Belgian Waterproof 40l Backpack

[iofiv]

You may have seen this pack cropping up on line quite a bit recently for about a tenner. I ordered two from Forces Uniform & Kit and they arrived in good timeething and decent nick. It's quite stiff plasticy material, big central bag, two side pockets, pouch against your back that is perfect size for a folded tarp (too small for folding kip mat). The pack itself is good for attaching stuff with big top and bottom buckled loops & side d-rings. The shoulder straps are however pants, very short, very uncomfortable. I have replaced them with something more adjustable (cut down hammock straps) and it is now much more easy on the shoulders. Whilst browsing in a certain Ormskirk based surplus shop, I also found a small (2L?) cheap (£2.50) organiser pouch of the same material that threads onto the straps that secure
the top flap. It looks very useful. All together it's cost me about £15 for a decent waterproof 40L pack.
http://forcesuniformandkit.com/prod...y-surplus?utm_source=googlepla&utm_medium=cpc

 

[The_Taffinch]

When I click on this thread I cannot see the original post...the thread appears to be empty, and yet I can see the text of the post appears on the activity stream/forum headers pages?

 

[iofiv]

Probably my bad. I'll try and repost...

 

[iofiv]

You've probably seen the 40L Belgian Army surplus back packs on the internet for about a tenner. I took the plunge and ordered a couple for my son and I. They arrived on time in good nick and my impressions of the pack itself are good. It is made of quite a hard plasticy material with two side pockets, a big central pocket and a canvas backed external pocket that sits against your back. The side pockets have a very simple swivel button closure. The top flap comes down the full way to the bottom of the pack and buckles shut. The canvas pocket was too small to fit a folding kip mat but perfect size for a folded tarp and a few other bits and pieces. There are big loop buckled straps top and bottom which currently hold my sleep mat bottom and bivvy bag top. There are even a couple of d rings for cinching down the top loop load.

The downside was the shoulder straps. They are very short, very stiff and very uncomfortable. This has been fixed by replacing them with cut down hammock strap webbing which feels much better on the shoulders. As I was browsing an Ormskirk based surplus store today I also found an external organiser pocket (2.5L?) in the same material for £2.50 which threads onto the straps that close the top flap. it has 3 internal pockets and pen loops under the lid.

All in all, Ive ended up with two decent versatile waterproof 40L packs for about £15 each. Theyre off to the hills in two weekends time. I'll let you know how they go on in the field.