from pack and left it at home. I tend to replace gear sacks with stuff sacks of my choice.

[Deacon]

Once the ultralight craziness sets in.. you can become really really really critical about your gear. Not necessarily a bad thing because you learn more about that piece of equipment, it's function, and how to apply it.

But for beginners, cutting extra long pack straps is a great place to start. It truly is dead weight. There is no benefit to having material on your pack that is never utilized. You then begin to apply that elsewhere. I cut the hydration pouch out of my pack. I'll never use it. It weighed 1oz.

When you begin to apply that to EVERY little item in your pack, it adds up to a surprising amount of weight. A few oz's might not matter to some, but some of us cut weight as a hobby.

I remove the inner cardboard roll out of my TP rolls. it's lighter and packs easier. it's also not "insane". doesn't take more than 5 seconds.

Why carry the container the dental floss comes in when you just need the roll its wound on?

Trim, trim, trim and keep all your trimmings. Throw it on a scale. It may surprise you. So far mines been about 8oz's.

This is what I keep telling people. They've got to look at each individual item separately, no matter how small. I get laughed at when I tell them I try to replace a 1 oz. item with a 0.5 oz. one. If that thinking is carried over to every single item, pack weight would be cut in half!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[BirdBrain]

1428767835120_IMG_20150411_115700_151.jpg

Some hikers light their alcohol stove by dipping a twig in alcohol in their stove, lighting the twig, and then lighting their stove with the twig. This is my twig. It is made out of carbon fiber felt and .035 stainless steel wire. It was hard to get a picture of it, so I put a 3x5 card on the scale, zeroed it, then took a picture this way to show weight. Carbon fiber felt has a working temperature threshold of 1000F. Methanol burns at 1950F. However, the wicking effect of the fuel keeps the material from melting. It takes me about 4 hrs to build an eCHS that I like. I do not want to put bark in my stove. Therefore I created this item. It has the added benefit of being absorbent. This makes it easy to burn off the excess fuel in the stove after I have snuffed it and recovered the unburnt fuel.

[Feral Bill]

I don't change a thing, except for replacing a worn out hip belt on mu 70s era external frame pack.

[Tprunty8]

I added a water bottle holder to my hip belt. It's really about convenience, not weight, though. I carry a Gatorade bottle that rides right in front of my left hipbone, just ahead of that small side pouch. My water is always available there instead of the incredibly awkwardly position of the side pockets of my Osprey. This did allow me to save the weight of my Camelback and keep all potentially leaky water sources out of the main body of the pack.

[BirdBrain]

1428783250692_IMG_20141010_125308_287.jpg

I carry my water bottles like this. They are held on by shock cord.
Coca-Cola-Gold-Peak-tea-rapidly-on-its-way-to-becoming-a-1bn-brand_medium_vga.jpg
I use this type of bottle because of the wide mouth for ease of use and deep grooves to hold the shock cord.

[fastfoxengineering]

This is what I keep telling people. They've got to look at each individual item separately, no matter how small. I get laughed at when I tell them I try to replace a 1 oz. item with a 0.5 oz. one. If that thinking is carried over to every single item, pack weight would be cut in half!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I agree, my brother has laughed at me when he sees me weighing tiny, already "light" items on my scale. But like you said, making a 2oz item a 1oz item is a 50% reduction in weight. That's huge when you think of it in relative terms. If you take all your hygiene items and find a way to repackage them in containers which weigh half of the original container, you reduce your hygiene kit 50%. It a simple concept, but many don't put in the time or effort it takes to be so critical.

I also feel I've acquired much more than a lighter pack by critically cutting weight in my pack. I believe through the experience, I have learned much more about the functionality of gear, their limitations, and that no gear is perfect for every situation. My back country skills and knowledge have grown exponentially through my "going lighter" transformation.

Usually the first thing I have to explain to people that I'm safe out there. And believe it or not, just because they have 40lbs of gear on their back, I could very well be better well off with my 11lb pack in the given scenario.

Keep on modifying your gear everyone! Pushing the limits if fun

[Rolex]

To use my pot over a campfire.

I've added a bail made from a piece of small cable to my evernew ti .9 pot with a small v bent into the cable just off center. Not my idea I stole it from Zelph of fancee feast stove fame. His is nicer.
Drilled two holes in pot and tied a figure 8 knot in each end to hold it. Crimped the v in it with the diagonal pliars used to cut the cable(I think 1/8 or 1/16" size) with. The V keeps the bail from sliding sideways and dumping your food out. kitchen kit goes in pot and the bail kinda coils up inside before putting the fry pan lid on. I've used this a lot since doing it.

[zelph]

1428783250692_IMG_20141010_125308_287.jpg

I carry my water bottles like this. They are held on by shock cord.
Coca-Cola-Gold-Peak-tea-rapidly-on-its-way-to-becoming-a-1bn-brand_medium_vga.jpg
I use this type of bottle because of the wide mouth for ease of use and deep grooves to hold the shock cord.

I like that idea, good thinking.

[BirdBrain]

I like that idea, good thinking.

I cannot claim this one. I borrowed it from 1azarus or Stick. I am not sure who I saw it from 1st. I modified it to my needs, but did not invent it.