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Palmer
10-17-2005, 07:04
Why does the hip belt on my pack always seem to slide down? I find that if I start out with my hip belt on my hips, it begins to slide down within a few yards, and I am constantly pulling my pack up to get it back where it should be so that the weight of the pack isn't on my shoulders. This has happened on every pack that I have owned. The only way to avoid the problem is to start out with the hip belt up around my belly button and cinch it up as tight as I possibly can. It will then sag down to my hips and stay there for a couple of hours before needing adjustment. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need bigger hips (I'm a guy)?

SGT Rock
10-17-2005, 07:11
Couple of questions:

1. Are you a skinny guy?

2. How much weight are you carrying?

Palmer
10-17-2005, 09:04
Not skinny; 6', 200 lbs. My pack is usually in the 30 lb. weight range. If I only carry my stuff, I'm in the upper 20s. I often end up carrying my kids stuff, so I get up into the 30s.

SGT Rock
10-17-2005, 09:08
Based on that I can't figure why your belt would slip unless you start with it too high to begin with. The belt should cross at about the top of your hip bones for a man. If you try putting it with the belt on your navel, it will slide down.

tlbj6142
10-17-2005, 09:38
Is there a large gap under your shoulder straps? I find that when I use a pack with a longer torso length the hipbelt slides too much. I like the shoulder straps to wrap around my shoulders about 1"-2". That helps quite a bit.

Almost There
10-17-2005, 09:52
Check your shoulder straps, and also what kind of pack are you carrying, the pack may have a problem with the weight. I have this problem sometimes but usually only when I carry too much weight.

Palmer
10-17-2005, 10:33
I'll try to answer all the questions.

Sgt. Rock - If I start out with the belt on my navel, it will then slide down and ride on my hips pretty well. Even then, it will begin to slide further down after a couple hours of hiking.

tlbj6142 - There's no gap under the shoulder straps, although I wish there was. I sometimes think that I need a bigger pack, one made for longer torsos. However, the packs that I'm now using (I switch between a JanSport D-3 and a North Face Badlands) are built for long torsos, so I'm not sure that a bigger pack would help.

Almost There - The packs that I'm using are made for pretty heavy loads. I will admit that if I use the D-3 with under 30 lbs., the problem is minimized.

Thanks for the interest.

Turtle2
10-17-2005, 13:09
Perhaps a SHORTER torso pack?

Shutterbug
10-17-2005, 13:59
Why does the hip belt on my pack always seem to slide down? I find that if I start out with my hip belt on my hips, it begins to slide down within a few yards, and I am constantly pulling my pack up to get it back where it should be so that the weight of the pack isn't on my shoulders. This has happened on every pack that I have owned. The only way to avoid the problem is to start out with the hip belt up around my belly button and cinch it up as tight as I possibly can. It will then sag down to my hips and stay there for a couple of hours before needing adjustment. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need bigger hips (I'm a guy)?
I carry a Dana Design Astralplane, one of the largest packs. I entered the 100 Mile Wilderness with 12 days of food. When the hip belt kept sliding down, I solved the problem by tightening the shoulder straps. It took some experimenting, but I finally found a combination that kept most of the weight on the hip belt, but still kept it from sliding.

sliderule
10-17-2005, 14:40
What kind of pants are you wearing? If you are wearing some of those slick synthetic materials, you might want to try something else.

Palmer
10-17-2005, 16:23
I never thought about getting a pack for shorter torsos. I'll be at EMS this weekend, maybe I'll get some advice while I'm there.

I should also mention that this isn't an insurmountable problem, but I was out with my daughter and her fiance this past weekend and noticed that they strapped on their packs and didn't touch them again until they took them off. I was fiddling with mine for most of the time.