Hi Matt,

Congratulations on your new setup and thanks for the review.

I am looking into buying a marauder myself and spend quite a bit of time on their forums.

As you mentioned in your review the gear is heavy, the comfort however, should be very good. Discomfort seems to be a more common initial complaint. The general advice is to give Mel a call at 1-866-308-1911. Usually after the call most people were raving about the comfort.

Most of the details on the bags have been thought trough very thoroughly and I suspect that the zipper pulls might have undergone a similar process. Since it is a military bag, one of the reasons for the zipper pulls to be made out of cord might be to minimize sound. But that is just me speculating. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

There are several threads on the Kifaru Forums about strap management. In general most people advice against cutting and recommend either ranger bands (rubber bands cut from bicycle inner tubes) or Velcro straps to keep everything tidy.

For your water you might want to consider a camelbak type of reservoir instead of the Nalgene pockets with bottle.

Best regards,

B.

P.s. What is the empty weight of your setup?