50L Molle Rucksack, with attachments. At a good price!

[Percy92]

Okay so a quick overview of the pack itself.

• Main Comparment
• Upper front compartment
• 2x Side Pockets (Molle attachments)
• Lower Front pouch with several pouches attached to itself (Molle attachment, turns into 'fanny' pack)
• Chest strap, waist strap
• Various straps to pull the pack together nicely
• Various Molle attachment points for further attachments
• Various other attachment points for things
• 50L capacity

Okay, the bit that's hard to believe for a 'half' decent pack! It cost me £18.89 brand new, including p&p, shipped from within the UK and included the attachments I mentioned above.

Although I haven't field tested this yet, I've packed it properly and everything fits nicely and it doesn't even feel like it's going to give way. All the zips are pretty smooth and the stitching seems of half decent quality.

Looking closer at it, I did have to burn away a few loose threads and it lacks a hydration tube hole. The waist strap looks like it may need reinforced after a few use's, although that is after a few. I found that it's a bit aukward to pack at first (it's my first full in Molle pack). But after you've packed it a couple times and worked out where to put things, the 50L capacity is actually used well. Another down fall which will appear to some is it lacks a brand. (I'm not fussed on brands and I'm a tight ar*e so I like cheap!)

Okay I've got a couple of pics which I'll add below when on the laptop and I'll update this thread in a week or 2 once I've field tested it out in the woods/mountains and using it now and again to and from work.

 

[tom.moran]

Sounds intetesting

 

[RE8ELD0G]

Can you post a link please.
Sounds like a nice pack

 

[Percy92]

Sure it's

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/201019370397?nav=SEARCH

The price is based on the 50L Green 1 (as it has options). Though the other prices are pretty good!
I'll post up some pics later when in from work (On phone atm) so people can get a better idea of what it's like in a more natural photograph.

 

[ozzy1977]

Whats a fanny pack?

 

[tom.moran]

keith will explain

 

[ozzy1977]

keith will explain

Thanks for that, I can see how that could lead to am embarrassing situation

 

[Percy92]

PEOPLE! How do you create a URL without signing up to anything? -__-

Thanks for help, I'm useless with this stuff!

 

[mrmike]

Okay so a quick overview of the pack itself.

• Main Comparment
• Upper front compartment
• 2x Side Pockets (Molle attachments)
• Lower Front pouch with several pouches attached to itself (Molle attachment, turns into 'fanny' pack)
• Chest strap, waist strap
• Various straps to pull the pack together nicely
• Various Molle attachment points for further attachments
• Various other attachment points for things
• 50L capacity

Okay, the bit that's hard to believe for a 'half' decent pack! It cost me £18.89 brand new, including p&p, shipped from within the UK and included the attachments I mentioned above.

Although I haven't field tested this yet, I've packed it properly and everything fits nicely and it doesn't even feel like it's going to give way. All the zips are pretty smooth and the stitching seems of half decent quality.

Looking closer at it, I did have to burn away a few loose threads and it lacks a hydration tube hole. The waist strap looks like it may need reinforced after a few use's, although that is after a few. I found that it's a bit aukward to pack at first (it's my first full in Molle pack). But after you've packed it a couple times and worked out where to put things, the 50L capacity is actually used well. Another down fall which will appear to some is it lacks a brand. (I'm not fussed on brands and I'm a tight ar*e so I like cheap!)

Okay I've got a couple of pics which I'll add below when on the laptop and I'll update this thread in a week or 2 once I've field tested it out in the woods/mountains and using it now and again to and from work.

Please let us know how you get on with it.
I am pretty tempted by one of the smaller packs for work if they arent too bad quality...

sent from my windswept fell using Tapatalk 4

 

[Elgatoloco]

I believe I had one of those packs in the past, I think 20-something Liter version. It was broken after first hike most of the parts just falling apart thanks to very loose stitching, not very comfortable on your back too.

 

[nettles150390]

So these are still goin on ebay an im intrestes. Have you got an update of how well it did?

 

[The_Taffinch]

There are a whole bunch of this generic bunch of this model on both eBay and Ali Express. I bought one in October which arrived branded as 'Aukmont' which I have used on two occasions.

I will post a quick summary/review this evening.

 

[nettles150390]

Cheers taffinch

 

[Damascus]

Have a similar one used it for a few months now, it cost £15 and as long as you accept its cost price you will not be disappointed, mine is still going strong and for a day in the field via the car it's more than fine, very good value for money. I wouldn't trek the Andes with it though!!!

 

[The_Taffinch]

Sorry, couldn't post this last night as promised; a difficult journey back from visiting relatives meant that I didn't have any time.

Anyway, as I said I bought the following pack in late September:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50L-Molle-3-Day-Assault-Tactical-Outdoor-Military-Rucksacks-Backpack-Camping-bag-/131260902919?var=&hash=item0

...and it arrived within a few days. On arrival was packaged in nice drawstring bag and was branded as 'Aukmont'. The pack initially had a strong chemical/plastic smell but this wore off after a bit of an airing.



The pack consists of a main bag with two compartments, two side pouches, and a fanny pack/bum bag (ignore the pouch attached to the right-side of the pack in the above photo). The main bag is quite large. I was previously using a Swedish LK70 pack and I find that I can fit all off the contents that were held in the LK70's main compartment in that of the Aukmont bag (albeit I wasn't using the snow deck/expansion bit of the LK70). So it's pretty capacious if you stuff things in carefully.



There's a pocket at the back of the compartment for a hydration bag, but I use it to house a folded sheet of foamed radiator insulation material which I shove under my air mattress.

The second compartment is flatter, designed more for documents or perhaps a slim laptop perhaps, but you can still fit quite a bit of stuff in here. There is a mesh divider.



There are two side pouches which attach via molle straps to the bag. There are molle attachment points on the sides of the main bag and three bands of molle on the front, an upper band, a lower band, and a lower-lower band, but the latter is really meant for attaching the fanny pack. Each of the bags is roughly about 7in. tall by 4 in. wide and 2in. deep. Slightly disappointingly, unlike the fanny pack, the molle straps on the side packs are velcro only and not press studs. This makes them slightly less secure to my mind. I haven't had one actually drop off but I have them slightly slip so that they flop around a little. The bag does have two side compression straps which can be used to provide additional securing for the pouches if they are installed towards the top of the molle on the sides (but see the caveat about the strap materials below).

The fanny pack attaches at the bottom of the main pack. It has a main compartment, a small front pocket, and two small side pockets. It comes with its own shoulder/waist strap and a belt attachment strap. I think the idea is that it can be removed to be used as a small 'tactical' pack once you're in camp. It's pretty useful as additional storage for bits and pieces that you might need in a hurry.

Here's a pic of the bag with a side pouch and the fanny pack installed shown with a Jack Russell for scale.



In common with many other packs, there are two straps at the top of the bag which reach over the pack to and attach to the shoulder straps to provide additional stability and to hold the pack close in to the shoulders. These can also be used to secure items such as a blanket onto the pack. There are two loops on the bottom of the pack - presumably for hanging the pack upside down if it needs airing - but no proper anchoring points, so you'll need to improvise something using the lower molle bands if you want to attach something at the bottom.

I am impressed with the build quality of the pack. There is no loose stitching and the materials used seem robust. The zippers are quite good too - not quite YKK but pretty sturdy. I haven't the pack out in really wet weather but it kept everything dry in some drizzly conditions. The bag performed really well on both of the outings I've done with it. Nothing broke and it was comfy to lug around with a fairly heavy loadout, plus a wool blanket strapped to the top and hefty sleeping bag lashed to the bottom. That said, both outings were fairly short walks from the car and not serious hikes.



But, there is major problem with the pack which lies in the material used in the straps. It's very strong but it's made from a cheap plasticky slippy material which means that it just slips through the friction loops of the various clips on the pack. On my pack the waist belt and chest clips seem to be not too bad, but the side compression straps and the straps which run from the top of the bag to the shoulder straps are useless because the material just slips through the clips. In the end I had to tie a knot in the side straps and duct-tape the upper ones to get them to work. Not very good at all and a real pain. It seriously compromised this pack as a cost-effective proposition. I am thinking of getting some molle clips which I have seen to see if they work because at the moment the bag looks a bit cr*p and adjusting the straps can be a faff.

So...

Pros:
Cheap
Large, flexible capacity
Decent build quality for price
Comfy to carry

Cons:
Awful slippy strap material requires fixing
Lack of internal frame means bag is floppy unless fully stuffed
Velcro used on side-pack poch molle attachment straps

Hope that's useful.

 

[nettles150390]

Awesome review taffinch just what i was after thanks.

 

[tiger stacker]

Nice review, does the pooch protect the bag outdoors too?

 

[haytor7]

that is a nice pack.. I think I will treat myself.

 

[Zig Zag]

I have one of these packs, the 30L bag. Bought it at a local surplus store around two years ago. It was approx $45, which I think is about 20 UK pounds (?). I really like the design of the pack, the way the pockets are organized and its compact size. I initially thought it was very durable and of high quality... until I got home and was able to make a more comprehensive review of the pack. There was loose stitching, and some of the stitching wasn't very straight. Some of the stress points had little or no reinforcing stitches. After some research I learned these are generic made in China products, which is of course why they are so inexpensive. They are mostly outright copies of other companies products, which cost twice as much. My girlfriend bought the same bag as I did, and hers was of worse quality, which makes sense if the overall quality is poor it will also be inconsistent (not that my pack was super well constructed). When she was wearing it on a day hike the shoulder straps came loose and it fell off her back, she was pretty ******. She doesn't like it. I still like my pack, or rather I want to like it. Since I've had packs like this before, this is what I did (and I would recommend others do the same if they get one):
-take a needle and thread and reinforce the stress points that may appear weak.
-Use some crazy glue or something to seal up unstitched material edges that will eventually begin fraying.
-Use this glue to reinforce areas that wear down faster (might be pouch corners, the bottom of the bag, etc) because once the material begins deteriorating it can break down fairly quickly.
-Don't over pack as it usually can't take the strain; everything used in the pack's construction is of poor quality, from the primary material to the webbing, the buckles, the zippers and the thread.
Another thing I personally don't like about the pack I got was that once I had some gear in it, it stuck out from my back about a foot and a half. It was also too narrow to carry a lot of everyday items, like 8X11 binders, or even a six pack of beer (not that I carry a six pack every day).
So even though I reinforced the bag etc, I ended up saving some money and buying a 5.11 Rush 12, which has more carrying capacity and is of much higher quality construction. But it was also $125 (maybe 70 British pounds?).
Ultimately I think the 5.11 pack is more useful for my purposes and will also last several more years than the cheaper one. Still, I think that if the more inexpensive pack is reinforced with stitching and glue, maintained, and used within its limits, it'll serve its purpose especially for people who can't afford a more expensive one.

 

[Lister]

"...with a jack russell for scale"

I need a new keyboard, damn it man!