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Arc'Teryx Click any photos to enlarge
Starting at the top, the pack itself has a large lid attached by four clips which are on webbing. All of the clips are adjustable to compress anything down. There is a large zipped compartment on the lid, which is accessed from the rear of the pack. The double zip is large and heavy duty and each zip has a rubber pull that makes things a lot easier.The seams are internal in order to maintain strength and stay waterproof. There are three columns of molle on the top which are each 12 rows wide, with the column at each end being about double.
Moving on to the main straps, we have some nice thick padded straps, which I feel are very well designed. I have owned packs that didn't seem to distribute the load as comfortably as others seem to. With this pack being able to carry such a large load, I felt this was quite an important feature. The straps themselves are also a fantastic width apart. This is a very small point to talk about; however, it is just one more thing that shows the quality of these packs. Some packs have them too close together and this can cause pulling on the stitching which reduces the life span. It can also cause rubbing on the neck. However the Tango shows no weakness here. At the top of the straps, there is also an option to adjust the tilt angle of the pack when it is on your back. It simply changes the distance that the top half of the pack is from the straps, which I find helps to suit different shaped people. There is also a chest strap which offers a good deal of adjustment. This makes it very easy to wear the pack with a plate carrier. (On a side point, I have tested the pack with the Eagle Plate Carrier and it did not affect me shouldering my weapon). Near the bottom of the strap there is a nice release mechanism which has a special ITW nexus clip. This is for if you are suddenly ambushed and need to dump the bag fast without worrying about your armor carrier etc. You simply undo the popper on each one which is held on by fabric (this is the safety catch), and then flip up the catch on each one and the pack drops off behind you, it is very effective. At the very bottom the webbing is attached to a small triangle of cordura which is angled up to the strap in order to keep the strain off the thread. The back area of the pack is very nicely designed and is very comfortable against the back. It offers excellent support due to the internal design. The actual part that touches your back is a soft padding which is very comfortable. Part of the way down there is a velcro break, which, when opened, reveals the back supports. Up the left and right sides there are metal bars that are encapsulated in webbing. They go about half way up and at the bottom of each is the waist belt which I will comment on later. Going all the way up the pack are two, 1-inch wide pieced of metal. They seem to be aluminum (or aluminium for the Brits :D) and they start near the middle, with about an inch gap, and work their way up towards the top of the shoulder straps. These are actually shaped to fit to the spine, and this makes the pack very comfortable to wear. It also keeps the pack very rigid. Also helping the rigidity is a large, thick piece of plastic which is shaped and fixed in place with velcro. This is underneath all of the padding. At the top of the pack between the shoulder straps is a drag handle which is nice and wide. The base of the pack simply has a good sized drainage hole.
The waist strap on the pack is a particularly clever design in my eyes. It is attached to the pack simply by two, 1-inch wide pieces of webbing, which, at first, I questioned its ability to take the weight off the shoulders and back. However, once you see how it works, it is very good. If you think back to the two encapsulated metal rods which finished at either side of the packs rear, you will see that they end where each of the two straps attaches to the waist belt. They basically take all the weight and distribute it on the waist strap. The waist strap itself is padded over an inch thick. It is firm padding, but it is much more comfortable and won't dig in like just using webbing. It also has a piece of internal plastic which follows the belt all the way around, keeping it rigid. The belt closes with a double-adjustable ITW nexus clip.
Each side of the pack has a fairly deep elastic pocket at the base, which is great for keeping a gun or walking poles from sleeping out from the two webbing straps, which are situated down the sides. These also double as compression straps as well as the dedicated compression strap at the top of each side. Each side has six rows of molle which are five columns wide each.
The top of the main pack has a single compression strap running from back to front in the center. The pack is also closed with a draw string and stopper. And obviously then covered by lid which clips over and compresses the pack further in all angles. The central area of the outside face is covered in twelve rows of molle. They are mostly six columns wide by, a few at the bottom, are four wide. Down the edge of each side is a large heavy duty zip (same specs as the one on the lid) which allows you to access anything at different levels in the pack, without having to get everything at the top out of the pack first. Excellent if it is raining, and also makes it less essential for you to pack your pack properly (although it always helps!). There are four clips which can be used to attach other packs such as the ILBE. My Eagle AIII molle pack attached fine, and of course would be a bonus for travelers who can carry a day pack on the back without using up internal space.
Onto space, the pack itself can be huge or it can be a average size as it compresses down well. I can fit two king size duvets and a single duvet into the pack, for a slight idea, and that still allows me to compress it, which obviously means there's still more room. You can also attach pouches to the pack all over via molle and the molle also lets you hang things off it if needs be. The various straps around the pack allow you to tie on sleeping bags and mats which would normally take up internal space. The overall construction of the pack is in Cordura. I believe it is 750D. This is again a feature i very much like. 1000D would weigh a fair bit more, and really isn't needed, as750D does the job just as well. All the joins are internally bonded with webbing and the cordura is coated to be water resistant. With any pack though it is always good practice to use a liner however. The stitching is also fantastic and I am yet to find a thread out of place. I would describe the Large tango pack as a Large, Multi-role pack. This would suit hunting trips, many roles of military use, hiking, traveling and so on. This pack is fantastic. Nothing is perfect and so if I had to pick faults, I would say that I wish the waist strap had molle on it, but that's really hardly an issue, as there is so much molle left on the pack that you would struggle to find a need for more. A couple of nice shots of me using the pack:
Using the pack with a Plate Carrier:
Also coming soon: Video of the quick release in use.
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