Maxpedition Xantha Overnight Gear Loadout and First Impressions

Hey guys, Joe again. Going to do something a little bit different today. I got this Maxpedition Xantha sent to me by Maxpedition to do a review about. This is more of a first impressions and Xantha gear loadout. Now, I am planning on doing a trip in a couple days, an overnighter, with this bag. And there will be more of an in-depth review of what I think of it. But this is the reason I got this bag. the reason I got this bag was because I wanted something a little bit bigger than my Maxpedition Condor 2 to do overnighters with this bag I've had for like eight to ten years it's lost a lot of its rigidity you can you can tell I've used a lot it's still a great pack and I'll still continue to use this but for things like overnighters it's just a little bit too small in my opinion for what I want to bring depending depending on what time of year it is and and what my goals are but the Xantha is a lot bigger, it's got an internal frame, and let's take a look at it, show you a little bit about it. So first off, let's start on the outside. You can see I've added a couple little pieces of paracord on the front. I would like to see, in the future, Maxpedition maybe making these MOLLE straps a little bit, a two of them wider, so that you can slide an axe right down in it without having to attach the paracord. But big deal, I just tied a couple overhand knots on a little piece of paracord, and that'll hold it perfectly fine. That's not gonna go anywhere. So that's good for holding your axe there. You can also put it in the side pocket, but this side pocket here I use for my tripod. When I was looking at the bags, camera gear is of big importance to me, so I needed places to put my tripod and camera and stuff, so there's a little 20-inch axe. I just got it. Pretty cool. My buddy gave it to me. Thanks, Mike. So that goes in the front, anyways. And that's sturdy, and it's just about as long as the pack is. Next up, we'll check out the bottom. it's got these straps like my max like my max expedition condor 2 does um i was hoping that they were going to make the straps a little bit longer uh considering this is a new pack on my my condor 2 i actually had to use canadian jam knots and paracord on the bottom in order to secure things i could fit this this tent on the bottom of this but in the cooler weather the sleeping bags get bigger and i would put the sleeping bag underneath because uh it wouldn't fit in the inside it and and the straps just didn't do it so i had to add the paracord it seems like Maxpedition did not make the straps any bigger on this one um i'm not sure why but it's not the biggest deal in the world you could add paracord you could even make the straps longer yourself if need be but in this bag the beauty is it's so big inside that i can actually fit my sleeping bag inside i don't have to attach it to the outside and therefore the problem is solved so again big agnes tent in there it's got the poles the tent itself and the pegs in there i don't have the fly in there because i plan on putting a big 10x10 tarp up high up so i can have a place to work under and stuff like that this is for this upcoming trip in a couple days so straps get back cinch down and we're all good it's got that rubberized coating that we've come to love from Maxpedition on the bottom where i do most of my overnighters and i'm planning on doing this one there's not a good water source there is but it it's kind of sketchy so I prefer to bring my water in side pocket really good for that I got a little Maxpedition water bottle I've had that actually for a really long time so don't try and think I'm just plug in Maxpedition here but that's the water bottle I've had so I do have a gripe if this side pocket like it cinches down for sure but if it was just a touch bigger I could actually get my cup out I feel like maybe a couple millimeters wider and it would have been perfect I can get my my cup out but it takes a little bit of issue again not not really that big a deal but just little things that maybe in the future they can tweak on so that's my titanium cup that I'll use for cooking and boiling water and whatnot so that's the outside of the bag done I already mentioned on this side this is where I would put my tripod sticks in there it fits down in there really nice and then I can snap up the the belt on there and cinch it down I would show you that but obviously I'm using my tripod as we speak he's got these little zippers right so again like I said camera gear is important to me and where I'm gonna put my camera gear in my bag is important normally I'll carry my DSLR on the way in and and and just being ready to shoot video and whatnot but in this zipper behind the pocket I can actually fit my GoPro so I will be bringing my GoPro I'll be bringing two cameras and a bunch of battery life and all that stuff plan on getting a good half an hour worth of video at the end or whatever but it's always good to have two cameras and this with my GoPro always stays on this little tripod and it goes perfectly right there easy access if i need to get it out for any kind of reason at all so that's that also on the hip belt hip belt hip belt has these pockets as well more of like a backpacking style backpack and i keep my emergency fire starter or my emergency tinder fire starter whatever in there. All this is is a urine sample container with orange tape on the outside. The orange tape can be used for multiple things. On the inside, it's got just that pressed wood and some Strike Anywhere Matches. Sorry, Storm Proof Anywhere Matches. Storm Proof Strike Anywhere Matches. So it's a hefty pack. I'm not sure of the exact weight. It's got to weigh about four pounds. It does have that internal frame on it. And in the back, it's got these nice air flow, and it's got a groove in the middle for the airflow and it's padded it's actually got nice you can feel the little bubbles of padding in the back same with the straps and down here too and the where it goes by your waist is super padded as well so let's open her up and get to the goods inside so we'll do the front compartment that's as much as it opens up it's a three-quarter way open it's got a pretty good mesh pocket here where I'll keep things like head lamp, a compass, and a journal, a notepad for the field. Also in the front, this would be my food for an overnighter. I'll have things like oatmeal, a dehydrated meal, snacks, whatever, stuff like that. The old Silky saw is a pocket boy. Works real good. Camp towel. These are invaluable. It's like a ShamWow style deal. Dries real quick and absorbs a lot of water. Bug spray for this time of year. Fallkniven sharpening kit with a strop. A little char cloth material maker. That's all I have in front so this front as you can see is organized this is the the spot where you put things you don't want to lose but you want to zip up in here maybe it's got a keeper for your keys to maybe you want to use your keys in there but the the front pocket is all these things I'm going to use that are small and in like outside not in their own pouches or whatever so they weren't they're not just loose in my backpack so and the zippers are always good on max edition a just no fear of it ripping or anything the big part again a three quarter open I would like to see it open completely it opens up a lot of possibilities you don't have to dig around in there but again these are just nitpicking things it's not a big deal gloves other gloves extra water holder this is a 1 liter platypus paracord bag so in here is my first aid my lid to my pot my my spoon patch kit for my thermo rest all sorts of things like that this is my sleeping pad a hammock again I'm not sleeping in my hammock this is just for hanging out, relaxing in. I do not like sleeping in the hammocks. My down pillow, ball in. This is my 10 by 10 nylon tarp, Bushcraft Outfitters. It's bulky, but it fits. And my sleeping bag, it's a warm weather sleeping bag. So inside, that's empty. It's got lots of room, like enough room for me to put all of these things in for an overnighter. This is what I wanna have for an overnighter at this time of year. This is just, you could do so much more, you could do so much less, you know what I mean? This is what I prefer. This is what I feel like I want to have out there for 24 hours, however long I'm out there for. I'm not bringing the dog. If I was, I'd bring some extra things for him. It's just too hot for him. He can't handle it. He's got a thick double undercoat. He's a Belgian Malinois. He might be mixed with a German Shepherd, but he's got such a thick coat that he dies when we're out there. I can't take him out in the summer. So, in the back, it's got this little pocket. Always have my blue foam trusty blue foam pad this thing's seen better days But I don't go anywhere without it good for fanning the fire sitting on whatever so the frame is inside It's got this zipper where you can actually take the frame out. It's like this Poly with aluminum stay in it. I'm just gonna leave it in I want the rigidity I don't want to have this thing packed up with 20 pounds with no no frame in it just me. So that's it and on the very top they've got this soft like felty kind of place where they're saying you can put your sunglasses or whatever. I'm not too worried about my sunglasses but again the camera gear. I like to have my camera gear safe and I like to have it easily accessible. So I've got in here I've got two DSLR batteries in a baggie with a SD card and in here I've got my hat clip and my extra battery for my GoPro. So those are things I really really really don't want to lose. These each battery for a DSLR is a hundred bucks and the memory card if you don't have your memory card you don't have a video right and that's that's the whole point so those things go up in the in the sunglasses part I like it I like the backpack I can't say that it's a good bag I can't say that it's better than my Maxpedition Condor Two because I've not used it yet I think it's a good bag it looks like a good bag to me I know that Maxpedition products are bomb proof so we'll see I'm gonna go out in a couple days and test it out so I'm gonna pack all this stuff back up in here maybe uh put it on my back and show you guys how it rides here's just a quick shot of showing the size difference on both of them as you can see the Xanthus is quite a bit bigger than the Condor 2 that's exactly why i wanted it so once again i'm in my backyard guys this is not a review this is just my initial thoughts and my loadout figured i'd do it now before i actually get it out in the bush that way i can spend my time out there filming actual things and letting you know how i actually feel about the pack rather than just looking at the specs and what i put in it anyways there it is i feel like it rides really nice probably weighs about 20 pounds everything included the water in the backpack itself um i had this over at my buddy doug's and he's six feet tall at least and i know a lot of complaints on that old Maxpedition was that the waist belt would ride up like right under your nipples if you're a big guy but he just let these ones down these straps down and it fit him down here totally fine and then me i'm a little little hobbity kind of guy and just wrench up on it and it's all good so we shall see look forward to uh an overnight video using this backpack within the next week as always i've been Joe here take care guys i'll see you on the next one