GORUCK has a very distinct design which people have come to know and associate with their brand. This design is used across their entire line of packs which has done a great job building their brand recognition. That being said one issue that crops up quite often is the question of ruck size.
GORUCK makes two sizes of their GR1: 21L and 26L. One thing that has always bugged me is that they don’t differentiate between the two through the use of tags on the pack. If you’re new to GORUCK gear then this can make things very confusing. How do you know if that seller on eBay is selling a 21L or 26L GR1 when there’s no label?
GORUCK GR1: 21L or 26L?
In 2015 GORUCK re-branded the GR0 as the GR1 21L. This meant that there were now two sizes of the GR1: 21 liters and 26 liters. The only issue with this is that the tags on the two sizes are identical. This has led to confusion for buyers as there was no easy way to determine which pack they were looking at. If you had the pack in your hands then it was a little easier to figure out but if you were buying one second hand you had to hope that the seller was telling the truth or you knew what to look for.
This is what you need to look for:
The Pads on the Back
If you have got a picture of the part of the pack that touches your back then you are in luck. Count the number of “panels” on there and you will have your answer. If there are nine panels then it’s a 26L GR1 and if there are seven panels then it’s a 21L GR1. GORUCK has never made a 26L GR1 with seven panels or a 21L GR1 with nine panels.
That Easy?
Yep! It’s that easy. Hopefully this helps you either figure out what size GR1 you have or what size GR1 you’re about to purchase. I see this question posted almost weekly so I’m more than happy to do anything I can do to help clear up the confusion.
Although I wrote this post years originally years ago it’s always nice to refresh some of the content. The pictures included are new and hopefully will help you better understand what to do for. As always I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
Thanks for the help. I bought mine is 2015 and wanted to get a GR2 so I was checking out the sizes. I was sitting there with a tape measure for the last ten minutes trying to figure it out!
So glad it helped! Deciding between the 34L and 40L GR2s?
The very easiest way is to see a picture of the back panel 9 sections is a 26L and 7 sections is a 21L.
Super useful!