I'm certain that you have put more mileage on the alice than I. I work within a budget and the alice fits my frame somewhat better than you I would suspect. The belt has never been an impedance to my stride and I have made use of the area in the small of the back to hold a 4 liter platypus quite snugly. I do not overload the pack and that may have something to do with my apreciation of it. I haven't made much use of the ability to attach things to the pack other than the gas cans for my MSR stove. They hang between the outer pockets comfortably and don't rattle or swing about. <br><br>I will agree with the problem you mentioned with the depth of the pack front to back. I have been toppled by it on a couple of occasions because the weight is so far out from my body in the back. I found that I could overcome this by packing the wieght higher and thus closer to my center-line. Hanging the bedroll from the bottom of this pack is a disaster since it will be a heavy weight hanging cantilevered about 8 inches out from you butt. With the bedroll on top I find that things work much better - that might be a bit tall with a fully loaded large alice though.<br><br>I am 5'8" 170 pounds and in moderate condition.