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Product Review: Pack-a-Pull bear bag rigging kit

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This product was introduced on Kickstarter earlier this year, which I unfortunately missed by a couple of weeks, but they now have a website. I just picked one up for my canoe trips in Algonquin park where flying your food bag is a must. I can't believe this idea never occurred to me before. I've always done the whole climbing rope over a tree branch which is a huge PITA. Hats off to this guy for creating this. I think it's just ingeneous...
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It has a double pulley to fly in the tree, and two singles, so you can fly two bags with 2:1 mechanical advantage. The only thing I think it should include as part of the kit is a short sling made of flat webbing that can lie over the branch to protect the tree. Paracord alone is going to put too much pressure in my opinon. The total weight: 4oz. Which to me is pretty worthwhile to make life easier and save the tree.
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@Massdrop this would make an awesome ultralight drop!
What do you use to hang your food bag? I can't wait to be done with climbing rope.
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P-A-P
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Aug 24, 2017
Hi guys, I just stumbled across this. I'm the created of Pack-A-Pull. I have no ties to the person that created this post. Just doing some web searches and came across it.
Besides being ultra light weight and small for pack-ability; Pack-A-Pull is designed to raise and lower two separate loads completely independent from another. If you have a group of peoples gear and/or food, they can be separated into two separate lines on the same pulley system hung in the tree. I recommend at least 10 ft off the ground and 6 ft from the tree trunk, but please use your own experience and education for your comfort level of safety. You will need to find a suitable tree no matter what solution you are using. At least with Pack-A-Pull if you have two items to fly in the tree, you only have to find one suitable tree, not two. Below is a picture from a group of 13 boy scouts on a multi day backpacking trip. They hung all their food on one Pack-A-Pull. Total weight was around 40 lbs of food. The 14 year old boys were able to hang and retrieve their food themselves without needing the adults to do it for them. Previous trips without Pack-A-Pull, they hung them in a similar fashion on one climbing rope and it took two adults to get the food hung to a reasonable height.
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Besides hanging food, gear and bear bags; we also have a lot of big game hunters using it in the backcountry to hang meat. One Pack-A-Pull can be used to hang two large elk quarters that can weigh up to 80 lbs each. One person can hang both quarters separately 10+ ft off the ground. Note: We recommend stronger cord than 550 Paracord for the main line over the tree if the total load is over 110 lbs. A cord I really like is Samson Amsteel-Blue Dyneema cord in 1/8" diam (rated at 2500 lbs). Please keep in mind cord/rope strength is typically rated in Tensile strength. A safe working load limit is at most 20% of tensile strength. So 550 paracord (550 lbs tensile strength) has a max load limit of 110 lbs.
We do not yet have Pack-A-Pull on Massdrop. I just saw this post and wanted to provide some additional information. Thank you.
JerkyKen
136
Aug 22, 2017
A community member
Sep 29, 2017
JerkyKenThat's very cool. A field-expedient block and tackle rig with biners that can be otherwise utilized.
JerkyKen
136
Aug 22, 2017
I think this will encourage people to hang too much weight. Can imagine 30 pounds of food bags hitting the ground once the wind picks up at night. I use a canister or Ursack. Got tired of looking for the right tree. How would you get your sling of webbing in place and back down again? Rope for hangs, yeesh. How about, http://lawsonequipment.com/Cordage/Ultraglide-Bear-Line-Reflective-Backordered-until-9-4-17-p1073.html Of course that would not be a good choice for this application. Good luck in finding something that works for you. This system still has you finding the right tree, I'll pass.
Madman242
35
Aug 22, 2017
JerkyKenThanks for the tip on the rope. That stuff looks amazing. We are usually travel in large groups and pool all our food into one bag. I'd be nervous about 2.3mm rope choking the branch. With a small enough knot, and no load on the rigging, it shouldn't be a problem getting 3' of webbing to hang nicely over the branch.
I know what you mean about finding the right tree! I've seen a bear get one down when too close to the trunk.
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