GoLite Jam Extreme Make-over

One day I decided to completely rebuild the Jam to resolve all the niggles that I had about it. The focus was on reducing the pack volume and improving its ability to carry a peak load of 20lb. The pack always seemed fine around the 10lb mark but seemed hard work at 20lbs.

It's unlikely that you will be able to buy the 'perfect' pack for you but there is nothing to stop you buying one that is good enough and pimping it. The Jam is a very tough lightweight pack and so it makes a great base to work from.

Add an Internal/External Frame (moderate)

After playing around with an old army surplus pack I realised that it was much better at load-carrying than any of my light and ultralight packs. I then began to wonder if it would be possible to copy the ideas but in an ultralight way. After a lot of thought I did. The result weighed under 150g and vastly improved the comfort and load carrying ability of my GoLite Jam. More...

Add a Quick-Release Trekking Pole Carry (easy)

One of the things that I noticed was that carrying a trekking pole on the back of a pack had a surprising effect on the perceived weight of the pack. It also required me to take the pack off to get at the pole. I wondered if there was a better place to carry the pole that would be quick to get at and also improve the pack's balance. There was. More...

Change the Compression System (easy)

As part of my pack review I wanted to change the way that the GoLite Jam compresses its load. The side straps are not wonderful and are quite bulky. I also wanted an easy way to strap things to the pack. It only took some minor tweaks. More...

Add a Lid (difficult)

As part of the redesign for adding a frame I also wanted to ensure that the pack had a conventional-lid and that the pack could be compressed properly from front-to-back to ensure that load was always transferred to the top of the pack.

I also wanted to reduce the volume of the pack to be closer to my actual peak-volumes. It wasn't to save weight, it was to improve the way the pack carried - there would be less space for things to move around in. More....

Replace the Hip-Belt (moderate)

The original Jam had no padding on the hip belt. Instead just a few triangles of Dynema were connected to some 40mm webbing. This was not very comfortable for load carrying. I decided to replace it all with a padded hip-belt that was more suitable for load-bearing. More...