Very sound post, my experience tends to support Brad's comments and I also have a quite curved lumbar region. To date, I have never found more comfortable packs than the Dana Design series and the subsequent Mystery Ranch models.
I can carry my original NICE "Gen. 1" frame with Load Sling, with a 75 lb. bag of sand on it quite comfortably and am short enough, that the lifters will-barely-work for me. With the 6500 and Wolf Alpha bags, this NICE and my later NICE "Overkill" work almost perfectly for me and are very comfortable. "Horses for Courses".
I will be most interested to read any reports Brad may make here should he "test drive" one of these packs by Kurt, the more activity the better in developing new gear, IMHO.
That said, and while I have mine, I wish that Dana, would bring back the Terraframe, especially in the "Shortbed" configuration as this solid external suits me perfectly and quite a few others also seem very happy with it.
