By Dana Okoro, Editorial Reviewer · Published September 14, 2026, 6:03 PM ET
Direct Answer
Load-lifter straps run from the top of the shoulder straps to an anchor point higher on the pack body; pull them until they sit at roughly a 45-degree angle, close enough to draw the pack's upper frame toward the shoulders without lifting the whole pack off the hipbelt. Adjust them after the hipbelt and shoulder straps, never before.
In plain English
Load-lifter straps are the two short straps that run from the top of your shoulder straps back to the pack, just above your shoulders. Pulling them draws the top of the pack toward you so it does not lean back.
The trick is to pull them gently, not as hard as you can. Picture the strap as a line running from your shoulder up to the pack. When it slants up at a moderate angle, somewhere between a gentle slope and a corner cut in half, the pack hugs your back. Pull too hard and the pack lifts off your hips. Leave it slack and the top of the pack sags backward.
Do this step after the hip belt and shoulder straps are set. Adjusting it first is like straightening a picture before hanging the nail.
Load-lifter straps connect the top of each shoulder strap to an anchor point set higher on the pack's frame, and adjusting them correctly means pulling until they sit at roughly a 45-degree angle rather than straight up and down or nearly flat.
Why the angle matters
A 45-degree angle draws the load's upper mass in toward the shoulders and spine, keeping the pack's center of gravity close to the body. Pulled too steep, near vertical, load lifters lift the entire pack off the hipbelt and shift weight back onto the shoulders — the opposite of what a hipbelt-first fit is meant to achieve. Left too loose, near flat, the top of the pack tips backward away from the back, which makes a given load feel heavier than its actual weight because the center of gravity moves rearward.
When to adjust them
Load lifters come after the hipbelt and shoulder straps in the tightening sequence, never before. Setting them first, on an unbuckled or loose hipbelt, gives no reliable reference point for the 45-degree target since the pack's baseline position hasn't been established yet.
A quick field check
Load-lifter angle
Effect
Near vertical (too tight)
Lifts pack off hipbelt, shoulders take more weight
Roughly 45 degrees
Load sits close to spine, hipbelt keeps carrying weight
Near flat (too loose)
Pack top leans back, center of gravity shifts rearward
A common limiting factor
Torso length affects whether a hiker can even reach a proper 45-degree angle. On a pack correctly sized to torso length, the load-lifter anchor sits at the right height for that angle; on a pack that's the wrong size, the straps often run out of adjustment range before reaching 45 degrees, which is a sign to check torso-length sizing rather than keep pulling the load lifters tighter.
The angle guidance and where it comes from
This page uses 45 degrees as the target, the figure Big Agnes gives in both its fit guides.1,2 Other makers widen the window: Deuter says its stabilizer straps work best between 30 and 45 degrees,3 and Alpkit puts the optimal angle at 25 to 45 degrees from horizontal.4 None of these is wrong; they describe different packs and a range of comfortable positions.
What the sources share is a ceiling at 45 degrees. Going steeper than that moves the pull more vertical, which is how an over-tightened lifter starts lifting the pack upward instead of drawing it in.
Why a close load feels lighter
The page says a pack that tips back makes a load feel heavier than it is. The research behind that idea is about energy cost. A Military Medicine review found the lowest energy cost comes from keeping the load's center of mass as close as possible to the body's own,5 and the US Army's foot-march manual says packing heavier items higher and closer to the body can cut marching energy cost by as much as 25% versus low, away-from-body placement.6
A 2022 ergonomics review adds the posture side: a backpack shifts your center of mass backward, and the body compensates by leaning the trunk forward.7 Load lifters reduce how far the upper load sits behind you, which reduces that compensating lean. They cannot fix a badly packed bag, though; heavy items still need to sit close to your back.
Balancing lifters against the hip belt
Over-tightened lifters shift weight back onto the shoulders, which matters because a PLoS One study found the hip region tolerates pack pressure significantly better than the shoulder region.8 Deuter's fitting guide makes the same point about shoulder straps: do not over-tighten them, because the waist belt should carry the main load.3
On long days, try easing the lifters a little on climbs, when you lean forward naturally, and snugging them on descents, when the pack tends to pull back. The page's point about torso size is worth repeating: if the straps run out of adjustment before reaching a moderate angle, re-measure your torso rather than cranking harder.
