I bought a Kuiu Icon Pro 5200 to put on my Kifaru frame, it arrived yesterday and the horse shoe zipper was awesome other than the fact that you have to unzip it from the bottom of the pack up??? Pretty stupid design IMO, i want to be able to access the items in my pack without opening it all the way up and unclipping the compression straps. So after a little studying of the pack i whipped out the havalon on my brand new pack 10 minutes after opening the package.
Here is what i did to make zipper top opening:
Remove one zipper;
1. Unzip both zippers to one side
2. Flip lower half of pack inside out
3. Cut stitching from piping where it goes across the zipper
4. Cut stitching between teeth of zipper and on under size of zipper so it opens up
5. Pull out loose stitches
6. Tuck zipper cord under zipper and pull zipper all the way off of pack.
7. Zipper will be fully zipped at this point, use hot glue to glue zipper together, re-cover and glue piping back over
Re-Install zipper on other side;
1.Cut stitching from piping where it goes across other size zipper (opposite from where you just worked)
2. Cut stitching between teeth of zipper and on under size of zipper so it opens up
3. Pull out loose stitches
4. Straighten zipper sides and slowly slide into loose zipper
5. Once ends are all the way up inside zipper pull zipper to engage teeth. (zipper will be upside down and only goes on one way)
6. Zip the zipper up a couple inches to move it out of the way
7. Use hot glue to glue zipper together, re-cover and glue piping back over
8. Flip pack back right side in and enjoy a better functioning pack
This only took a few minutes and was a great improvement to the function of this bag, you could re-sew the zipper instead of hot glue but due to the way the zippers are turned in at the bottom and the fabric is acting as a barrier there is little to no risk of them ever coming apart.
Here is what i did to make zipper top opening:
Remove one zipper;
1. Unzip both zippers to one side
2. Flip lower half of pack inside out
3. Cut stitching from piping where it goes across the zipper
4. Cut stitching between teeth of zipper and on under size of zipper so it opens up
5. Pull out loose stitches
6. Tuck zipper cord under zipper and pull zipper all the way off of pack.
7. Zipper will be fully zipped at this point, use hot glue to glue zipper together, re-cover and glue piping back over
Re-Install zipper on other side;
1.Cut stitching from piping where it goes across other size zipper (opposite from where you just worked)
2. Cut stitching between teeth of zipper and on under size of zipper so it opens up
3. Pull out loose stitches
4. Straighten zipper sides and slowly slide into loose zipper
5. Once ends are all the way up inside zipper pull zipper to engage teeth. (zipper will be upside down and only goes on one way)
6. Zip the zipper up a couple inches to move it out of the way
7. Use hot glue to glue zipper together, re-cover and glue piping back over
8. Flip pack back right side in and enjoy a better functioning pack
This only took a few minutes and was a great improvement to the function of this bag, you could re-sew the zipper instead of hot glue but due to the way the zippers are turned in at the bottom and the fabric is acting as a barrier there is little to no risk of them ever coming apart.