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I wanted a hip belt for my GoRuck GR1 backpack. I tried GoRuck’s own padded hip belt. It’s great for stabilizing the bottom of the bag so that it doesn’t swing from side to side. However, I wanted a weight-bearing belt like the one on my camping backpack. This wasn’t it.

The gang over at Yomp Notes wrote a guide to make a DIY hip belt. I couldn’t make heads nor tails of their system for attaching the belt to the bag, so I tried something vastly simpler.

My shopping list:

1. Fairwin tactical belt. This is the tough, non-stretching nylon belt that cinches the setup snugly around your hips. It’s basically the tough version of a normal belt you’d wear to hold your pants up.
2. Condor Elite battle belt. This is a padded wrapper that goes around the nylon belt for comfort. It doesn’t have a buckle of its own. Feel free to roll your eyes at the tacticoolness of the description, but here we’re using it purely for its width and the padding. You wouldn’t want to wear the nylon belt directly against your hips without it, unless you’re a fan of being sawed in half. We’re going to use those PALS straps on out its outside to connect it to the bag. Sizing tip: I’m 6 feet tall and, ahem, robust. I bought a medium and it wraps all the way around me. If you’re not sure which size to get, get the smaller option.
3. Two C.A.M.P. Compact Oval Screwgate Locking carabiners to connect the battle belt to your GR1.

First, open the velcro flaps on the battle belt to expose its inner channel, lay the nylon belt inside it, and close the velcro again. Ta-da! The belt is assembled.

Next, thread the carabiners through the bottom 2 PALS straps on the sides your GR1, closest to the part of the pack that rests against your back.

Finally, lay your battle belt against the padded back of your GR1. Find the 2 columns of PALS straps that are about the same width apart as the carabiners are on your pack. Err on the side of them being a little wider apart on your belt than they are on the GR1. Now work the carabiners through those straps on your belt.

You’re done. There’s no step 4. Now your belt is attached securely to your GR1, and you can still remove it easily for all the times when you don’t want to wear a padded belt.

This is how the attachment of the belt to the bag looks. It’s straightforward: the carabiners temporarily lock the belt snugly to the GR1.

This is how it looks from the front. See how the carabiner splays out to the side a little? When the belt is snug on you, that’ll put a small outward tension on the bag to hold it centered against your back.

Eagle eyes might notice that the belt is technically upside down. Try it both directions and see what’s most comfortable for you. It’s your belt. You can wear it any way you want to.

I like the end result much more than GoRuck’s own hip belt. Their belt attaches to the sides, too, but it doesn’t go all the way around your hips. It just stretches from one side of the bag, around your belly, and to the other side. That is, your bag becomes an integral part of the belt. The tighter you snug the belt, the harder it pulls the sides of your bag outward like wings. With the DIY belt, the only force between the belt and the bag is the weight of the bag pushing downward. Tension on the GR1’s PALS straps is purely upward against its weight, not upward and outward against the snugness of the belt.

This setup costs more than the GoRuck version. I didn’t do this to save money. I did it to have a sturdy belt that works about as well as such a thing possibly can. I expect this setup to last almost as long as the GR1 itself.