Stay away from the Goruck crap. It's all fad and hype, and for sure not worth the money, despite claims of being military-grade.
I actually have an Ambush, and with that and an ATS RAID pack, I got around Afghanistan just fine for weeks ar a time. The Ambush can carry the load you referenced in your original post, but mighy be overworked if it is a single, dense mass as opposed to several items.
I think a Source Commander might be a better fit for you, though it does have a hip strap of some sort.
ETA: It's an odd thing, pack design and marketing. Most "assault packs" are most certainly not, and a lot of "3-day" bags don't have the features that would suit the mission of such a pack.
I spent a ton of time last year wondering about the business of load carriage, and it wasn't until then that I learned of the true nature of a 3-day load. It's really simple enough, but doctrinally, three days was the maximum planning factor for airborne forces to hold ground before a relief element was expected to reach it, or other forms of resupply were worked out. I cannot pull up the reference at the moment, but the principle does have a foundation in deliberate thought.
The current range of true assault packs (detachable straps, sized to intrgrate with armor, etc.) are only a few years old.
On second thought, you may be better off with an Eagle Yote pack. Quite a few folks I know love them, and they are built almost bombproof. You could sew in a stowable day-glo panel with ease and make you more visible to hunters if you had to. It would give you Ambush versatility and a lot more!
http://kitup.military.com/2011/06/mi...agle-yote.html
SKD Tactical seems to be having a sale on them, at $40 off, making it a great purchase at that price.
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