non-tri zipped internal framed alternative to the Maxpedition Vulture 2?

[Last Visible Canary]

looking for something in the size of a vulture 2 (3 day assault) that's got some kind of framing system and isn't in the camelback/mystery ranch tri-zip set up. For the time being lets say money is no object. (In reality I only want to spend as much as I spent on the vulture, but I realize that may not be possible). I really like heavier bags like mystery ranch, when I stacked my one kelty against them the construction just left something to be desired.

Any suggestions?

 

[grunt soldier]

are you saying that the mystery ranch quality was lacking or the kelty was lacking. i have a 3 day assualt pack with the new bvs system in it from mystery ranch and its amazing. carries great with no prolbems and is amazing quality with a great warranty if something did go wrong. if you set it up for your personal size and what not they work great and carry amazing. i see you don't want the trizip so that may be why mystery ranch is out. and for the price of the vulture price range i am not sure. sorry on to my suggestion

check out kifaru they are expensive but great packs also. i love the trizip which is why i switched over to mystery ranch but i carried a kifaru all over iraq and it was a very solid pack. i am not sure of many more with internal frames though. sorry not much help lol

ohh also you could go with the mystery ranch S.A.L.T pack its not trizip and has the internal frame and is actually lighter than the 3 day assualt pack and got a bit more room

http://www.mysteryranch.com/s.nl/it.A/id.13015/.f?sc=7&category=45

 

[Last Visible Canary]

are you saying that the mystery ranch quality was lacking or the kelty was lacking. i have a 3 day assualt pack with the new bvs system in it from mystery ranch and its amazing. carries great with no prolbems and is amazing quality with a great warranty if something did go wrong. if you set it up for your personal size and what not they work great and carry amazing. i see you don't want the trizip so that may be why mystery ranch is out. and for the price of the vulture price range i am not sure. sorry on to my suggestion

check out kifaru they are expensive but great packs also. i love the trizip which is why i switched over to mystery ranch but i carried a kifaru all over iraq and it was a very solid pack. i am not sure of many more with internal frames though. sorry not much help lol

ohh also you could go with the mystery ranch S.A.L.T pack its not trizip and has the internal frame and is actually lighter than the 3 day assualt pack and got a bit more room

http://www.mysteryranch.com/s.nl/it.A/id.13015/.f?sc=7&category=45

The kelty was very noticeably lower quality than the mystery ranch in nearly every regard, stitching, fabric, placement of load bearing structures, everything. I've started to seriously look at the mystery ranch nice frame set ups, and having now looked further into the trizips I don't have anything against them. I thought it was 3 separate compartments instead of 1 large compartment.

 

[grunt soldier]

ok cool thats what i thought you meant. personally i love the trizip because you can open it up and get right to the stuff on the bottom of your pack with out having to move everything around and pulling stuff out. i can see if it was 3 different compartments how that might be annoying.

 

[Last Visible Canary]

I'm still not sure what the draw is for an internal frame vs. a modular frame like the NICE frame from mystery ranch. What benefit is there in having a permanently affixed internal over the NICE set up?

 

[OwenM]

The internals are lighter, more compact, and more flexible so they move with you better.
NICE is more versatile, more expensive, heavier, bulkier, and more rigid, so that it supports heavier loads better.

I'd much rather have the internal frame on a dedicated pack for my own relatively narrow range of use. The NICE setup would be wasted on me, because I'm going to be carrying 25-35lbs. most of the time, not hauling out big game, or toting a mortar baseplate.
You've probably seen it, but I've got pics in a thread below of my new Dragonslayer, along with a few of the larger Big Horn.
Problem with these nicer, and more expensive, packs is that you never want to take a step down after using them!

 

[Last Visible Canary]

Problem with these nicer, and more expensive, packs is that you never want to take a step down after using them!

Thats kind of part of why I'm looking so heavily into the nice frame set up. It would be a touch bit (but not all that much) cheaper to get something like a wolfpack system and a longbow than to buy the 3 dedicated pack sizes they represent (6,100/4,200/2,400)