YETI Ranchero 27L Backpack Review

When packing for the daily commute or a trip, you want a daypack that will carry what you need, even if you have quite a bit to bring. So you want something with a lot of usable capacity, but you also want it wrapped in materials that won’t melt in the rain or leave the gear inside subject to damage.

YETI seems to have considered all that when designing its new Ranchero Backpack. It comes in 27L and 22L versions, though we’re reviewing the larger model here. Whichever you choose, the brand known for keeping your drinks cold and your glass bottles intact in its coolers has put the same attention to detail on the backpacks. Will its durable materials, beefy harness system, and wide access come together to create the travel daypack of your dreams? That’s what we’re here to find out.

External Components

From the outset, you can see that the YETI Ranchero is designed for durability. The brand calls the exterior material Tuffskin™ Nylon. It is a 700D abrasion-resistant material commonly used in airbags and clothing for motorcyclists. The bag’s base is PU-coated 840D nylon, which is water-resistant in case it gets set in something wet. That base is beefed up with a piece of plastic hidden between the bottom of the bag and the 210D nylon ripstop liner so that it stands upright no matter what.

However, while you can be sure your bag won’t ever topple over no matter how you pack it, that also means that the optional compression straps that come with the bag don’t do much to cinch the bag down. Its built-in structure works against them. Instead, they’re best used for attaching gear to the outside of the bag.

Duraflex makes the buckles on those straps and the optional sternum strap, which all work well. The zippers are from YKK, and the primary zippers include a PU coating for additional weather protection. The only one that doesn’t is for the pocket on the lid, but it’s tucked beneath a large fabric welt to protect it from the elements. The zipper pulls are easy to find and grab, as they have cords woven into them wrapped with a heat-shrink material at the end.

We appreciate the additional leverage, as the PU-coated zippers are very stiff and take effort to open. YETI proclaims that the main compartment opens with a RipZip, meaning that one zipper runs vertically down the center of the bag’s front and meets two angled horizontal zippers near the top. The idea is that you can just grab the lid just below the hook-and-loop YETI logo and pull it open to access your gear. Make no mistake, you can; it’s just not a quick experience, and you must use a lot of muscle to make it work. Our tester prefers using the individual zipper pulls instead, especially when taking advantage of the loops at either end of the horizontal ones that give you more leverage when pulling them. Then, the Y-shaped design is useful as you can access gear at the top of the bag with the horizontal zippers or simply pull down the vertical zipper to get to something at the bottom without dislodging the rest of your gear. However, as much as the stiff zippers slow us down, they protect your gear well from the rain, so you’ll be happy they’re there if you’re visiting a rainy destination or commuting by foot or bike to work.

There are four other loops on the front of the bag and four more against the back panel. That’s where you slide the compression straps through. They cover the side bottle pockets, so you may want to use them through the handle of your favorite water bottle to keep it in place. However, the fit is so tight as you try to shove through the buckle that you probably only want to install them once, not feed them in and out as you need to carry or remove your bottle. If you tuck a tall travel tripod in the pocket instead, you can use a strap over the top to keep it in place.

The YETI Ranchero has a sturdy carry handle at the top. It’s fine for hanging the bag up and moving it from place to place, but it’s not so cushy that you’ll want to carry the bag with it for long periods of time. There’s also a luggage pass-through against the back panel if you want to pair the daypack with rolling carry on luggage or a larger suitcase. It’s a stretchy strap that connects with a gatekeeper clip G-hook in the middle. What’s nice about that design is you can separate the two halves and tuck them behind the back panel when you don’t need them, and you won’t feel them as you carry the bag.

Now, we come to the harness system, which is quite beefy. There are load lifters with two adjusters on each strap, a daisy chain of loops on the bottom half where you can hook the sternum strap, and a stiff, thick foam back panel pad with the YETI name embossed. The sternum strap hooks on with a large plastic clip on each side, so you can move or remove it, although it takes a little effort to unhook it. By the way, the same type of hook is used for the compression straps, and even though it’s a little hard to unhook, it’s easier than sliding the buckle through the bag’s loops. All the straps include built-in keepers, which we appreciate when there are so many crisscrossing the bag and your body.

Fit Notes

However, while all that sounds good in theory, in practice, it’s very stiff against your back. If you’re looking for a backpack to help you improve your posture, this is it; however, if you’re looking for a bag that’s comfortable to wear for hours, this is not it. We keep the fit much looser than you would typically to try and alleviate the issue, as dialing it in the way we do with other daypacks is uncomfortable.

As for aesthetics, the YETI Ranchero 27L Backpack definitely has a rugged, outdoorsy vibe. It’ll be great for a day hike or a camping trip, and you can use it to explore a new destination, but it’s probably not something you want to bring into more professional settings. It’ll work great if your office is more business casual, you bike to work, and plan to hit the gym afterward. If you wear a suit every day, probably not so much.

Inside The Pack

That harness system is beefy for a reason, though; there are a lot of spaces to fill on this bag. We’ll start at the top, with perhaps our tester’s favorite spot: the quick-access pocket on the lid. It opens with a zipper that runs parallel to the back panel and opens to reveal a pocket encompassing the lid’s entire triangular shape.

It has a mesh bottom visible from inside the bag, and it is where we put a phone, wallet, a small pouch with daily toiletries, and keys. Those clip to a nice-length leash with a gatekeeper clip at the end, and we like that the leash is long enough for key fobs to reach the panel on the door, though you’ll have to remove them or swing the bag around to use an actual key in a door lock.

There are also two large stretchy pockets for water bottles, travel umbrellas, tripods, or whatever other thin gear you want to carry. They can expand large enough to hold thick YETI Rambler bottles yet also hold tight to slimmer ones. The caveat here is that there are pockets adjacent to them inside the bag, which we’ll get to in a moment. However, if you fill the interior pockets, you will bump up against the gear inside of them when you try to squeeze in a water bottle. Many bags make you pick and choose between organizational options, so we’re used to it, but it’s still something to mention. Your bottle can also get hung up on the bottom compression strap if you have it cinched tight, so you’ll want to unbuckle it before sliding in your bottle.

Against the back panel is another water-resistant zipper that runs in a horseshoe shape across the top of the bag. It opens to reveal a large laptop compartment, which can accommodate most laptops up to 15 inches in its internal sleeve. However, this compartment also has enough space to easily slide a larger laptop in without using the built-in sleeve. You may want to use a protective laptop sleeve instead, although the entire compartment is suspended from the bottom of the bag and well-cushioned by both the back panel and the back of the main compartment, so you may not feel the need.

Now onto the main compartment, which is easy to fill and unload thanks to the Y-shaped zipper opening. It allows you to pack bulkier gear at the bottom of the bag without getting stuck on the pockets at the top, of which there are quite a few.

Against the back panel is a wide zipper pocket made of stretchy material. It zips shut and is a great place for your passport once you make it through customs or other small gear you don’t want to lose at the bottom of the bag. You don’t have to pick and choose, though, as two other stretchy zip pockets flank the sides of the bag. We use one to hold the compression and sternum straps when we’re not using them, and the other is good for gloves, cords, or anything else you want to bring along.

Below those are the stretchy slip pockets we mentioned earlier (the ones adjacent to the bottle pockets on the outside). They perfectly fit our tech kit and our glasses case; however, we ended up emptying one of them to avoid fighting with our water bottle on a daily basis. This isn’t as big of an issue if you don’t have the main compartment fully packed, but it becomes one once you do.

There is a lot of space to fill, too, even if you pack a few of those internal pockets. Our tester carried a small cooler with her lunch, an extra layer, and even a purse inside for everyday carry, but you can fit a few packing cubes, a toiletry bag, and other essentials instead if you want to use it as a personal item or carry on bag for the plane. Just be sure to double-check the allowable dimensions of the carrier you’re flying, as it might bump against tighter restrictions.

In all, we think the structure of this bag is great when you want to carry a lot and need it easy to access. However, it doesn’t compress very small if you want to minimize your gear. So if you’re using it as a travel backpack for a short trip, you’ll want to make room for a small packable bag inside to have something smaller to carry around your destination. While it’s purportedly a 27L bag, it feels much more spacious than that and can give some of our smaller travel backpacks a run for their money when it comes to organization and capacity; we just wish the harness system could keep up.