Kelty Phantom Spectra, @1998 - For SaleSee History of Kelty Spectra Backpacks for lots of information and pictures about the Kelty spectra packs. I believe this to be the oldest of my Kelty Spectra packs. Almost all of the trim is a bright yellow material. The 3 horizontal compression straps (which are sewn to the pack) are white material. There are a pair of very odd straps from the bottom rear of the pack to the front of the pack. They are bright yellow. After the start of the strap, there is about 2 inches of material, and then the strap is bartacked to the pack. Then the strap continues to the front of the pack, which is about 3 inches, and there is a buckle to tighten the strap. I have no idea what these straps are for. Unlike the rest of my Kelty spectra packs, the side pockets are not removable. There is a slot between the pocket and the pack for a ski to pass. One of the compression straps passes behind the pocket, and there is a slot in the side of the pocket where it is sewn to the main pack to allow free adjustment of the compression strap. Unlike the rest of my Kelty spectra packs, the belt is sewn to the pack. The top of the pack is removable, and can be converted to a fanny pack. The top of the pack consists of one large compartment. There are flaps on either side of the zipper, and velcro to secure the flaps. What is quite odd, is the flaps can be secured in two ways. Perhaps this is to keep water out when used as a top for the pack as well as when being used for a fanny pack. There are four plastic rings on the top of the top of the pack, which can be used to hold crampons. Unlike the rest of my Kelty spectra packs, the top is secured to the pack via three pieces of webbing, each with an adjustable nylon clip. The frame on this pack is also unique. Though the documentation I have, says the pack has two stays, as well as an additional horizontal rib stay, this pack has a single aluminum stay that runs from the bottom to the top of the pack inside a sewn channel. There is no possibility of this pack having more than one stay. Additionally, there are no horizontal rib stays, nor is there any place to secure any horizontal rip stays. There is what feels like a sheet of HDPE sewn into the back of the pack, though it is inaccessible. All other Kelty spectra packs I have, have the stays and framesheet and padding being removable. The padding on this pack is also sewn into the pack, and is between the user and the HDPE sheet. The shoulder straps feel conventional, but the back padding is quite soft. The inside of the waist strap is also made of quite soft padding, though the outside of the waist strap is made of something much harder (perhaps HDPE sheet). Unlike the rest of my Kelty spectra packs, this pack doesn't have any of the gear loops (which I consider pretty useless). All of the plastic fasteners of this pack are white. I have heard that white isn't a great color for plastic fasteners as it tends to crack with ultraviolet light exposure. On this pack, a number of the fasteners have been replaced with black nylon. The waist strap clip was replaced with a clear clip. The ice axe holders on the back bottom of the pack are different that the rest of the Kelty spectra packs I have. There is a fixed loop of spectra material, perhaps 2 inches high, and there is a strap with a nylon fastener designed to hold the end of the ice axe. It allows quicker access than the traditional loop of webbing that you have to flip the ice axe over to secure it to the pack. This pack shows the history of a variety of design decisions that Kelty made over the years with their spectra packs. I think the new packs are more modular and I like the removable and adjustable belt of the new packs. I don't like the gear loops strewn all over the new packs, but since they can be easily removed, it isn't a big problem. Still, this pack is likely to last almost forever (except for the white nylon hardware), and is quite well made. |
See History of Kelty Spectra Backpacks for lots of information and pictures about the Kelty spectra packs.
This pack is similar to the cloud 4500, but there are a number of differences. The side and rear pockets secure to the pack via solid plastic rods that are about 1.25 inches long, by .3 inches in diameter. These rods are sewn into the top and bottom corners of the pockets and mate with white webbing sewn around the pack at strategic locations. There are two compression straps, unlike the the cloud 4500 and 6500 which have three, that wrap around the entire back and sides of the pack, however they secure to the ends via a novel aluminum endpiece that is sewn to the ends of the straps. The hipbelt and bottom of the sides of the pack have a place where you can use Kelty levitators, carbon fiber springs to transfer weight to the hip belt. Inside the pack is a long extension skirt perhaps 24 inches long, made of coated yellow nylon. I have never seen such a long extension. Inside the pack is a similar frame to the cloud 4500, however the top is reinforced and padded. There is an internal water bladder pocket as well as exits for a water tube on either side of the front of the pack at the top. The top compartment has one compartment. The side pockets have nice robust water repellent vertical zippers, which look superior to the cloud 4500 side pockets.
See History of Kelty Spectra Backpacks for lots of information and pictures about the Kelty spectra packs.
The Kelty cloud 4500 is quite modular. Most parts can be added or removed. The hip belt can be moved up or down about 2 inches in order to adjust the back length of the pack. Since my pack is a regular, I moved the hip belt upward to make the back length shorter. There are 'gear loops' which are made out of folded webbing with a clear plastic tube around the webbing. They can be used for holding rock climbing gear, or for other things that I can't think of. My pack came with 8 of them, which I removed. The clear plastic has shown signs of aging, and has become translucent and very stiff. One has broken in several places. No idea why, perhaps a bad batch of plastic? There are two side pockets which I removed. There is a crampon/snow shovel pocket which I also removed. This pack did not come with compression straps. There is a novel internal frame which consists of two stays of aluminum and a plastic sheet which holds them in place. The aluminum isn't flat stock, but rather it is corrugated to be lighter than flat stock of similar outline, and stiffer than flat stock of the same weight. (In years past Kelty has used titanium stays). There is an optional cross brace that attaches to the vertical stays, and is made of the same corrugated aluminum. There is a medium sized top compartment which isn't divided inside like most top compartments. It comes off, but doesn't make a hip pack like the current 5250 pack top. There is no internal place for a hydration pack unlike the current 5250 pack. I will likely use this as my daypack without all the external pockets, and somehow fit a hydration pack inside.
See History of Kelty Spectra Backpacks for lots of information and pictures about the Kelty spectra packs.
The Kelty 5250 is the newest Kelty Spectra pack. Mine is a bit different than the descriptions I have seen in the catalogs. Mine has purple trim, not gray trim. Mine doesn't have a hydration reservoir sleeve. There is also no outlet in the pack for a water tube. There are no provisions for the levitator belt supports. My front pocket doesn't convert to a daypack. The side pockets are a bit different than the ones pictured in the catalog, as the zipper is on the side of the pocket, not in the center of the pocket, and it closes so nothing might slip out, unlike the pictured pocket which doesn't seal when the zipper is fully closed. The top compartment secures to the pack with a single nylon clip, rather than two. The pack comes with a removable top compartment, two removable side pockets, and a removable back pocket. The belt is removable, and adjusts up and down, a total of two inches.
The frame consists of two 'lightbeam' pieces of aluminum. This is secured at the bottom to a piece of HDPE. The rest of the length of the aluminum is secured to a spectra sheet with a crossbeam at the top. The spectra sheet has velcro running up and down the sides, which attach to a HDPE sheet. The bottom fits into a special pocket sewn into the bottom of the pack, and is attached to the inside of the pack near the shoulder strap area via two nylon clips. There is a horizontal piece of aluminum that can be attached to the HDPE sheet for more support if needed. Since the frame goes from the waist strap area to the shoulder strap area, it does a very good job of supporting the pack.
This particular pack doesn't have compression straps, but they are easy to make. It does come with the silly gear loops which I have removed. There are the usual assortment of daisy chains, ice axe loops, and the like. Since there are so many differences between my pack and the catalog descriptions from 2004 and onward, I suspect that mine is a very early model.
I bought a slightly used Kelty large daypack. It looked almost unused, except for a broken zipper slide. I would guess it was around 3200 ci. The internal frame consisted of two aluminum stays, each about 3/4"*1/8" in cross section. I took it on an easy backpack (2 or 3 miles on a fire-road in each direction). I strapped on a backpacking version of a Coleman stove, which was about 1 foot * 2 feet * 4 inches, and weighing about 5 pounds. I strapped it to some daisy chains (aka bartacked webbing) on the outside of the backpack. I made the straps tight enough so the stove wouldn't fall off. After the backpack I noticed that several of the bartacks had failed. This was quite unexpected. It is possible that some seam also blew out. I was unimpressed that the bartacks blew out. Obviously of inferior construction. I sent it back to Kelty for repair, and sold it when I got it back. Not recommended.
Around 1990 I bought a MontBell backpack at their store in northern California. I was interested in their packs, since they made the legendary Chounard Zero Point pack, which was very big and very light. The pack I got was about 5000 ci and was supposedly made of tensilite, a special nylon from Japan that was very strong, and very abrasion resistant. The internal frame consisted of two pieces of hollow, plastic, with internal plastic ribs, and a cross section of about 2"*1/8". Each rib had a metal rod at each edge, for a total of 4 metal rods. The pack was not very comfortable, nor very supportive. It didn't look like a well designed or well built pack. I loaded it up for a easy backpack in Joshua Tree. The day of the backpack found me in a campground in Joshua Tree. I dragged the loaded pack about a foot in the degenerate granite gravel, so common there, and wore two holes through the pack. After the backpack, I called MontBell, and they explained that I got a demo pack (which I knew). They also explained that the demo pack had the same weight nylon as the real pack, but wasn't the elusive tensilite, but rather common nylon. Being very light weight nylon, it simply wore through. Since we had a misunderstanding about what 'demo' meant when I bought the pack, I sent it back. Not recommended.
I bought a The North Face Snow Leopard II (large). This is a large internal frame pack. I would guess it is about 5500 ci. I used it on a 3 day backpack. It seemed to be reasonably made (much, much better than the MontBell), but I did not find it very comfortable. I suspect that the regular sized pack might have fit me better. I am 5'11", but I think the pack was designed more for someone at least 6'3". I sold it for a modest profit.
I bought a factory second large external frame REI backpack. I would guess it was about 3500 ci. It was only $40 (around 1986). About the second time I used it, some sewing holding some webbing failed. I sewed it back together, and it has been fine ever since. The sternum strap webbing also failed shortly thereafter, and I fixed it also. It is a reasonable pack, though the quality control used in its construction is unimpressive.
An external frame backpack. Very light and very unconventional design. It uses thin wall large diameter aluminum tubing for the frame. For the hipbelt, there are pivoting arms of aluminum that come out from the frame to support the hipbelt. There are no shoulder straps, rather there is a wide mesh fabric that has roughly twice the surface area of conventional shoulder straps. This distributes the weight very well over the surface of the chest, and is very light. The pack itself consists of many zippered compartments, generally rectangular shaped. There is room above the pack for a large sleeping bag or sleeping bag and tent.
I used it two or three times. High quality design and construction. Not sure if the design is correct or not. The jury is still out. Not in production anymore.
Jack has some unusual ideas about quality control and customer service. Here are some letters between him and me, that should be read before anyone considers buying his products.
If you have comments or suggestions, Email me at turbo-www@weasel.com
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