Pack back sheet question?

[howlinmadman]

My son has a North Face Terra 55 youth pack. The pack is pretty heavy at a little over 4lbs. I was thinking about taking out the plastic back sheet with the two aluminum stays attached to it, this would save almost a pound. I loaded it up and had him try it with and without the back sheet and he thought it was ok without. Is there any reason I shouldn't do this?

[bigcranky]

Depends on the total weight he is carrying and how comfortable he is with a frameless rucksack. The basic issue with removing the frame is that there is then zero load transfer to the hips - it all basically hangs from the shoulders. That's fine for a little while but for me it gets old fast when the total weight gets over 20 pounds, and I expect that number would be much lower for kids. In general, the human body can carry a lot more weight a lot more comfortably on the hips than the shoulders.

I'd want to try it for a long dayhike before I'd take it on a multiday hike.