By Priya Anand, Backpacking Gear Research Writer · Published September 14, 2026, 6:03 PM ET · Updated September 29, 2026, 6:16 PM ET
Direct Answer
A load-lifter strap connects the top of a backpack's shoulder harness to the frame a few inches above the strap's lower anchor point. Tightening it at roughly a 45-degree angle pulls the load's weight in toward your shoulders and stops a loaded pack from tipping backward away from your body.
In plain English
Put on a loaded backpack and you may notice the top of it wants to tip backward, away from your shoulders. Load lifters are the two small straps that stop that. Each one runs from the top of a shoulder strap, just above your collarbone, back to a higher point on the pack.
Pulling them gently tugs the top of the pack toward you, a bit like pulling a leaning bookcase back against the wall. The weight then sits closer to your spine, where it is easier to balance.
They are not meant to hold the pack up. That job belongs mostly to the padded belt around your hips. Think of load lifters as the steering, not the engine: small adjustments that make a heavy pack feel steadier and less tiring on your shoulders.
Load-lifter straps are a fine-tuning adjustment, not the main connection carrying pack weight — that job belongs to the hipbelt, which is built to carry the majority of a loaded pack's weight on the hips. Load lifters instead manage how the top of the pack leans against your shoulders and upper back.
How tight should load lifters be?
The target is a moderate pull at roughly a 45-degree angle between the shoulder strap and the pack body, not a strap cranked flat against the fabric. Over-tightening pulls the top of the pack into the back of your head or neck, while leaving them completely loose lets the load's weight fall backward, away from your spine, which tires the shoulders faster over a long day.
Where are they located?
Load lifters sit just above where the shoulder straps attach to the pack, running from that point up to a higher anchor on the frame or upper pack body. They're only effective on packs with enough torso length between the anchor points to create a real angle — on a pack whose frame is the wrong length for a hiker's torso, load lifters can end up too flat or too steep and lose most of their pulling effect. Matching torso length correctly, generally by measuring from the C7 vertebra at the base of the neck down to the top of the hip bones, keeps this angle in the useful range.
What happens if they're skipped entirely?
Some minimalist and ultralight packs omit load lifters altogether to save a small amount of weight, relying instead on a simple shoulder-strap-to-frame connection. On a light load, roughly under 20 pounds, the difference is minor. On a heavier multi-day load, skipping load lifters tends to let the top of the pack drift backward over the course of a day, which shows up as extra fatigue across the front of the shoulders rather than a sudden, obvious problem.
Adjustment
Effect
Load lifters loose
Pack top leans back, away from the body
Load lifters at ~45°
Weight pulled in toward shoulders, balanced
Load lifters cranked flat
Pack pulled too high, can press into head or neck
There is no single correct angle
This page gives roughly 45 degrees as the target, which matches Big Agnes, whose fit guide says load lifters should be set to a 45-degree angle.1 Other makers give a range. Deuter says its stabilizer (load lifter) straps work best between 30 and 45 degrees,2 and Alpkit puts the optimal angle at 25 to 45 degrees from horizontal.3
The practical reading is that anything from a moderate slope to 45 degrees is within published guidance, and the right point depends on the pack's design and your shoulders. What every source agrees on is that a strap running nearly straight up and down, or lying flat along the pack, is outside the useful range.
Why pulling the load forward helps
A backpack shifts your combined center of mass backward, and the body compensates by leaning the trunk forward, according to a 2022 review of backpack ergonomics.4 Load lifters reduce how far the top of the pack hangs behind you, which reduces how much correcting lean you need. A separate load-carriage review found the lowest energy cost comes from keeping the load's center of mass as close as possible to the body's center of mass.5
Load lifters also shape how pressure is shared between shoulders and hips. Laboratory work in PLoS One found the hip region tolerates pack pressure significantly better than the shoulder region, and the authors recommend shifting load from shoulders to hips wherever possible.6 That is why over-tightened lifters, which can pull the pack upward off the hip belt, defeat their own purpose.
How much weight the hips really carry is contested
The page says the hip belt carries the majority of a loaded pack's weight. Makers agree, but their numbers differ. Big Agnes aims for about 80% on the hips,1 while Alpkit says a correctly fitted hip belt transfers 60 to 80%.3 The US Army's foot-march manual gives a very different picture: with a pack frame and hip belt carrying 31 to 90 pound loads, about 30% of the load goes on the hips and lower back and 70% on the shoulders.7
The gap likely reflects different packs, loads and ways of measuring, so treat any single percentage with caution. The page's claim that skipping load lifters matters little under about 20 pounds is a reasonable rule of thumb, but no verified source gives a cutoff weight.
