Good to know Kelty didn’t skimp on the measurements!

I’ve wondered a lot about the zippers as well – now that you bring it up it’s probably a good reason enough to write to the company (think I’ll do that just now). I suspect they do it because it’s cheap; although I’m sure a tailor could easily replace them for little cost to ‘standard’ zippers. Might be worth doing, the locks are a good deterrent, especially if you ever have to check the bag in with the airlines.

Last night I spent time with a tape measure carefully measuring the internal dimensions of the 2900 and 3100. I checked the length, the width at 3 points, and the depth at 2 points (top and middle of pack). I also stood them up back to back and verified that the height and width were the same. The exterior pockets are similar and the volume appear to be the same. Then this morning my wife said she wanted to measure. Her hobby is sewing so has a lot more experience measuring irregularly shaped things made of cloth. She discovered where I messed up. 🙂 As I said I measured the depth of the pack at the top and middle, but didn’t measure at the bottom. On the 2900 the bottom is the same as the top and middle. Well, it turns out that the bottom of the 3100 is much deeper than the middle and top. It sort of bulges out at the bottom when it is full. The 3100’s volume really is larger than the 2900. Sorry for the confusion. 🙂

Now, for an unrelated thing. Kelty has for some reason eliminated the metal pull tabs from the zippers and replaced them with a short loop of string. I hate this style, but I notice that these days many packs have these sort of pull tabs. They are much less robust, but the biggest issue for me is that I use my 2900 for backpack travel in various countries. I have small padlocks that I use to lock my pack. The padlock goes through the holes at the base of the pull tabs. Of course, this doesn’t create absolute security, but it is sufficient to discourage thieves who are looking for a quick, easy theft. It is also sufficient generally when I leave my pack in the room of a guesthouse. With the 3100 there are only these cheap string loops attached to the zipper. 🙁 Does anyone have any idea why Kelty and some other companies have switched to this style? Is it just because they are cheap? How expensive is a normal metal pull tab?

I leave for a month traveling in Vietnam on Monday. I planned to use the 3100, but now I am wondering if I should go back to my old 2900? The 2900 was fine for many years, but lately I have been carrying a bit more camera gear than a few years ago because digital requires battery chargers, etc. Also, I have started carrying a netbook. My old 2900 is just a bit too small now, but the 3100 should be fine and even leave a bit of space. If interested, you can see my photos here:

http://www.bakubo.com

I have the 3100 but not the 2900 and can’t do a side-by-side comparison. You should write to them and see what they say; how did you measure the volume?

Hope you’re feeling better and you’ve full recovered without any lasting effects. Thanks for sharing about the luggage you travel with!