GORUCK GR1 Hydro Evacuation System (HES)
GORUCK GR1 Hydro Evacuation System (HES)
So I’m driving home from work and except for the absolutely foul weather everything is peachy. Anyway to cut a long story short at junction the car suddenly cuts out and can not be started again so in the end after a lot of swearing and phone calls I decide Id have to walk for it. So after Pushing the car up on the pavement and out of everyone’s way I yomp for it. Dark cold, mid winter and pissing with rain it takes me an hour to walk the three miles home. When I get home I am socked through and water is pissing out the arse of my trousers (all funny now) anyway I take off my rucksack and think it’s more heavy then I usual so I un-zip it to find it a least a pint of water swilling around in the bottom. This was the 80s so it was only paper work that got wet and was easily dryed out although when I told the client the dog had eaten it and I had made him cough it up he believed me : )
The solution to this is drainage holes most rucksacks have them now and good that they do but GORUCK rucksacks don’t and given my history you can understand why I thought I’d add some.
HOW TO INSTALL DRAINAGE HOLES IN YOUR GORUCK RUCKSACK.
I don’t have any pix of the process because I was to busy making sure I didn’t Ruck it up. So these I took after the event and demonstrate pretty well what to do.
1. THE GROMMETS
The base of the the GORUCK GR1 is about 5-6mm thick but it’s made of a closed cell foam so can compress nether the less the grommets you choose will need to work for thick materials. For my project I sourced 15mm x 10mm gunmetal black grommets which I felt suited my GORUCK The look and feel I was going for was that of a factory installed grommet I wanted them to merge into the rucksack, to look like they had always been there. Grommets comprise of two parts: part 1. The grommet and part 2. The washer.
2. TOOLS
I bought my grommets on Amazon and bought the suggested 15mm tools at the same time. The little kit that arrives comprises of a hole punch a anvil and rivet set (riveting pounce). In addition you will also need a hammer somewhere hard to hammer on to. I’d suggest some solid concrete outside. You will need a solid block of wood, masking tape a sharpie pen, tap measure and a lighter.
3. MEASURING AND MARKING
This is the most important part of the project, take your time and make a great job of it.
Descide where you want your drainage holes. Indeed how many holes you want. One right in the middle will be fine but as you can see I opted for three and toward the back of the rucksack. This was so water could drain more efficiently when I’m leaning into my stride or riding a bike for instance I guess being a creative type I thought this config looked more funky. But assuming one will do. With your GORUCK upside down apply a strip of masking tap, first across the bottom of the bag then vertically so forcing a cross to the centre of the base of the bag. Next get your tap or ruler and measure to the centre of the base and make a small mark with your sharpie. First do this horizontally then vertically. You should now have cross where your grommet will sit. So why the masking tap? Just so we can measure and mark where we want out hole without marking the actually bag. Very cool if we get it wrong first time. Just pulled the tap and start again.
4. PUNCHING THE HOLES
This is the part where we will ruin our GORUCK rucksack unless we are very, very cleaver which is just like being careful only with more thought and method. Go to HOT TIPS Read, then come here. So now we are actually going to punch a hole in our GORUCK .. Take you solid piece of wood and place on your solid concrete that we discussed earlier. This will act a firm base for you to punch into but as it’s wood won’t damage the cutting edge of the punch. Position your bag on the wood block then place your punch on the cross that we marked earlier. Now thinks it all through, are you happy that all is correct? If so punch. 5 or 6 hard whacks with your hammer should do it but be super sure that you have punched the all the material which the case of your GORUCK is 2 layers of 1000D Cordura and 1 layer of 5mm (approx) close-cell fome. The hole punch will cut through it easily just make sure you get though all of it.
Now use your lights to lightly seal the inner and outer Cordura to stop it from fraying. Be carful not to melt of blacken the material.
5. FIXING RIVETING THE GROMMETS
All is now ready to fit the grommets!
First push part.1 grommet through the hole from the outside of your GORUCK You will want to rivet it over on the inside of the bag as this will make a much cleaner job and look more professional. Now the awkward bit.
Hold the Part 1. grommet with your finger tips inside the bag and place the riveting anvil on you block of wood.
Now place and line up your Part 1. grommet with the anvil and hold all firmly in place with your hand from the inside of the bag. Push the part 2 washer over your part 1 grommet. Hold firmly in place with your finger tips.
Getting your hammer ready, line up the riveting set with your Grommet and give it some considered whacks with your hammer. What do I mean by considered? (Go and Read HOT TIPS) Hit it too hard and too much and your will ruin it, not enough and it won’t work and your grommet will pull out.
Do you know what? If all goes well that should be it, job well done and your GORUCK will now have a professional looking drainage hole
HOT TIPS
DISCLAIMER
Neither YOMP NOTES or Neil Stevens accept any responsibility for ruined items or personal injury due to this blog post. You follow these instruction and participate in this modification of your equipment at your own risk. If you have any doubts about your ability or about any part of this task just don’t do it. At the end of the day, better not to ruin your gear, you can live without a drainage hole.
So I’m driving home from work and except for the absolutely foul weather everything is peachy. Anyway to cut a long story short at junction the car suddenly cuts out and can not be started again so in the end after a lot of swearing and phone calls I decide Id have to walk for it. So after Pushing the car up on the pavement and out of everyone’s way I yomp for it. Dark cold, mid winter and pissing with rain it takes me an hour to walk the three miles home. When I get home I am socked through and water is pissing out the arse of my trousers (all funny now) anyway I take off my rucksack and think it’s more heavy then I usual so I un-zip it to find it a least a pint of water swilling around in the bottom. This was the 80s so it was only paper work that got wet and was easily dryed out although when I told the client the dog had eaten it and I had made him cough it up he believed me : )
The solution to this is drainage holes most rucksacks have them now and good that they do but GORUCK rucksacks don’t and given my history you can understand why I thought I’d add some.
HOW TO INSTALL DRAINAGE HOLES IN YOUR GORUCK RUCKSACK.
I don’t have any pix of the process because I was to busy making sure I didn’t Ruck it up. So these I took after the event and demonstrate pretty well what to do.
1. THE GROMMETS
The base of the the GORUCK GR1 is about 5-6mm thick but it’s made of a closed cell foam so can compress nether the less the grommets you choose will need to work for thick materials. For my project I sourced 15mm x 10mm gunmetal black grommets which I felt suited my GORUCK The look and feel I was going for was that of a factory installed grommet I wanted them to merge into the rucksack, to look like they had always been there. Grommets comprise of two parts: part 1. The grommet and part 2. The washer.
2. TOOLS
I bought my grommets on Amazon and bought the suggested 15mm tools at the same time. The little kit that arrives comprises of a hole punch a anvil and rivet set (riveting pounce). In addition you will also need a hammer somewhere hard to hammer on to. I’d suggest some solid concrete outside. You will need a solid block of wood, masking tape a sharpie pen, tap measure and a lighter.
3. MEASURING AND MARKING
This is the most important part of the project, take your time and make a great job of it.
Descide where you want your drainage holes. Indeed how many holes you want. One right in the middle will be fine but as you can see I opted for three and toward the back of the rucksack. This was so water could drain more efficiently when I’m leaning into my stride or riding a bike for instance I guess being a creative type I thought this config looked more funky. But assuming one will do. With your GORUCK upside down apply a strip of masking tap, first across the bottom of the bag then vertically so forcing a cross to the centre of the base of the bag. Next get your tap or ruler and measure to the centre of the base and make a small mark with your sharpie. First do this horizontally then vertically. You should now have cross where your grommet will sit. So why the masking tap? Just so we can measure and mark where we want out hole without marking the actually bag. Very cool if we get it wrong first time. Just pulled the tap and start again.
4. PUNCHING THE HOLES
This is the part where we will ruin our GORUCK rucksack unless we are very, very cleaver which is just like being careful only with more thought and method. Go to HOT TIPS Read, then come here. So now we are actually going to punch a hole in our GORUCK .. Take you solid piece of wood and place on your solid concrete that we discussed earlier. This will act a firm base for you to punch into but as it’s wood won’t damage the cutting edge of the punch. Position your bag on the wood block then place your punch on the cross that we marked earlier. Now thinks it all through, are you happy that all is correct? If so punch. 5 or 6 hard whacks with your hammer should do it but be super sure that you have punched the all the material which the case of your GORUCK is 2 layers of 1000D Cordura and 1 layer of 5mm (approx) close-cell fome. The hole punch will cut through it easily just make sure you get though all of it.
Now use your lights to lightly seal the inner and outer Cordura to stop it from fraying. Be carful not to melt of blacken the material.
5. FIXING RIVETING THE GROMMETS
All is now ready to fit the grommets!
First push part.1 grommet through the hole from the outside of your GORUCK You will want to rivet it over on the inside of the bag as this will make a much cleaner job and look more professional. Now the awkward bit.
Hold the Part 1. grommet with your finger tips inside the bag and place the riveting anvil on you block of wood.
Now place and line up your Part 1. grommet with the anvil and hold all firmly in place with your hand from the inside of the bag. Push the part 2 washer over your part 1 grommet. Hold firmly in place with your finger tips.
Getting your hammer ready, line up the riveting set with your Grommet and give it some considered whacks with your hammer. What do I mean by considered? (Go and Read HOT TIPS) Hit it too hard and too much and your will ruin it, not enough and it won’t work and your grommet will pull out.
Do you know what? If all goes well that should be it, job well done and your GORUCK will now have a professional looking drainage hole
HOT TIPS
- Read all the HOT TIPS
- Read the INSTRUCTIONS
- Think the whole process through
- Practice the whole process first maybe on an old rucksack you no longer use to make sure you are more familiar.
- Patrice riveting the grommets make sure you know how hard to hammer the punch. Enough to fix the grommet securely but too hard and too much will ruin it.
- Using making tape to accurately mark out where you want the holes is a very hot tip. If you make a mistake just rip it off and start again.
DISCLAIMER
Neither YOMP NOTES or Neil Stevens accept any responsibility for ruined items or personal injury due to this blog post. You follow these instruction and participate in this modification of your equipment at your own risk. If you have any doubts about your ability or about any part of this task just don’t do it. At the end of the day, better not to ruin your gear, you can live without a drainage hole.
YOMP NOTES //AD.
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