Hard sided luggage

[pjhansman]

I was looking for someone to say something very specific, like, "I have this piece and I love it."

We travel with Samsonite hard side luggage and love it. In addition to travelling a lot (domestic and international) for work, there are now 4 dive vacations on our set. they're scuffed, but undamaged. Except for my regs (which I carry) I pack all my gear in a single large case and still stay under the 50 lbs. In addition to a mesh bag, BCD, fins, mask, a 3mm wetsuit, log books and some clothes, this also includes my Ikelite case and strobe.

 

[=C=]

I travel with the plastic footlockers from walmart ( in the auto section @ 19.99 ). They last forever.

Heres the link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Contico-Storage-Locker/2476189

Because they are soo cheap I end up using them for everything... Have about 14 in the garage...

 

[scubafanatic]

I was looking for someone to say something very specific, like, "I have this piece and I love it." I live in the super boonies and all you see is general purpose luggage in the stores here. In that sense I wish I lived in Chicago, or LA. I can see the type of luggage you mention on line, but I never get to touch or feel it. I was hoping for some specific ideas.

I was looking at an aluminum piece of luggage at $1,500 which is more than I would spend. Several hundred wouldn't be a problem, if it could last. As you know when you travel by plane and have a few connections, it looks like s**t after just one flight.

Take a look at Samsonite Cosmolite (hard side) luggage if you can afford $ 500 U.S. I bought a red one a couple years ago and have been happy with it so far, it only weighs about 7 lbs, replacing an old/cheap 15 lbs hardside piece of luggage. Although I thought $ 500 was a lot of $, I was desperate to save travel weight, so now I can carry 7 - 8 more lbs of actual stuff versus 7 - 8 more lbs of dead weight.

 

[fire_diver]

Crap, I forgot all about this thread. It took a while for luggage to arrive.

My wife LOVES it. She has used it for a couple local trips so far but not any airline abuse to report on.

 

[Colliam7]

We just got back from Curacao and my wife's diving suitcase is shot, so we need another one

I cannot make a specific recommendation that meets your criteria (hard case, light, strong, not too unreasonably expensive), primarily because I use cloth duffel bags for dive travel. But, I am interested in what damge / wear has led to the decision that your wife's suitcase is no longer functional (certainly not disagreeing, just interested in what the failure points might be). In our group, we have several people who have had wheels damaged (including the first time the case was used) on dive suitcases, for example, while some had had handles broken in transit.

 

[smfcpacfp]

I cannot make a specific recommendation that meets your criteria (hard case, light, strong, not too unreasonably expensive), primarily because I use cloth duffel bags for dive travel. But, I am interested in what damge / wear has led to the decision that your wife's suitcase is no longer functional (certainly not disagreeing, just interested in what the failure points might be). In our group, we have several people who have had wheels damaged (including the first time the case was used) on dive suitcases, for example, while some had had handles broken in transit.

The suitcase that my wife was using was an old Samsonite leather suitcase that belonged to my father. It must be 20 years old. Anyway when it came back it had a couple of holes in it that someone had taped up.

I appreciate everyone's input here. We were in Baltimore last weekend and visited a mall which had a Samsonite luggage store. It was like heaven for someone looking for luggage. They had every kind imaginable. I looked at the Samsonite Cosmolite that scubafanatic recommended and it was light, but I just didn't want to get anything with zipper. It seems like the zipper is the first thing to go. Anyway my wife and I decided to buy 3 - 29 inch Samsonite Silhouette 11 suitcases which we ordered on the Internet. They were about $210 each.

After looking at the size of them after they arrived, I think we will just need those three pieces of luggage for all of our scuba gear, and other clothes. Our next trip will be a three week trip to Borneo and Malaysia for scuba diving with stops in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Bali to do sightseeing (16 different plane rides which should test our new luggage). We usually each take a carry-on also. Anymore we find it convenient to just hire a porter to handle our luggage for us at the airport. I never thought I would do that (being strong and independent) but it reduces the anxiety level in the airport and is well worth the small price.

 

[Ozwald]

I have a set of Heys hard sided, and I love them. I have a carry on size that I will carry my lights, dry-suit, regs and anything that I don't want them to lose or break, then I have two different sized larger hard sided pieces for checked luggage. When I go to Mexico for a couple weeks, I use one of the larger suitcases and I have a rolling duffel bag that I find straps well to the hard case and if I put both handles up on it, my carry-on sits nicely in between. I travel alone and this is my best way to move all my stuff through the airport without hassling with a cart. I bought the carry-on suitcase (Heys) at Costco, and I bought the two silver Heys suitcases at Sears during one of their half price sales.

Ditto...I have the HEYS as well, love them ! I travel a lot throughout the year both for work and vacation. They still look new and I find I can fit more in the hard case than in the soft.

I too bought the silver set at a Sears sale !

 

[no1rookie]

My wife and I reaally like our Samsonite F'Lite GT hardsiders. We have used them for many trips and they work great. They are barebone on the inside which gives you plenty of room for gear. We only had problems with one of them but Samsomite was quick to fix it. One of the seals had seperated from around the case edge. This was not an issue since it did not matter if any waer got into the case a everything in the case gets wet anyhow as it is all dive gear.

 

[=C=]

I purchased another one of these today, cost a couple bucks more but it has wheels:

 

[fire_diver]

I purchased another one of these today, cost a couple bucks more but it has wheels:

I think I have 8 of those sitting in my shed out back. We shipped trunk after trunk of stuff home from deployments in them.