Maxpedition Xantha | Field Review

Description

*Available in HD - Krik of Black Owl Outdoors takes a look at the Maxpedition Xantha, the first internal frame backpack from Maxpedition. On paper the Xantha should be the perfect blend of military toughness and hiking comfort, but in reality, it is a much different story.

Maxpedition Xantha - http://amzn.to/29OurDw

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Tags: Maxpedtion,Xantha,Backpack,Internal Frame,Tactical,Hiking,Backpacking,Bushcraft,Camping,Black Owl Outdoors,Review,Outdoor Gear,Wilderness,Forest,Survival,Nature

Video Transcription

hey what's up Turtles its Creek here with blackout outdoors and today we're going to be taking a look at this max fishing xantho backpack some of the initial specifications on this bag are price you can get it right around $220 at united states dollars this is the OD green colorway it's made of thousand D nylon which you'd expect from Maxpedition and empty weight it's right around three point seven pounds and this is an internal frame pack which makes it pretty different in my eyes coming from a tactical bag manufacturer so make sure you stay tuned to the end of the video because it's a little bit different and pretty much any other bag review I've done now let's take a look at the front pocket on the bag and it's a pretty nice sized pocket as tactical bags go this does not have all the organization as I'm accustomed to seeing because all we have here is one mess pocket two mesh pockets and that's it on this face of the bag and there's just a decent amount of crud just jammed down in here just floating freely and on the other side of this pocket you do have a small little mesh zipper pocket as well behind that we have a small pocket that has almost a fleece type feel really soft material for your electronics sunglasses anything you don't want to get scratched up that's what this pocket is generally used for and what we have here this little piece of webbing is if you're in an urban setting and you want to secure all your zipper pulls you can thread it through here there's the main compartment zipper pulls and then the front pocket I talked about before and you can just snap that down anyone so ever lived in a city road public transportation bus train where your backs to potential strangers having a feature like this and give you just a little bit of added extra sense of security and behind that you can see there's a nice-sized grab handle nothing special no extra material just the webbing folded over on itself to give a little bit more comfortable edge moving on to the side of the bag two compression straps is one up here and then there's one down here which will help secure your water bottle in this water bottle pocket which is one of the features this water bottle pocket one of the features that my brother and I were really excited to see on this bag it's one of the reasons why we bought it and this is a 40 ounce Klean Kanteen that's setting in there real nice you can see the zipper track right here that I'm Tracy with my finger pull that zipper down it exposes a pocket that runs behind the water bottle and this is the becker BK 16 that fits in there pretty nice and this bag is hydration compatible so right here we have the X support for the bladder tube on the other side of the bag it's the exact same set up compression strap up here another exit port for your bladder tube compression strap on the outside of the water bottle pocket and again that zipper pocket behind the water bottle pocket let's take a look at see at the back of the bag and the suspension system shoulder straps at the top here we have a load lifter which helps take the weight off of your shoulders when you pull that tight one on each shoulder strap working our way down the shoulder shoulder straps we have two I guess we'll call them a d-ring I almost looks like a d4 attaching really anything and moving down to the sternum strap that has that elastic in there for comfort when you got that tight and your chest is moving when you're breathing and keeping in line with this being a tactical Elio style bag you don't have always the convenience of a dedicated say hiking bag so if you wanted to move the sternum strap and didn't fit well you just have to undo this and then slide it up take it look some of the padding now on the back you might not be able to see it but it almost feels sort of like an egg crate it's not just a solid pad underneath this mesh there actually is some like peaks and valleys in here which is nice and comfortable and single aluminum stay is running underneath all of this and we have a lumbar pad right here moderately sized and we have the hip belt right here and Amma's well touch on it since I'm here you see what I'm doing how I'm squishing that hip belt it is removable but this isn't really offering a lot of load-bearing support or capability there's no structure to that like you expect to see on a hiking bag and there is two pockets on the hip out one on each side and they are pretty nicely sized there's a wave leather man wave just floating in there right now so plenty of space in there same size pocket on the other and we'll save the hip belt once I get the bag on towards the end so make sure you stay tuned let's take a look at the bottom of the bag now so we have this rubberized reinforced bottom of the bag which is a really nice feature to see because obviously this part of the bag gets a lot of wear from sitting on the ground and we do have two straps here that are adjustable one thing I would like to see are some cord keepers is what I'll call them so all this excess you can just bunch that up hook and loop so you do it's a mod you can do yourself in for this price I would expect to see them on this bag but they're not there but still having these straps is a really nice feature on any bag in my opinion all right it's like a look at the inside main compartment now of the bag give a zipper mesh pocket that's pretty nice size and then down here this is just a sleeve for holding your hydration bladder this will fit up to a hundred ounces a bladder of that size and there is a little hook right here to suspend your bladder that's very important and the zipper is then showing the frame because like I said this is an internal frame pack so we have some molded plastic or neat side of the stay now the aluminum stay right in there so those were all the notable features of the bag worth mentioning I want to talk a little bit about internal frame pack or frame packs in general and as I said earlier this is an internal frame bag which is pretty unique coming from a tactical or military bag manufacturer if you're not familiar with hiking or backpacking bags you basically have external and internal frame bags and while there are differences I'm not going to go into depth about them what the frame does is it carries the weight that's in the bag it's like you're framing a wall framing anything you're creating a frame in this case aluminum stay that helps carry the weight of the bag and that's important to mention because this bag does not carry weights well at all if you're still watching that means you are interested in this bag and maybe there's a reason why this bag isn't as popular as I thought it should have been if you're looking at the website looking at all the pictures all the features the fact that it has internal frame load lifters to me that's bringing we have tactical military over here hiking backpacking comfort and then we have this middle ground which I'm constantly searching for in bags and I thought this bag was going to be it but it's not and I'm not the only one to feel this way Stoney's been using it since we bought it because

there's really not much else out there that's competing with it in the sense of having the durability there over built nature of the military bag but also combining the comfort and weight carrying capabilities of hiking bag mystery ranch everly stock there are some other ones that are blending you know that the heavier nylon and materials with the weight carrying capabilities but they still look really tactical and and for all intents and purposes I don't think this bag looks super tactical which is why I was really excited for when it came out I'm not weak by any stretch of the imagination I'm not hawk but oh my gosh pseudo takes to pull this tight and this is an improvement from the original hip belt and when it first came to us the hip belt didn't stay tight because it was configured a little bit different where if you're familiar with backpacking bags this strap looping through the buckles and you pull it in towards your body it's just a little bit more user friendly and comfortable and you can just sort of take off tension right here it didn't stay tight so we had to contact Maxpedition they were aware of the problem with the hip belt they weren't surprised when we contacted them and there's a couple sides of that they took care of it right away they sent out what we needed but part of me is thinking why did this pack even come to market

I like their initiative with trying to bring those features together like I said before military meets backpacking hiking but I feel like this should have stayed in testing and design so much longer because the hip belt doesn't carry weight at all it's not a comfortable bag to wear if you put anything in it besides two water bottles this is what's different about this video is that I'm not recommending this bag if you're looking for a comfortable bag to wear for an extended period of time even an hour which isn't that long to wear a bag if you're going to be hiking if this pack was $100 I wouldn't be upset with it's a lack of weight carrying capability even though it's an internal frame packed for over $200 I would expect this pack to perform pretty much flawlessly I would and again I just think they shouldn't have released this pack now I understand if you're looking for a bag that you're carrying from your car to your house to work you know it's on your back just a little bit but any bag that's made and if it's packed to its capabilities and it's uncomfortable to put on your back and where I think it's a complete failure and I'm usually not this blunt in my reviews or opinions but on this bag I am the reason why we're doing this video is because a lot of people have asked us what are your thoughts on it what are your impressions because it's been you know seen in the shadows of videos or you know it's been seen we haven't talked about it and the other reason why we're using this bag still and Stoney's using it primarily is because there's really not else out there that has water bottle pockets that's a huge feature for both the bus because while drinking out of a bladder is nice and convenient if the bag is on your back all day I don't like tasting plastic and most bladders I've ever used the water tastes like plastic after a certain amount of time that's all I have to say about this bag and I know is a lot so if there any other bags that you know about that has water bottle pockets that will fit a 32 ounce or 40 ounce bottle let me know and I also like to thank our patrons thank you you know exactly who you are we'll be having our giveaway coming up pretty soon our first giveaway on patreon if you like to join the link will be in description got any questions you can always email us through the comment until the next video this is crack with black out later Turtles