One Planet - Quality and Service

[Wingnut]

Seems silly to me that you are hassling OP direct when you purchased it from Kelly Basecamp? I'm not saying OP aren't exempt from fault but it looks like you're being palmed off by the place of purchase?

Eg. If I buy a bike and find its faulty I don't call the manufacturer up, I go to the shop I purchased it from and say sort this out!

Doesn't the retailer have a duty of care?



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[Nuts]

I remove that iphone message, doesn't it use extra battery power? lol (no expert mind you...)

Not a bad point ... Though it does seem to me that sbs is doing it exactly the right way so far...
I do wonder why one active member/manufacturer cops grief on here, if so then any are fair game no?? It's just as likely all positive to them and wouldn't have a Huge impact, what is discussed here??

Positive actions could quiet easily turn this in OP favour as much as anything...

[wander]

Having used macpac and OP rucksacks in Tas for 15 years the damage looks like wear and tear to me.

I have brought both brands on pack out after trips with A) no damage and B) pretty trashed, it just depends a lot on the trip and the terrain and how we ere getting or not getting through.

I'd make the same comment about wandering in the Flinders over the same period where the rock really sandpapers packs and shorts to bits.

I'm busy repairing with seam grip over a dozen small holes in my OP WBA from boulder holes gained from the Du Cane Range loop. Not a big surprise here, the fabric is lighter than the Mungo, and the boulders are very rough and very sharp. Good for grip while clambering about. I got my fingerprints back after about 4 weeks.

[blacksheep]

I'm sure Andrew from OP will come along and makes things right. Our industry is pretty full of good people who do the right thing by our customers- I'd put him on that list.
Ent- we don't use the same fabrics as OP or WE- our aztec canvas is our own design and finish, and uses fair trade, organically grown cotton. While we have the dyeing and fininshing done in Melbourne, the cloth is completley unique to us.

[stepbystep]

Thanks for the input everyone, plenty of food for thought - perhaps my expectations for this packs durability were too high. I am extraordinarily busy at the moment but will send Andrew a letter.

For the record I was not speaking with a receptionist, but someone a little higher up the food chain.

@rucksack, the base is a double layer nylon and is undamaged, the canvas sides does feel to have softened up after the walk, but still feels very thin and is obviously quite vulnerable.

[Macca81]

I remove that iphone message, doesn't it use extra battery power? lol (no expert mind you...)

Off topic, but I'm pretty sure that it doesn't use any extra power, it just sends an extra line of text. It is already in the text box that i am typing this in... And if it does use more power and it is noticeable, you need to get rid of that iPhone and get an android

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[Nuts]

Ok, i was being a smart *&%$#! I guess I made the choice not to accept branding so readily, each to their own. I can now confirm to the lesser hordes that it's not something Smart phone users... type in each time

[Son of a Beach]

It annoys me too. I think the first thing I did when I got my iPhone was to find and delete the "Sent from my iPhone" text in the email settings. Sheesh that used to irritate me when I got emails from iPhone users.

[rucksack]

sbs, I think that is the problem - the sides on the OP Mungo are single skin canvas all the way to the bottom of the pack. For off-track walking, especially in Tasmania, I think that a robust, double skinned nylon bottom (underneath, back and both sides) is fairly well mandatory, if you want your pack to survive the scrapes and abrasions that it will certainly get clambering over and around rocks. I would say, looking at your photo, that the OP Mungo might not be the best choice for off-track walking, although I am sure, (not least from this site), that many members use their OP Mungo's for that exact purpose. I have 7 rucksacks (OP, Macpac, Lowe, Black Diamond and GoLite) and all have double skinned nylon covered bottoms (that's sides, back and underneath). I go back to my earlier suggestion; why don't you ask OP to 'double skin' the bottoms of the sides of your Mungo? That would effectively repair your tears & holes and possible prevent a repetition in the future.

rucksack

[Ent]

Ent- we don't use the same fabrics as OP or WE- our aztec canvas is our own design and finish, and uses fair trade, organically grown cotton. While we have the dyeing and fininshing done in Melbourne, the cloth is completley unique to us.

Hi Blacksheep

I drew obviously the false conclusion from your earlier comment in another thread

by the way, both Macpac and OP use the same fabric manufacturer in Melbourne for our canvas

So same manufacturer but different specifications. Anyway good that this is cleared up.

I like canvas as a pack material but curious what is better for abrasion resistance, Dyneema (or some other wonder synthetic material such as cuban) or canvas? Pack hauling and pack sliding over tricky ground is hard on any pack and be good to understand a bit more about what materials work best. A good pack is not cheap so makes sense to get the right design/material for the more extreme walking/climbing events.

Cheers

[blacksheep]

Dyneema has fantastic tensile strength, but does not shine in a martindale abrasion tests in most fabrics. I tested kevlar, dyneema, spectra etc in labs a few years ago, and was suprised that they showed no real gains over good nylons (I'm from a climbing background, so while I knew that friction/heat was the enemy of these materials, I was expecting obvious gains). I think abrasion tests create the heat that exceed the melting points of some of these fibres. So traditional abrasion tests are confusing I think here.
I can see some benefits for tear strength, which is perhaps a better test method, but overall dyneema did not appeal as a yarn to use in pack cloth to me. Spectra for example is quite slippery also, and in product testing the fabric we were trialling was shown to not be as stable as is desirable. Macpac used Kevlar for many years in alpine packs, but you only have to see a 10 year old pack where the Aztec looks new and the kevlar is a fluffy mess to question it.. Over all I believe high density fat filaments cloths of 500denier and above are better (nylons over poly/cotton canvas) for our abrasion, but they must be a tight weave. For lighter weight packs there are some great high tenacity cordura fabrics around 230D, but I would not trust anything under 600D for large packs made to last...

[Ent]

Hi Blacksheep

Thanks for that information. Confirms what I thought that for long life tramping (rather than extreme walking) canvas composite material is still the best option but maybe with an outer protective layer in the high wear areas such as the bottom of a pack or even the edges. Of course a lighter pack weight reduces the damage as less weight means easier to manevour it out of danger, so some light weight packs come through walks with flying colours, while the tradditonal packs cop more a battering. One material I noticed in the USA for an area renown for rodents was metal boxes for one home maker of packs to avoid the blighters chewing through the material.

Lab abrasion test versus real life abrasion appears to be a tricky thing to reconcile as a wet rock probably does its damage more by cutting than over heating the material but that is only my suspicion. In real life the critical thing is the hole does not further tear which has not happened to any pack of mine once holed. Was rather impressed how my cheap Kathmandu packable 20 litre Cordura back stood up when holed with un-planned slide down a rock. It is not a thing that lays any claim to being tough but performed well but agree I would not want that light weight material on my main pack.

Seen more than a few packs self destruct in the pack harness area. They tend to be the cheaper brands such as Black Wolf or Snowgum's home brand. Poor quality stitching is also an issue with a few but most brands seem to do this well. Felt sorry for some poor sod that day one of the OLT had his new pack self destruct turning it into a handbag. Belt buckles is an issue though and the core post of this thread raised that point. Not a fan of the brand both MacPac and One Planet use but given it is used by many brands might be the best of a bad lot. Do like the Berghaus flap buckle design as it stays closed but is easy to open.

As mentioned found canvas good for scrub but not rock proof. Best thing is to take more care I suppose but when sliding down a slippery route with a large drop at the end if you get it wrong rather hard to remember this

Given the abuse that most packs receive they do a remarkably good job.

Cheers

[Nuts]

Over all I believe high density fat filaments cloths of 500denier and above are better (nylons over poly/cotton canvas) for our abrasion

and i'm sure the multitude of dynema/nylon pack owners are getting a 'long' life out of their packs for easier, less abrasive conditions?? SBS, however, is looking for something to last 'off track'.

There also doesn't seem much point in having to cover too much pack in a double layer?? My old WE pack doesn't and it was pretty tough.

The pivoting cup shaped hip belt on my Lowe climbing pack holds on the hips so well that it doesn't need a lot of tension to stay there. The buckle must be no more than 25ml wide and ive carried it (moslty overloaded) since new (I too don't like the harness a lot but the hip belt looks to be a long way ahead). I guess 'digging into the gut' is more likely one edge or the other? so might not have a lot to do with width, perhaps just body shape or where it rides?