For what its worth I've been looking at a lot of packs through the net the past few days and playing with mine. I understand the load lifter concept better now if not completely. With my ILBE I can get the lifters to neutral or just barely beyond, but that's it. I certainly can't get them to 45 degrees which is what REI and Bacpacker recommend. I can get the weight on the small of my back though but really tighten the belt, for reference again I am 6'3".
My wife is a broad shouldered German and stands at 5'9". I put the pack on her, followed the fitting instructions from REI and the damn thing looks perfect. The load lifters are at a 45 deg angle or so and she stated the pack felt like it was part of her.
Now, in looking at several websites of the latest and greatest packs I noticed in the studio photos the load lifters are usually well deployed so to speak at a fairly sharp upward angle. From what I saw and understood of the field photos there are a lot of guys using these packs with the load lifters looking little different from the ones on my ILBE, way below 45 deg.
So...are they that much better?
Just my thoughts and observations since this thread got me thinking.
HD
