Reflective tape attachment position

Light reflective tape, safety strip must be positioned in the way it can be effective.

Considering auto’s lights are lower than backpack height, considering human body leans forward, I’ve figured reflective device position that really makes sense.

It is bottom and front of an AUX pack showed.

 

“Envelope” tourniquet pouch – prototype

Closed (fully covered) pouches for tourniquets are necessary. Don’t even try to change my mind. So my version is below, it is quick and simple. In Russian: here.

Dimensions of pouch (footprint) are 22 cm * 7 cm, as pictured, but note that it include seam allowances, see further.

Scalable Day-load Rucksack, SDR, clamshell pack

Interesting thing about packs’ volume I’d noticed personally, and later seen similiar point in the results of poll on some web forum – most needed and used are packs around 25 liters. City or outdoor, no except.

The time had come for me to build a clamshell pack.

To be honest, the most challenging feature was top pocket, Condor Fuel inspired. I like the original pocket, and I like my (bigger) version.

But let’s start from the most important side – the back.

AUX pack – second prototype

Rare thing for me – disassembling the piece of gear and assembling it improved. Now, AUX pack is heavily modified to the degree it can be considered a new pack. Let’s inspect it entirely.

The most important part of backpack is back and straps. Back seems the same, with the seatbelt strap to prevent abrasive action on clothing, but slot for frame sheet is equipped with another pad, making back more solid.

Padded backpack straps – simple, fast and comfortable

After making a padded straps for the AUX pack, I’ve figured another design, even simpler.

Take a piece of fabric and fold with sewin its narrow sides. Take a wide (around 5 cm) strap and sew a piece of fabric along one side of a strap. Sew soft hooks for pack and strap ends.

Sew second side of fabric to the same side of a strap, turn inside out, insert foam padding into the sleeve, sew shut both ends of fabric. Sew hook and loop surfaces on the strap, so it can be secured in the appropriate slot on pack’s back.

In the sewing process, strap becomes slightly curved just in desired way.

 

Update step-by-step

Two-fold seat pad, seater, seating mat

Made a seat pad of my own design and simple pattern, here is a step-by-step tutorial. In Russian: here.

Shematic is really simple, sorry for the crappy pic.

Zipper cover, lip over zipper, brim, canopy

Rain, snow and dust cover for zipper is not necessary on a packs, but _if_ you want to make it, you must consider the problem with zipper chewing the cover.

I have solved it two ways: wide lip with strap inside it, not covering the entire zipper, and narrow lip all over the zipper, with strap inside it.

Strap used on the camo pack is ~5 cm wide, so it covers both main and pocket zippers. Strap used on green pack is 3 cm wide.

Identification bicep wrap, armband

I am so tired of seeing duct tape of all kinds, or random rags, in the identification role, so made a prototype of tacticool ID.

Smock modification: even less hood/visor and chest pockets to the butt

 

Belt loop to PALs adapter – prototype

More than six years ago I posted a concept, so now look at the modified version. Previous design allowed to attach narrow pouches with distance between outer sides of loops nearly 8 cm. Current design is built around pouches with outer sides of loops as distant as 12 cm.