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Originally Posted by Razor
They have: one was an utter failure, one a shining success. See the posts above about the overly complex and heavy SPEAR ruck, and the rugged, well-built, military-oriented (albeit a little pricey) Kifaru. One was a govt-sponsored catastrophe, the other a private venture that turned into a spiral design process with lots of feedback from the military user.
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x2 Razor! My SPEAR (Gregory) ruck is the ruck that holds all of my WET items in the team room... and thats ALL I use it for.
Polar Bear my AstralPlane Overkill was killed by humping too much Army crap in it. I think the PRC-104, DMDG, and GRA-50 combo along with my WET gear finally did it in. My team was pissed off having to divide my ruck up to a more manageable weight to get off the mountain. It almost blew my back out when it failed and it did hurt my knee [naproxen-therapy... whew]. If I was just humping clothes, a camp stove, Nalgene bottles, and tent... it would probably be my choice ruck. But carry a couple radios, few batteries, DMDG or KL43, antennas, laptop, ammo, NODs... well then just give me my ALICE. Its an easier rig to jump. Sure we have the "jump anything pouch" now, but that alone weights 8-ish pounds.
MAB32 the CFP-90 was a failure when I first evaluated it as a PFC in 1993 in Alaska. I blew out ruck #1's sleeping bag compartment just packing it. Ruck #2's seams on the front panel blew out after a few days in the field in -30° weather. And ruck #3 ripped off my back along the aluminum stay's plastic track while we were ski-joring out. Three rucks... and that was just me. All together I think the platoon went thru over 30 rucksacks that FTX. The other test platoon in Fort Drum went through more rucks than us. I'm sure Natick made some improvements, but I'll forego the retest thank you.