just plainly sucks...

Everyone has something they bought and thought it was the best invention since sliced bread but it came up to be a total failure and disapointment. Please add your gear so we can all learn.

US Army Large Alice Pack with frame: I humped one one my back for 4 years in the service and it was the only thing I knew. It would hold a lot of gear and it was allright when it came to comfort. I got one as soon as I got out of the service. But it was to big. Airlines hated it. Pockets would open, there was no compartments and when filled up it looked like a giant boulder. I couldn't store it anywhere, couldn't make tight turns and with big hump on my back my center of gravity was pushed so much back that I was fishtailing during speed hikes. I dumped it in a favor of a big internal frame pack.

Matt

Has the Army completely switched to the MOLLE system over the ALICE now? (http://www.specialtydefense.com/MOLLE/molle.htm) I think MOLLE stuff is supposed to be more ergonomic.

Yes! And both were flashlights. The first was my LED-Lenser V2 Triplex that just stopped working. The switch mechanism apparently crapped out. The second light was my CMG infinity. It also just stopped working but I tapped the board with a tack hammer and it worked again. I know I could send either light back under warranty but by the time you pay for postage and handling it doesn't seem worth the effort.

Chris

in the begining wenn i had little experians in buying and using gear, i bought cheapo stuff like a immitation SAK, nothing on it actually worked, the saw was very effective to use to sratch those itching place were you hand just can't reach, with other word it was a wordless piece of crap, same goes for a cheap multitool, flashlights, etc.
Nowdays i make sure that what i get is GOOD qualtity stuff, which i can inspect before buying. Reading load of reviews and take mine time wenn i had to chouse, stopped most low qualtity stuff. Which is very importent to me, since mine budget is very LOW.

I've had lots of gear that was useless. My large alice pack is among them. Too small to hold enough gear, yet the back of sits three feet from the small of your back making hiking absolutely miserable, if not dangerous because the weight pulls you backwards when turning, running, crawling etc.

When worn with your fighting load its basically impossible. The military wants a fighting load around your waist, held up with a pair of suspenders. Then your supposed to wear a pack that has a kidney pad and belt over that. Unfortunately you already got your canteens resting on your hips so the kidney pad has to rest on top of that which grinds the alice clips into your skin and the pad is six inches off of where its supposed to fit. For eight years I never figured out a way to make that goofy system work.



Furthermore, I never had a quick release that ever held. They use a plistic clip going througha metal wire held together by a little snap. How in the world thats supposed to hold thirty pounds is beyod me.



Now I carry a modified CFP 90. With all the side pouches cut off the pack fits the contortions of my body. Usually when hiking with it I hardly know its their.

I cut off all the quick releases and added some black hawk plastic buckles. They disengage even faster than the quick releases and so far will hold at a hundred pounds. I've yet to force them beyond that.

Let me see,

My princeton tech pulsar 2 failed me in a blackout. My coleman peak one stove had a seal break inside the pump about two days into a field exercise. Never loan your prize gear out, I learned that. A bicycle pump broke when I was trying to repair a flat. I have had numerous cheapo knives just refuse to work, ie cutting, opening, etc. I bought those because I thought they were cool and all, but they were crap.

I have had articles of clothing fail as well, mostly in the zipper or button areas and I have had lots of shoe and boot laces break for no reason, or at least that is what I am telling myself.

Good thread, talk to you later,

garrett

Hmmm. well, a couple spring to mind...

As documented here, I bought and tried a number of lighters with built-in compasses. They ranged from $5 to $75, from no-name Asian knockoffs to some of the top names in lighters.

I wasn't expecting much- I don't smoke, but was carrying a lighter on general principles, and for the occasional gallant gesture. The only thing I often needed a compass for was orienting myself when emerging from the dark labyrinth of the local subway system into unfamiliar city streets- a general idea of where north was would be fine.

But not one of the lighter-compasses pointed north. Some just moved around randomly, some always pointed to the same point on the lighter, and some were shipped with enormous bubbles that kept the dial from moving freely. All were completely useless.

Then there was my first real try of a Marmot Mountain Works "Burrow", a tiny, expensive little Gore-Tex one-man tent that's little more than a bivvy sack with a hoop at the foot as well as the mouth. It was my first, and, as it turns out, my last Gore-Tex tent. I knew the ventilation between the mouth of the tent and the little "eyelid" window at the foot wasn't going to work when I noticed that the mummy bag, with me inside, plugged the diameter of the tent completely at about rib level. However, I was more disappointed to wake up in the morning in a sloshing pool of condensation. When I got out of the tent, I saw that the whole thing was covered with almost a quarter-inch of glaze ice from a full night of freezing rain.

Well, "duh", you say, of course no fabric is going to "breathe" when it's encased in ice...

Yeah, but a tent with an old-fashioned fly would have worked fine.

In it's defense, I used it for a couple of long backpacking trips later, and it did fine under more common conditions... but it was an interesting (and expensive) lesson on overlooked limitations.

I'm sure others failures will come to mind, but, mostly I wanted to say.. good question!

Goretex. I bought a 'first generation' anorak. It came in a bright blue instead of my requested forest green or red. The salesman ( being a salesman) informed me it was the hottest color that season and "the most visible on the spectrum for high visibility." I replied that was true, if one wanted to attract mosquitos. Another wait and a red one arrived. I went confidently out into a rainfall and got soaked. Then the salesman mentioned my premium anorak needed seam sealer. I said it was "unseamly" not to have mentioned it before and got a free bottle. Again I ventured forth into the storm, only to find more water forming inside than out. At least I fgured out what all those venting zippers were for. Trouble was I was getting as much rain through them as was being vented. Next the saleman wanted to sell a special cleaner and some sort of waterproofing supplement. I demanded a full and uncheerful refund. The very word still gives me a wet body chill and even influenced my vote in the last presidential election.

Anything Gore-Tex. That stuff is junk. You can be waterproof. You can breathable. But you can't be both, I don't care what Madison Ave. says. The only time I've ever had any luck with it was when it was well vented, arm-pit zips etc... What's the point of paying for the laminent, if you still have to carry around all those zippers, or worse... blow them out?
Biscuits

My Marine buddies say that the MOLLE system is junk. Too complicated and the frames keep breaking espcially in cold enviroments.