hey folks today i'm going to do a gear review on the eberlestock mainframe and show you the
modularity of that pack system one of the most important pieces of gear that you have
in the back country that's your backpack now as we all know each hunt is not designed
or the same not only are there different types of backpack hunts but there's different lengths
there's different elevations which all means there's got to be a different pack right not
necessarily now this is the eberlestock mainframe today today with the mainframe
what they did is they re-engineered how we think about backpacks modularity you're going to hear me
say modularity a thousand times in this because that's what the key is with the main frame and
all of its parts this is the main frame it comes just like this without these batwing
pockets it is basically just a frame a frame with a meat shelf and of course eberlestock's
really well known harness and suspension system eberlestock has two different versions of these
mainframes this one is the tall version for those guys that have a taller upper body it allows you
to have a little bit of load lift and it's pretty simple it's basically taking the lift
the weight from your shoulders
and transferring it to your hips by just changing the geometry
of the backpack by doing this what it does is it pulls the pack towards you and
up not just flat against you but it pulls the the pack up so it puts more here than here
i personally don't have a tall upper body some of the guys in our office do
mine is the regular eberlestock so this one's about two inches taller than the regular eberlestock
mainframe this one doesn't have as much load lift if you have a taller torso it has plenty
for me in fact i can't get this tall one short enough for just my body style so i have to go to
the regular size i'm six foot there's a lot of guys in our office that are taller than six foot
so they need a little bit more but that's the two different options if you want a little load lift
maybe check out the taller version or maybe check out the regular and i have plenty of load lift on
the regular one now this is the way i hunt on a day hunt what this is is the main frame
and we have the bat wings now what these bat wings do is they zip on so you're able to zip these on
and use it as a day pack or if you get something you can slide a quarter meat in here and then use
these compression straps and go over go over the top which allows you to compress it down
now these pockets are awesome these batwing pockets are built significantly large enough
for odd items like this spotter i also have this so once you do kill or kill something kind of a
meat packing system so it goes over the quarter and then it compression straps all the eight sides
down to allow it to smash against the pack so when you're packing out it's not packing boned
meat out it's not like packing jelly now here's the other cool thing inside this other side i have
just some odds and end stuff you know survival kit and snacks that type of stuff but it also has a
pocket specifically for your bladder it allows the bladder tube to come up through and then
down down the shoulder harness so that you have water at your every need so that's the bat wings
now that's day every day let's go a little bit bigger this is more of an excursion modularity and
what it is it's the same pat it's the same frame so it's the main frame but it has a rifle scabbard
that you can add onto it it has this which is the vapor series pack it is basically a giant sack
full of stuff i got my bino harness in here um i got another another uh coat some other stuff
in here it is built for about 7,500 cubic inches of space so you can take this on a 10 day hunt
pack everything you need in it and then on your day trips take everything out all this compresses
down so you have a nice day pack that you can keep your snacks your rain gear fire starter survival
kit stuff in it but you're not packing all this weight these things are extremely extremely light
now that's excursion
the other thing i want to tell you about the main frame is on the hip harnesses we have this molle
webbing and you'll see this molly webbing all over on these packs i personally keep my bear spray on
there on one side i have kept my pistol on the other side i've actually learned a few years ago
i now keep my pistol on my bino harness because my bino harness doesn't leave even if i drop my pack
for that final 100 yard 200 yard stalk i keep my pistol with me because my binos are always with
me so that's that now what i'm going to talk about is some of the other guys in our office how they
set their packs up you'll notice bat wings almost all of us use these bat wings because it's a great
day pack but they also have pouches like this is a pouch that goes on the other side and this is like
for instance this is where he keeps flashlight there's an extra water bottle in here a packable
water bottle there's some fire starter that type of stuff in these little pouches which is kind of
handy if you're backpacking in you don't have to take your pack off to find your headlamp or your
pack of gum or whatever now let's talk about the actual other ways you can configure this
this is brandon guy in our office he he uses this this can be zipped on inside these or without the
the bat wings this can be zipped on and used as a midday or a small excursion short excursion pouch
opens all the way up so you don't have to fight the tops or the back and it's just basically a
pouch he'll use this on a five day three to five day hunt and he'll it'll be packed and
compartmentalized with all these things then you can go to the different size of vapor so
you have a 7 500 you have the 5500 so mid day and then you have the 2500 if you're just doing maybe
an overnight a two day you know a long weekend trip in this is perfect vapor series zips right on
in between those bat wings or right onto the main frame and you have a pouch and if you
include with these bat wings it's the perfect size for a two to three day night trip this is
their scabbard eberlestock is known for for allowing you to put that rifle in the
center of your backpack so that the weight is in the center right up against your back
your rifle is one of the heaviest things if not the heaviest thing you have in your pack therefore
you want it right up against your back scabbard allows you to adjust it by just using these clips
these molle clips can be adjusted for height so you can slide it up and down on the pack
depending on how tall your rifle is how long your rifle is if you want it to be
above when you sit down weight all kinds of different abilities and you kind of have to
play around with it you'll see once you put a gun in there and adjust it mess around with it in your
backyard you'll see that you'll want to slide it one way or another i shoot really short guns
so i'm able to slide it all the way up to where i sit down the barrel doesn't even touch the ground
you notice the bottom of this one it is wore out because a lot of times
we'll sit on a rocky hillside just like this lean against the backpack and glass
it's perfect for that so what this does is it gives you a pouch minimalistic pouch
that just webs molly webs onto the top of your backpack onto anything and it gives you a couple
it gives you one pocket for all your for a lot of stuff and it gives you a soft pocket for if
you're going to put your cell phone in there or a gps something you want a little bit more protected
so the rifle scabbard bat wings the vapor series check them out and then of course they also have
dry bags that zip right into here they have this bag that zips right into here the point is they've
allowed you to buy parts and pieces to allow one frame become many different packs you don't have
to have 10 different backpacks or four different backpacks for whatever excursion you're going on
it allows you to buy parts and pieces and then add in a subtract to make the perfect pack for
whatever excursion you're going on the neat thing about this stuff is they've got some other stuff
coming out so be on the watch they have updated this mainframe to be a little bit more unique
that doesn't have the meat shelf i haven't seen it it's in prototype but check out eberlestock.com
and check out all of these different accessories that you can buy for your mainframe
till next time remember hit that subscribe button hit the notification so you get notified when
we have gear reviews like this we'll see you next time on eastmans hunting journals