6/19/09 - In general, packs are designed to be worn without interference from anything else worn by the user; they work best when worn directly on the user's back with nothing more than his shirt between him and his pack. In the military, soldiers will sometimes have to integrate packs with the rest of the equipment they're required to wear, like LBEs, battle belts, vests, or bulky body armour. Usually, all that can be done to is to lengthen the sholder straps, then stick the pack on your back. The problem with wearing packs over body armour is that the pack is placed further away from your back due to the thickness of the armour (soft panels and plate), and that body armour usually doesn't provide a very good or stable platform for the shoulder strap route. As a result, the pack pulls the straps to the outside, they cut into the armpits or shoulders and generally suck to wear. The Mystery Cinch from Mystery Ranch is a simple yet effective solution to this problem.

 

Using the Cinch is as simple as lengthening the pack shoulder straps, then putting the pack on your back. I found it helpful to lean forward a bit when doing this, to get the weight of the pack higher up on the back and to help in pulling the shoulder straps down. The Cinch straps are routed around the outside of the pack shoulder straps and then brought together in the middle and buckled. The Cinch can be adjusted to pull the shoulder straps closer together or farther apart. The shoulder straps can also be tightened.

In the first photo below, the pack is being worn without the Cinch used. I left the sternum strap on the pack shoulder straps. When the Cinch is used, it's not necessary and can be removed if possible so that it doesn't interfere with chest-mounted pouches. Note that you don't want to forget you have the sternum strap engaged and get choked expecting the pack to fall off when you pull the Cinch's quick-release.

Anyway, you can see that the body armour doesn't really provide a good platform for the pack's shoulder straps. They either have to ride over the armour's shoulders or off them. If they were off them, they'd simply slip off my shoulders. The sternum strap keeps them together, but doesn't do anything to keep the pack from riding down my back. Since I'm wearing body armour, the pack's hip belt cannot be used as intended. The pack is also unstable in this configuration and will slip to one side or the other and move around.

With the Cinch, the pack literally feels like part of the armour - it's that solid. The pack and armour move as a single unit, meaning it's very stable on my back. There's no slippage of the shoulder straps as they're routed straight down in front of the armour. The Cinch will work with any size pack - small or large. Even the smaller assault packs can do with some added stability when on the move. Just as important, there's none of the discomfort, pressure and chafing from before. The Cinch keeps the pack's straps from cutting into the armpits, arms or shoulders. A tug of the quick-release tab dumps the pack on the ground (remember that sternum strap, though) as the shoulder straps are looser than when worn without armour. The Mystery Cinch is a simple, small item that can make a huge difference in comfort and stability when wearing a pack over body armour.

 

7/17/09 -Mystery Ranch makes a lot of products that don't make it onto their website - sometimes because they're of a proprietary nature, and other times because the guys are just too busy to take photos and stick it up on the site (they've been added since this writeup). The One Man Duffel is one of those to which the latter reason applies.

How the One-Man Duffle got its name is shrouded in mystery (haha), but there are stories that say that it's called that because you can fit a (small) man inside one, or it's just about the biggest load one man can carry. The truth is somewhere in-between, but what we do know is that the One-Man Duffel was originally built for internal Dana Design use, to shuttle assemblies and components of packs between production sites. They kept having to build more because everybody involved needed one (or more) for themselves. When forming the Mystery Ranch, the early One-Man Duffels were still used, but they continued to disappear...
In any case, Mystery Ranch started building them again a couple of years ago, adding an organizer/storage pocket, and a variety of new colours: red, brown (pictured), navy, green.

M4 for scale

Description - The One-Man Duffel is simply a big duffel bag, with a capacity of about 10,000 cubic inches, but built better than most cheap duffels you see at the store. It's made from 1000D ballistic nylon. Seam-seam measurements are approximately 35"L x 20"W x 15"H. There are 1" webbing grab handles at either end, and D-rings for a shoulder strap (not included). The handle straps are long enough for over-the-shoulder carry, which is the way I find most convenient. Two compression straps run across the top. The main zipper is a heavy duty YKK coil with dual nickel plated pulls.

Inside the cavernous compartment is a single pocket at one end. The neat thing about this pocket is that when you turn it inside out, it becomes the storage pouch/pocket for the entire bag. I found it easiest to turn the whole duffel bag inside out, then fold it in half and roll it up. It then stuffs neatly into the pocket and is zipped up into a 15" x 5" x 4" package. Two rows of webbing loops on the outside enable it to be secured or lashed to other packs.

Notes - The One-Man Duffel is the bag you use to haul other bags. When my buddy and I used to go camping, the One-Man Duffel would have been great as a weather-resistant bag in which to keep smaller packages all together like my tent, pack, sleeping bag etc while they were in the bed of his truck. I've used it to haul a small duffel, a pack and carbine case, just to consolidate my gear into one package. The only caveat to that is the package can get real heavy, depending on what you're putting in it of course. I can defintely overload the One-Man until I can't lift it. Then it'd be a two-man duffel - one on each grab handle at the end.

The Spandura Duffels are Mystery Ranch's take on the simple duffel, with a few of their own unique features thrown in for good measure. The Spandura Duffels come in three sizes: Small (2000 cu.in.), Medium (3000 cu.in.) and Large (7000 cu.in.). They're lightweight, yet semi-structured for ease of use. Their relative sizes are shown in the overlay photo below.

The Mystery Ranch Spandura Duffels have a unique expandable Spandura panel at the top, which allows the top of the bag to stretch, which allows the duffels to hold a bit more than their seam dimensions, and also to help keep the contents of a stuffed duffel from shifting around by providing some internal 'pressure'. The duffels also feature a double wall, into which a sheet of closed cell foam is inserted, which gives the duffels shape, while protecting the contents. The three sizes of Spandura Duffels share the same basic features, differing mainly in size:

 

Medium Spandura Duffel - The Medium Spandura Duffel is about the size of a large gym bag and would be a good travel duffel for a trip lasting a few days (depending of course on what you pack).

Length (main bag, not including end pockets) 23"
Overall length (including end pockets) 27"
Width 11"
Height 12"

Like the Small Spandura Duffel, it has internal organizer pockets at each end for smaller items. Two compression straps run across the top. The small tabs on each side of the end pocket zippers are pull tabs, to aid in opening and closing the zippers when the pocket isn't full. They just give you a convenient feature to grasp when you're pulling the zipper the opposite way.

 

11/24/06 - Not too long ago, Dana Gleason and his crew at Mystery Ranch introduced the Gen 2 version of the NICE (Nylinear Individual Carrying Equipment) ALICE-compatible frame featured on page 1. It's constructed of 500D cordura for weight savings, and it was found that 500D waterproofs better and holds less water than 1000D when saturated. The tighter weave also helps with tear strength due to an increased number of fibers in the seam. The carbon/fiberglass components of the main frame remain unchanged. Overall, the Gen I and Gen II both look very similar; but a side-by-side comparison reveals the the following changes:

 

The Crew Cab is one of the NICE/ALICE frame-compatible packbags offered by Mystery Ranch. The Crew Cab is quite a unique animal, and when Dana described it as 'origami-like', he wasn't kidding. It's an expandable design, but expands in a most unconventional way. The Crew Cab must be used with a NICE or ALICE frame. It has no shoulder straps of its own nor provisions for attaching any. Like the NICE frame, it's made out of 500D cordura (coyote shown here), and weighs only 2lbs 10 oz (without the frame). At the top of the packbag is a frame pocket which slips over the top of the NICE frame. The packbag is then buckled and strapped securely into the NICE frame.

Main bag - Starting out with the fully collapsed/compressed bag; it extends no further than the sides of the NICE frame. In this configuration, all that's visible is the main bag. The main bag has a capacity of 1000 c.i., and has a main compartment and outer pocket with zipper closure. The front of the bag flips almost completely open when the main compartment zipper is unzipped. Inside the compartment are two slot pockets for small items. There's also a zipper above the pockets for access to a full size compartment that houses a removable foam stiffening sheet.
There are 2 compressions straps on each side, and two on the top. The bottom of the bag has an accordian-like fold, consisting of two stiffened panels which connect it to the frame at the bottom, which flattens out when the bag is filled.

12/10/13 - The OV Belt Guide and MEAN Pad are two products from Oneiros Valley designed for the Mystery Ranch NICE Frame.

Oneiros Valley (based in Las Vegas, Nevada) creates products for the hunting, outdoor and tactical markets, with a focus developing products for military personnel. Many current and upcoming products aim to improve existing military products, like the two shown here.

 

MEAN Pad - The MEAN (Man-Ergonomic Adjustable NICE) pad is another product designed specifically for the Mystery Ranch NICE (Nylinear Individual Carrying Equipment) frame. The MEAN Pad increases the thickness of the frame's lumbar region and is intended to help bridge the gap between the frame's lumbar area and the user when wearing the NICE Frame over body armour. This aids the NICE Frame fit properly over body armour and utilize the hip belt; transferring weight to the hips. It also gives the frame a more pronounced shape for those that feel the flat profile doesn't fit them well. Removable foam pads of varying thickness ensure a proper fit for any size.

The MEAN Pad weighs only 2 ounces, and is made of 500D nylon, ITW hardware and mil-spec/Berry compliant webbing. The MEAN Pad features adjustable thickness via removable sheets of padding. The sheets that came in mine were 3/8" spacer foam (white), 1/4" and two 1/8" layers. The spacer foam is meant to placed against the side closest to the user. The MEAN pad is simply opened up and the top flap inverted to expose the foam inserts. The user can remove sheets as desired. To compensate for reduced thickness when sheets are removed, the velcro closure has extra engagement surface so that the flap can be cinched down tight - good attention to detail here. A non-slip rubberized surface contacts the lumbar area of the user.

 

 

To install the MEAN Pad to the NICE Frame, the wingtip stabilizers can be separated from the belt to facilitate easier installation, and the MEAN pad attached. Being a bit lazy, I just installed the MEAN Pad without doing that. I just routed the MEAN Pad's straps around the lumbar pad, then used a pair of pliers to help tighten them, as there's too little space behind the lumbar pad for my fingers to get goo purchase on the strap ends. Once I got a hold of the strap ends, I just cinched them up alternately until both were tight. When installed, the MEAN Pad is solidly attached to the NICE Frame; it's not going anywhere.

As you can see in the photos below, wearing a plate carrier creates a gap below the rear plate in the lumbar region. The full weight of a framed pack with a waist/hip belt worn over the armour is borne by the shoulders as a hip belt requires firm contact with the lumbar area to provide load transfer to the hips. Cinching up the hip belt just pulls the frame away from the shoulders at the top, and doesn't do anything for load transfer. The MEAN Pad fills the gap below the rear plate and allows the hip belt to make contact with the lumbar region and offload some of the pack's weight onto the hips. The MEAN Pad's non-slip surface keeps from slipping. The MEAN Pad doesn't have to be used solely in conjunction with armour; some people (like me) have more of a curvature of the spine in the lower back, rather than straight up and down, and can benefit from having the MEAN Pad there to fill that contour (after adjusting the thickness of the pad). If you have a NICE Frame and wear it over body armour, or feel that the NICE frame lumbar region is a bit flat for you, then the MEAN Pad is going to be a worthwhile accessory to get for it.