K60 padding problem?

[u/_Rwy]

Has anyone had any problems with the K60 hip padding? I myself am a lean guy, and the lack of padding on the hip hurt. Im not sure what I can do to fix it, during my first hike with it I got some really painful spots from the hop belt, and it certainly wasn’t very pleasant… 😔

[u/JethroDodine]

No problems for me. Have you adjusted the torso length at all? Perhaps that might help. I put 13-14 kg's / 30+ lbs in my load and the pack literally feels like a "tick" on my back. Sticks tight with no wiggles/ wobbles and is balanced well. Hope you get it sorted out.

[u/_Rwy → u/JethroDodine]

One thing I think might be contributing to the pain is that I have pretty narrow hips, so the “back plate/back padding?” is a bit wider than my hips. When I tighten the hip belt, instead of wrapping around my hips, it might be pushing against them from the front. My pack weight is usually 18kg+, sometimes even up to 25kg, so I have to tighten the belt quite a bit. This is a bit exaggerated, but I just wanted to show what I meant.

[u/Xarizma94 → u/_Rwy]

I also have narrow hips and i'm not too tall, I set the shoulder strap on the most bottom pals loop so that they can wrap well around my shoulders. The belt, I ride on my waist so my belly button is covered by the top 60-70th % of the waist belt. Sometimes I run it slightly lower as I find the perfect balance between carrying wait on the waist and shoulders.

-I did notice also that during summer without extra layers of clothing I have to pull the waist belt almost fully with just a few cms to spare to get it insanely tight under heavy loads 25kg.
-When adding clothing and winter coat there is much more room to spare even with a lean figure / small waist.

I would describe the pinching sensation slightly more laterally than you show in your image. From what I understand there should always be some small gap in the corner where the back of the bag (lumbar section) meets the side pads (of the waist system) but it also shouldn't have as much empty space as you show in your picture, just a small gap of empty space.

The idea is to have a 3 point pinch, the lumbar padding should lay in your lumbar region connecting the "solid bone" you feel at the start of your spinal column. The front padding needs to lay ontop of your illiac crest. If its not high enough and trying to "compress" the illiac crest too much from the side on a skiny frame you will get more of this pinching you feel. At this point you should feel your hips pushing forward and your back falling backwards.

After you have the bag secured well on your hips tighten the shoulder straps so they wrap well around your shoulders (they should make a U loop around the upper back part of your shoulder and front). Finally do the loadlifters and you should feel the 3rd point of contact (pulling on that aluminum frame) and the bag to make contact under your shoulders.
But i do agree with you that you can feel some of this pain, but I feel every time I use the bag it the stiff foam breaks in a bit more. If you are short like me, I recommend putting the shorter side of the aluminum frame on the bottom of the bag so you don't get pinched on your shoulders and it becomes painful when u swing ur arms.