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The Aarn Load Limo is a unique backpack designed to enhance load-carrying comfort, especially during hiking and backpacking. Here are some of the significant benefits and features associated with the Aarn Load Limo:

Dual-Compartment Design: The Load Limo typically features a dual-compartment design, separating the main compartment from the front pocket. This design allows for efficient organization of gear and easy access to items without unpacking the entire bag.
Load Transfer and Balance: One of the primary benefits of the Load Limo is its ability to transfer the weight of the load from your shoulders to your hips and maintain a balanced load. This design helps reduce strain on your back and shoulders, improving comfort during long hikes.
Aarn Balance Pockets: Aarn backpacks, including the Load Limo, often come with detachable balance pockets that can be worn on the front of the backpack. This feature provides easy access to essentials, such as snacks, maps, or a camera, without removing the main pack. It also enhances balance and stability.
Customizable Fit: The Load Limo offers adjustable harness systems to ensure a personalized and comfortable fit for various body sizes and shapes. This feature allows you to fine-tune the fit to your specific needs, reducing the risk of discomfort and pain.
Durability: Aarn is known for producing durable backpacks designed for outdoor adventures. The Load Limo is typically made from high-quality materials and reinforced in high-stress areas to withstand the rigors of hiking and backpacking.
Hydration Compatibility: Many Aarn backpacks, including the Load Limo, come with hydration reservoir sleeves and hose routing systems, allowing you to carry water and stay hydrated without removing your pack.
Ventilation: The Load Limo often includes features like a ventilated back panel to minimize sweating and increase airflow between your back and the backpack, enhancing overall comfort.
Versatility: While primarily designed for backpacking, the Load Limo can also be used for a range of outdoor activities, including trekking, hiking, and wilderness exploration.
Stability: The Load Limo's design and balance features contribute to improved stability, making it well-suited for challenging terrains and uneven surfaces.
Construction: The fabric used in this comfortable backpack are 500D Kodura nylon; 210D & 40D ripstop nylon Color is a natural green and grey combination Design features Web-loc compression, an Auto-mold frame with hollow 6001 T6 stars and 7075 alloy Load Transfer Tubes
Sustainability: Aarn is committed to sustainable and eco-friendly manufacturing processes and materials, which can be an important consideration for environmentally conscious outdoor enthusiasts.

Hiker wearing an Aarn Load Limo balance pack

When hiking and backpacking, things tend to get pretty heavy. Luckily, Light Hiking Gear carries Aarn hiking "balance packs", perfectly designed for longer trips and expeditions. Not only is this comfortable backpack ideally constructed to prevent back pain, but it also allows for free hip movement.

We recommend Expedition front Balance Pockets, which provide greater stability and balance, and a more upright posture. This translates to much less fatigue and strain.

This is the best hiking backpack for the most extreme explorers and backpackers. Keep your things dry and keep your back pain-free. Additionally, this comfortable backpack designed by Aarn comes with attachments for trekking poles, ice axes, snowboards, and helmets.

Add Balance Gear Racks (see More Accessories tab) to this comfortable backpack to take the weight of climbing hardware off your shoulders when climbing. The new generation 4 model has a revised frame which is lighter, stronger and with an improved Multi-Flow pivot position for an easier-to-use hipbelt.

SPECIFICATIONS

BALANCE POCKETS

Front Balance Pockets allow for high weights without feeling intrusive. Balance Pockets attach easily to Aarn’s comfortable backpacks and convert easily into a daypack after clipping on the shoulder and sternum straps. Hiking, backpacking, and exploring the outdoors has never been easier!

Either 10 or 12 liter front Sport-Regular Balance Pockets, or 15 liter or 18 liter Expedition Balance Pockets can be used with this pack. Pockets provide greater stability and balance, and a more upright posture. This translates to much less fatigue and strain.
Shoulder and sternum straps are included for converting the pockets into a daypack, which is carried on the front of the body for maximum security and easy gear access.
Front pockets have waterproof Dri-liners, accessible zip flaps to protect items from the rain, and four mesh exterior pockets with compression cords.
The design of the Front Balance Pockets, which includes four mesh exterior pockets with compression chords, is to provide maximum comfort, organization, and accessibility. Attach to the Aarn balance pack for an unmatched outdoors experience.

(Click on Buttons to See and Evaluate)

Sport Balance Pockets - Mid-volume balances unobtrusiveness and weight carrying ability

Expedition Balance Pockets - Large-volume for balancing heavy loads.

MORE ACCESSORIES

(Click on Buttons to Evaluate and Purchase)

These allow you to clip climbing hardware on the larger models with Pelvic Form Hipbelts.

Alternative to sternum straps when Balance Pockets are not used.

Hold tent, poles, foam pad, etc. on pack sides.

Allow skis to be attached to the pack sides and locked to prevent movement

Allow a snowboard to be attached to the pack and locked to prevent movement

DESIGN

Featherlite Freedom Backpack Hipbelt Design

FITTING

WHAT MAKES AN AARN PACK DIFFERENT?

TESTIMONIALS

Just finished a 5 day solo loop round Mt Ruapehu with my Load Limo packed with good food, a generous quantity of liquid fuel and a solo tent, so I was not travelling ultra light. This was its first realistic test. I'd spent some time familiarising myself with it and taking the trouble to adjust the shape of the metal stays and the hip belt angle, but I was still apprehensive that it wouldn't live up to the hype. Well, it came through with flying colours on days that were cloudless and hot. It did just what it was supposed to do. In my endless search for tramping gear Nirvana (with no expense spared), I've had top-of-the-range packs from several manufacturers, but they all ended up inflicting the same discomfort in the same areas. Sure, I had aching muscles from the exertion, but for the first time ever, gone were the sore hips and shoulders. So I never felt the need to resort to those tricks you see in tiring trampers - holding onto the front of the shoulder straps to take the pressure off the shoulders, reaching behind to lift the sack from below or fidgeting with the hip belt to stop the pinching or the slipping.
What I really like about your hipbelt is that it can be made to fit the pelvis and wrap around and over it snugly for even weight distribution irrespective of the tilt of the pelvis, which can vary a lot between individuals. On most conventional belts, there's a trade off between having enough weight on the hips and needing to tighten the belt to a degree that sooner or later becomes uncomfortable.
Walking upright was a welcome novelty. I loved being effortlessly able to look up and around (as we normally do) rather than feeling forced to look at the ground by constantly walking in a stooped position, especially as you're tiring towards the end of the day. Breathing and recovering from a steep climb was also easier because the diaphragm and lower front ribs are not compressed and restricted.
With those front Balance Pockets putting on and taking off the sack takes a little getting used to, and the adjustment buckles aren't as readily accessible as on conventional packs, but the small effort to adapt really pays off. They never got me hot and they didn't swing round wildly or feel unstable. Having them meant no more reaching behind to fumble for a snack, stuffing things into trouser pockets or asking someone to fish something out of the lid pocket.
In short, my long search for tramping packs stops here. Great product - thanks!’
Chris Fetto, Osteopath, Torbay, Auckland, NZ

I find the concept of having the center of gravity of the body and the load along the same line is brilliant. I have a back problem. It has been recurring for 3 years now. This year, just a month ago, I had a spinal spasm. Severe pain lasted only 3 days. Previously, it took over a month to loose the pain. My physiotherapist says, 'Your back was much stronger and posture much better, what have you been doing for it?" I tell her about my new Aarn pack and show her the brochures and literature. She’s very impressed. Her prescription for me: "You just keep walking and tramping and using your Aarn pack, that combination is the perfect balance for your back situation."
Paul Kilgour, Takaka, South Island, New Zealand

In my 48 years of life I have spent a significant amount of time with a pack on my back participating in the activities of tramping, climbing, travelling, working and family activities. I tested Load Limo on a 6-day trip with clients in the Southern Alps.

The pack for the days 1-3 weighed 21 kilograms and from days 3-6 weighed 16 kilograms. From the first step taken this Bodypack was significantly different to any other pack that I have used, the comfort level was very high both in terms of the hipbelt and shoulder straps, so comfortable that I thought that this cannot last, but 2, 3, 4, 5 hours later the same degree of comfort was being experienced. Likewise, the Balance Pockets involved a cultural change in what I was used to, like me habitually leaning forward with my tramper’s stoop. But again, after a couple of hours of consciously walking more upright, the benefits of the Bodypack became apparent.

The ease of availability for essential items (first aid, camera, scroggin, water bottle) stored in the Balance Pockets meant less frustration and less stops along with the obvious benefit of weight balance.
The sewn in pack liner is a very useful and one less thing to consider The Velcro closing for closing the top was great and the simplicity of the feature made me wonder why it hasn’t been thought of earlier. The Bodypack stuck to my body like glue and the harness was particularly effective when I negotiated constant windfall.

Overall this pack felt like something from another planet, something us pack-carrying people have not seen the likes of before and have only encountered in our dreams. The comfort, the lack of aches, strains and stresses make this Bodypack a must for serious consideration for anyone considering replacing or buying their first backpack.
Paddy Pawson, Waipuna Community Trust, Christchurch

I am a 60 year old bushwalker and I only took it up at age 58. My son has had one of your Load Limo packs and he’s always raved about it. So, I bought one for my trip on the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia. It was fantastic. For the first time I felt really balanced and I never once experienced sore shoulders. So thank you for designing such a wonderful pack and I wish you every continued success in your business.
Bob Sharples, Victoria, Australia

Got my Load Limo recently and headed for my favourite trail in the Kenai mountains. I have never before covered that mileage with so little pack pain/ awareness. Simply amazing! I noticed that at rest stops, after taking the pack off, that feeling of being ’pushed forward’ that you get from compensating from a pack that pulls backwards, was absent.
Bill Siemens, Anchorage, Alaska

My husband and I have fairly recently returned from a tramping tour in NZ. We invested in two of your backpacks, and I wanted to say how fantastic they were. We have used ’normal’ packs previously and found yours to be far superior for comfort and fit. Once the fitting was understood and worked out, we really enjoyed the freedom that the pack gave and the sense of balance when walking. We now look forward to many years using our packs!
Margaret Jawerth, Australia3

I would like to tell you about my "Bodypack" experience. I lay down last night in my tent, there was something wrong, there was NO PAIN!! Mate, I felt like I had been transported to another planet.
Rick Wildman, Carterton, North Island, NZ

I just got back from another day hike with a full load in my pack. I can't believe how comfortable it is. You're really onto something.
Chris Heaps, Ontario, Canada

I have had 25 years of outdoor experience and I was blown away by the comfort and load carrying ability - outstanding.
Chris, outdoor instructor, Tauranga, NZ

I've been the happy owner of one of your Load Limo packs for the past 3 years, and every summer have been using it on mountain expeditions while instructing with Outward Bound USA. I have to say that this pack has made a dramatic impact on how much I enjoy my job: at the end of the day my hips and back are not sore and aching like they were day after day wearing one of my old packs. I have given dozens of endorsement for your packs to students and fellow instructors over the years, because the natural balance system works so well. Thanks so much for the innovative work that you do!
Daniel Chambo, Outward Bound instructor, Asheville, NC, USA

The Aarn pack has revolutionised tramping for me. For the first time in over 20 years of tramping almost all of the pack weight now sits on my hips rather than my shoulders and I no longer have aching back and shoulders that I had come to accept as the norm when tramping. When I stop for a rest my friends usually take their packs off as I always did. Now I leave it on and even stay standing because I hardly notice it! The front Balance Pockets too are great because pretty much everything I need for the day can go in there meaning I don’t have to take my pack off to access stuff. I also load them with heavy stuff like food and water. This distributes the weight more evenly and also makes the load less noticeable. So well done and keep up the good work!
Dave Mason, Head of Outdoor Education, Howick College, Auckland, NZ

70 or 75 Liter Aarn Load Limo Backpack - Light Hiking Gear