balancing out your pack.

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In terms of an overnight or 2 night trip, does anyone here carry stuff on their chest to balance out the load?
I know there are chest packs available, but they seem to be small and for incidentals only.

How do you all distribute your load?
 
A well fitting hip belt and "load lifter" straps that attach high enough about the shoulder to help.

Note, this is very weight dependent. The lighter the load, the less hip belts, stays/frames and load lifters are needed. The heavier the load, the more critical they are.

On a full sized pack, the hip belt should have pronounced pockets to catch the pointy bit of your hip bones and the hip belt should be stiff enough to bear the weight of the pack without buckling. If this is true, then you have a big lever system on your back with fulcrum on your hips. The load lifters pull on the top of that fulcrum, balancing and transferring the weight to your hips. Very important to have no folds in you clothing at the hips.

The other strategy is to try to reduce weight. If you can get your pack weight down to 25lbs, then a basic rucksack does fine without worrying about weight transfer to the hips, at least not as much. I've found that making a scrupulous packing list and redoing it several times is a good way to shed weight.

Hope this helps
 
Pinnah's comments are excellent. :thumbup:

I can only add that I often use a chest pack in conjunction with a backpack - a Hill People Gear "Kit Bag." I love it for all the things that I like to be able to access quickly and easily while on the trail, and it definitely frees up some space in my pack, allowing me to go with a smaller backpack. But I wouldn't want to have anything larger on my chest to "balance the load" on my back, or it would just be too cumbersome and obstrusive.

Typical contents of my Kit Bag include:

M0K6vN.jpg
 
Personally I wear my binos on the front and everything else goes in the back. Sometimes you have to lean ahead to balance. When using this technique I find a good trekking pole really helps.



 
I use a chest pack sometimes along with a backpack, but I attempt to keep it as light as possible.

On my first southbound trip of the AT, I carried too much stuff and weight in a 5.5lb Gregory Shasta. That pack made it "easy" to carry the weight, but I grew tired of taking it off to get things out. It has a serious hip-belt, so I bought four water bottle pouches to carry all the snacks and miscellaneous things I might want while on the move.

I still like that approach today, although most things I use are lighter in weight than what I used way back then.

I don't think it's important to try to balance things by putting weight on the front of the body. The backpack should provide adequate support and be packed so that it is evenly distributed left to right with heavier items close to the back.

Some ideas:

If you wouldn't carry it on a two week trip, make sure you really want it if you carry it for a two day trip.

If you use a chest pack, make sure you can see where you're putting your feet and make sure it doesn't negatively affect your breathing.

Keep the things you'll want while moving accessible but protected and not in the way.

Stay light, and keep cool and dry.

Sunglasses/safety glasses.

Be careful what you hang around your neck, and use a safety buckle with it.
 
You're probably not going to balance a load with a chest pack, unless you use one of those specialty rigs like an Aarn chest pack, or are a photographer carrying a light pack and a bunch of lenses that are heavy for their size up front.
http://www.aarnpacks.com/ -keep in mind they are trying to sell you their packs...

For 1-2 nights, needing something to balance your load probably means you're carrying way too much crap to begin with, IMO.
'Course I've done that plenty of times with old school gear, myself, basically car camping, except several miles from a road. My current stuff is so light that it isn't even noticeable, but I love my ZPacks MultiPack used as a low-riding chest pack.
Very convenient for maps, camera, snacks, and other little stuff.

Far more important is how you pack(which can likely vary, depending on how your pack carries and distributes the weight). I got reminded of this last fall, when moving 7 days worth of food from the top to the center of my pack made a significant improvement on how the pack felt, in spite of the entire load being under 30lbs.
 
load a pack correctly
as Sideways shows is a good way to load
your tent if heavy should be just above your shoulders close to your back
depending on the roughness of the trail you will raise or lower the center of gravity of the load
a graded trail even steep will take a high center of gravity
a rough rocky trail or x c skiing will need a lower center of gravity
 
I like to have the heavy stuff near the top and the lighter stuff on the bottom.

As far as side to side sometimes until you become familiar with what you are bringing you may have to stop on the trail and move some stuff around to get it right.


But your thinking about carrying stuff on your chest to make it balance out makes me think you are carrying too much and it's pulling back on you.

As was mentioned using the various straps you can shift the weight somewhat to where it isn't doing that. However if it is STILL doing that you have too much stuff.

Your tent and your sleeping bag are going to go over, but seriously consider every peice of gear that is close to a pound.
 
I should have taken a pic of my gear and provided the details
but here are some details, sorry no pic of the gear

The backpack was given to me, a nice one with plenty of straps and waist support.

Big Agnes Insulated Air Core Sleeping Pad
Mountain Hardwear Ratio 32 Sleeping Bag
army poncho tarp (use as a tent)
4 liters of water (turned out to be more than I needed)
- 2 liters in camelbak
- 2 liters in platypus
snowpeak style propane burner,
propane
ss cup
first aid kit
woolen base layers (top and bottom) (didnt need them) but worked out good for a pillow
paracord
food (also had too much here)
flashlights


there might have been a few other small items I can't recall

This was last Sat afternoon about 1 pm when I got my stuff together. I was pressed for time fighting sunlight, in LA currently sunset is about 5:15 pm.
I had to pack and make a 50 min drive to the trail head. And then hike in however many miles and setup camp

most of you have alot more experience than me, it's hard to get outdoors into the wilderness in Los Angeles,
also, my primary experience is at the Boulder Outdoor Survival School (primitive skills) summer 2013
certainly taught me some tings about packing etc. In fact we used a woolen blanket a wraparound backpack to contain everything

I think the AARN balance pockets look interesting and worth a try

some BOSS pics if anyone is interested - https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B83wjp8PLiKmUHlBWktrNGhicTQ&usp=sharing

DSC_0014_zpshzziw1qo.jpg


DSC_0031_zps5unu8xoz.jpg


DSC_0023_zps3thsssvj.jpg
 
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After buying an HPG chest pack here in the Exchange about a year ago, I now wear it on all hikes. I initially bought it (and still use it) as a hiking-friendly concealed carry alternative to an IWB holster, but also to keep things within easy reach that would be awkward to access in a backpack, such as tissues, eyeglass lens cleaner, lighter/matches, SAK/multitool and a small flashlight. I also frequently attach a fixed blade knife via a Tek-Lok clipped to one of the straps. Meanwhile, things I don't need to get at frequently (clothes, food, etc.) live in my backpack.

I haven't tried using the HPG while in heavy winter clothes, but the only reason I can imagine not doing so would be if everything ended up in coat pockets instead, which doesn't really address the CCW matter.
 
Only time I've ever had weight on my chest is for patrols in the military for mags etc. Can't see any reason to do so camping. Carrying weight on the hips gets uncomfortable as well, most good packs have adjustment for the frame for the size of your body, always make sure you have that right, then there are straps between the shoulder-straps and the bag for distance of play, if you get that nice and snug it feels great/weight sits high and won't pull you back. Carried over 100lbs for days out like this with no problems.
Take a look into a good bivy sack to replace that poncho down the road, can roll the sleeping bag up in it, super thin, most are water resistant etc.
Can also look into a Jet boil/Mountain House meals to save some space.
Cheers
 
Off the top, AARN packs are quite popular here is australia. I've never worn one, so thats about all I know.

I'm an outdoor activity instructor so my style of doing things is based on my clients (students) needs, and that means I end up with a pretty heavy pack at times, even on non-hiking activities. Even if its in half kilometer chunks between the high ropes course, lunch and the canoing pond, it can add up.

I use a Ribz pack to keep my personal incidentals at hand. First response first aid (gloves) pocket knife (pockets and harnesses not being friendly) a snack, my sunblock and bug repellent, and all the other stuff I might want without taking my pack off, or stuff that I want always with me so I can dump that boat anchor at the first opportunity.

That ends up being about 2kg of kit, not enough to balance the main pack, and even if it was, thats just weight on my shoulders, so its not pulling the pack forward, just me down. pack balance is all in getting your load lifters set correctly. It can be a challenge, and a lot of packs will creep over time, so you need to be aware and adjust before you get sore.

I am in love with my walking sticks. they take just enough of the load when it comes to that first little bit of fatigue, and keep me going.

as for water, unless I absolutely know I can resupply, which means taps or caches, I consider 4L to be my minimum for a day. Now I'm in the tropics, so dehydration can knock you down fast. This last week we were running 32C days at 80-90% humidity, and it was killer even at an easy pace. I realize you are in winter, so its a bit different, but you should be able to carry at least that much water even if you decide to go for less.
 
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