Personal harness for carrying packs

Abstract

Equipment that enables people to carry substantial pack loads have the problems that the body is under load from the shoulders down and packs bearing against the body prevent evaporation of perspiration which generates discomfort and fatigue. An eccentric backpack load exacerbates these problems. The subject invention is a wearable harness that transfers pack loads directly to the person's hips, bypassing the shoulders and upper body. Two over-the-shoulder, inverted “U” beams have attachment points for back and front packs and maintain a ventilation space beneath both. Balanced front and back packs can eliminate load eccentricity. Each beam is supported at the bottom (front and back) by a wide belt that goes over the hip. The harness is kept in place circumferentially at the waist by an ordinary belt around the waist. A distinctive hip is an important advantage; therefore, the invention is applicable mostly to women.

1 . A harness that is worn by a person to alleviate the stress and discomfort of carrying packs, such harness consisting of inverted “U” beams ( 1 ) going over the shoulders of the wearer but not touching them, and vertically oriented so as to provide a base at the back and front of the torso for attaching packs, and connecting to the ends of flexible load belts, one on each side of the body, such that each belt is tensioned by the load from its attaching beam ( 1 ) and thereby transfers that load to an area of the hip where there is enough horizontal orientation to provide an upward pressure load equal to the vertical load from the packs.  
   
   
       2 . A harness according to  claim 1  that employs a connecting plate ( 3 ), having sufficient in-plane strength and rigidity, between the said beams ( 1 ) to prevent relative movement of the beams of  claim 1  in the vertical plane, such as relative up-down movement or rotation about fore-aft axes at the waist (support) level.  
   
   
       3 . A harness according to  claim 1  that allows suitably designed luggage pack(s) to be mounted on the front and/or back of the wearer such that a ventilation path is provided between the pack(s) and the wearer's body to facilitate the rejection of heat from the body.  
   
   
       4 . An accessory for a harness according to  claim 1 , consisting of an essentially horizontal beam ( 5 ) that attaches to the vertical beams of  claim 1 , such beam incorporating a suitably constructed trough ( 6 ) in front of the wearer's shoulder for accepting the butt of a rifle and absorbing the recoil when it is fired by transferring the force to the vertical beams of  claim 1.