Kifaru Belt Question

[Deserttacoma84]

Was there an old belt and a new duplex changed. I bought a duplex frame off the classifieds here. It has a large belt and the strap cinches back towards the rear of my body. My brother got a brand new duplex directly from kifaru that has the cinch strap that pulls towards the front. Do I just need a new belt?

 

[PathFinder]

Yeah they have what's called a power pull now, basically uses a pulley system to tighten the belt. IME, it's well worth buying a new belt to have it.

 

[COlineman78]

All belts that I know of should have power pulls and pull forward. The only one I'm not 100% sure of is the old single row PALS ones, but I think they did as well. The design has changed recently however and the older one could've slipped out making you think it's not. The older design should have 2" common loops on the ends of the padded part of the belt through which you feed the belt straps through and the center buckle is what grips the belt. The newer one (within the last 4 months or so) has 2" ladder locks on either side that grip the belt and the center buckle lets the straps feed through freely. I have both on different packs in my car; I'll take a picture tomorrow and post them. Even back to the old ZXR and Longhunter there was a powerpull system, so it's been around for a while.

 

[tttoadman]

I have both the old and the new. They both work just fine. There were thousands of happy Kifaru customers before the new belt, so obviously it works. All you care about is the double row of pals instead of the old single row.

 

[Deserttacoma84]

View attachment 66573

Here is the picture of the belt i have.

 

[COlineman78]

View attachment 66573

Here is the picture of the belt i have.

Attachment not working

 

[Deserttacoma84]

I think it works now?

 

[COlineman78]

That's not the most recent, but they were making those up to about 4-6 months ago. The primary reason for changing was a quality control issue in that some made it out the door with the loops in the back were sewn too loose and would turn as you pulled forward. Only a few people had this problem, but Kifaru changed the design to avoid it in the future. The other minor issue with that older design is that if the belt is too small you may need to lift up a little on the buckle to get it to tighten.

 

[Deserttacoma84]

So I assume the strap is routed correctly in the pic? It doeant want to cinch forward like the newest power pull belts I have seen...

 

[COlineman78]

So I assume the strap is routed correctly in the pic? It doeant want to cinch forward like the newest power pull belts I have seen...

Yes it is run correctly. If you pull forward it should create a pully system and cinch when you pull forward. But as I said, that design was more temperamental with sizing (especially for bigger guys) you may have to lift the buckle to get it to work as seen in this video (the new design fixed this):

[video=youtube;imL3027ONpo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imL3027ONpo[/video]

 

[Deserttacoma84]

Awesome! Thanks for the help!

 

[Deserttacoma84]

One more question. If the buckle is the part that isnt catching, can I just replace the buckle?

 

[COlineman78]

One more question. If the buckle is the part that isnt catching, can I just replace the buckle?

What do you mean the buckle part isn't catching? Are you having the problem seen in the video or something else? The video is showing a buckle that is catching too well (sort of) as the belt isn't quite big enough to get the right angle for the belt to slip through the buckle without catching. IMO it's not a problem annoying enough to spend the money to replace the belt, but I guess that's up to you.