water bladder on outside of pack?

[sir limpsalot]

i've been searching for past threads on this...must have been discussed before. it just seems like it would be easier to attach a camelbak unbottle to the outside of a pack. easy to refill. easy to remove and take down to water source. having 2-4# that far out from your back isn't ideal...but how bad would it really be on an osprey aether 70 with frame support loaded to 40#?

[bigcranky]

I did that a couple of times when the water source was before the shelter, so I loaded up my Platy water bag and clipped it to the back of my pack. Having a couple of liters of water that far from my back made a huge difference in comfort -- basically it sucked. Part of that might be b/c it was the end of a long day, of course. But it was noticeable, in a bad way.

[garlic08]

I met a guy with a home-made pack with that feature, and he said it was a mistake.

Not only center of gravity issues, but exposure to punctures (fence wire, hardware, etc).

[Toolshed]

Ditto - water bottles/platypus's placed too far from your back inside or outside of the pack can really make you miserable. It throws your balance off and makes the load seem almost 2x as heavy.

[Mother Nature]

I use an Osprey and place the water bladder on top of the loaded pack after it has been secured; the interior is lined with a waterproof bag.

I pull the lid down over the water bladder. This makes it easy to see how much water is left by just unclipping the lid.

[sir limpsalot]

got it, thanks. ....like the possibility of top of pack, might try that.

[russb]

I have put mine in the side mesh pocket of my thompson peak pack. I don't fill it much more than 1.5L at a time though. It is so easy to refill there, I do not need to overload it. With an extremely low pack weight to begin with, it isn't uncomfortable at all.

[wcgornto]

I carried a 2L Camelback in the outside mesh pocket on the left side of my Six Moon Design Starlyte pack from Maine to Georgia. I did not have any balance / weight distribution issues. I had other items in the right outside pocket so I guess these items balanced things out. I also think the hip belt carried and distributed weitght pretty well.

I did carry my Camelback in the back mesh pocket one day. That did affect balance and I did not do that again.

[GeneralLee10]

I use an Osprey and place the water bladder on top of the loaded pack after it has been secured; the interior is lined with a waterproof bag.

I pull the lid down over the water bladder. This makes it easy to see how much water is left by just unclipping the lid.

I have done that with my z65 before and it worked okay. I no longer use the bladder hey are to much of a hassle or the pack. lol

[buz]

I have that pack, and practice hiking for a Philmont boy scout trip, I loaded it up with different weights, and the pack carries a lot better with a load lower than 35 pounds. That is still a lot of weight, but there was significant difference in feel at 40 vs. 30-35, above and beyond the obvious actual weight difference. Just fyi. Go light young man, lol.

[flemdawg1]

I put my Hydration bladder in the side water bottle pocket of my GG Nimbus Ozone (and all my packs for that matter). Clip the cinch strap thru the cap lanyard. Never noticed excessive weight or balance issues, full vs empty. Dont like keeping bladder inside the pack or on top inccase of a leak.

[Miner]

Carrying the bladder outside your pack does have some disadvantages. One is it can get a hole easier when your pack snags something (say when crawling under a blowdown). It can effect your balance also. Carrying it on the rear of the pack which would pull the pack backwards. To me, carrying water on topt seems to make the whole pack harder to carry since its top heavy and thus always moving around.

That said, there are occasions when I do carry my bladder outside due to the inside being too full (say when using a bearcan or carrying 10days of food). When I do carry outside, I normally use one of the side mesh pockets to carry a 2 to 3L bladder. I make sure to use a counter weight on the other side(usually a quart water bottle). THis seems to carry pretty balanced so that I don't notice it. The upper part of the bladder is supported by either a compression strap on my ULA conduit; or in the case with my larger ULA circuit which the compression strap is too high, I remove the internal bladder sleeve from inside the pack and mout it to a compression strap so that the bladder doesn't fold over while hiking. The lower part is inside the mesh side pocket.

But in general, I don't normally have a problem pulling out and pushing in my bladder from its internal hydration pocket inside my pack. Since the pack carries better and the water stays colder, this is my preferred method to carry. The ease of inserting a bladder in a full pack is part technique and partly due to the fact that my pack's internal volume is often made up by my unstuffed sleeping bag. My pack carries better when its full so I allow my sleeping bag to fill the internal space up. This makes it easy to make room when reinserting my bladder. If you are worried about it leaking, just make sure there is nothing below it that you care about getting wet (ie. your sleeping bag) unless its in a plastic bag.