Aarn Load Limo load limit

[nickthetasmaniac]

Apologies if this has been asked and answered - I trawled the endless Aarn thread and couldn't find anything...

Could someone with an Aarn Load Limo pack and Expedition pockets tell me how much weight they can comfortably carry on longer trips?

Cheers, Nick

[north-north-west]

This will be of limited help, but it's the best I can do.
I have a small LL with Sport/photo pockets. Can't say about weight as I don't weigh my gear, but I've done a number of 11 day/10 nigh walks with it, including the Western Arthurs. Including water and all the camera gear I would guess at something around 20 kg all up, but that's just a guess. It coped with that comfortably. So did I, surprisingly, but it's easy to carry the bigger weights with that set-up.

[nickthetasmaniac]

This will be of limited help, but it's the best I can do.
I have a small LL with Sport/photo pockets. Can't say about weight as I don't weigh my gear, but I've done a number of 11 day/10 nigh walks with it, including the Western Arthurs. Including water and all the camera gear I would guess at something around 20 kg all up, but that's just a guess. It coped with that comfortably. So did I, surprisingly, but it's easy to carry the bigger weights with that set-up.

How do you find the Photo Pockets? I'm tossing up between getting the standard Expedition pockets, and using inserts from Domke, Think Tank or someone similar, or getting the dedicated Photo pockets. I use a fairly compact, three-lens Micro Four Thirds kit, which doesn't take much room, so I'm not sure if the dedicated Photo pockets are necessary...

Any chance you could take some pics of your Photo pockets with and without your camera gear?

Cheers

[north-north-west]

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with them, Nick. The top opening is good, as is the padding and the separate drybags. I do find it difficult getting a small lens out from the lower compartment, though, and the mesh pockets are not much good except for small flat things. The Sport pockets have better mesh pockets on them.
Mind, I have the standard photo pockets. There are also Professional photo pockets, which are the same size as the Expedition pockets. And they look the same full as empty, because of the padding.
Currently I have one photo and one sport pocket on the pack, though I'm thinking of swapping them, and having the camera in the sport pocket and the bits and pieces in the photo pocket. I think it will work better.

[under10kg]

Send Aarn an email and you can get a answer from the designer.
I have found that with the natural balance pack you can really load up the pack with a lot of weight in the front balance pockets and have a lot of confort and balance.

[ULWalkingPhil]

I think as long you adjust the pack well, which is not all that difficult to do. Takes trail and error. The pack when adjusted, all the weight is on your hips. My arrn load limo is miles ahead in comfort than my Oneplanet McMillan.

I've carried over 20kg in the load limo. I now carry no more than 15kg including food and water, base load 10.5kg, not because the pack cannot support the weight, my body was struggling a bit with 20kg load. Sore hips. Just a result of aging.

[nickthetasmaniac]

I sent off an email to Aarn and got this response (quite quickly too, which is nice )

- I often do extended walks (7 days +) and I will be working as a guide on the Overland Track, so I often carry 20kg+. What is the comfortable upper load limit for the large Load Limo with Expedition Pockets?
After 35 kg the weight makes comfort difficult.

- When doing shorter 3-4 day walks with smaller loads, how compressible is the Load Limo? This will be my only pack for the time being.
You can compress it down to about 35 L. You can also use the Balance Pockets as a small daypack.

Sounds good to me, I've no intention of carrying 35kg

[Miyata610]

I carried 30kg with it this week... and found it to be the most comfortable 30kg I've ever carried. For this sort of load I've used a Macpac Cascade 75 in the past.

The Aarn website says 40kg, it's hard to find, read this entire page.......

http://aarnpacks.com/features/multifunction.html

I'm sure I'll get to test it at that weight, or greater, in the near future.