Thoughts on the progress of hard case luggage
I’ve never really been that into hard case luggage. You can’t squeeze it into tight or irregular spaces, it takes up serious cupboard space when not in use, and it generally has really pokey little wheels that get stuck on fairy dust. But it is bringing back a surprisingly sensible trend for casters. Let me explain…
The first wheeled luggage essentially bolted small swivel castors to the base of a suitcase. While this early U.S. luggage (now part of Briggs & Riley) was not 100% dialled, it did start a revolution that has transformed airport travel.
So as crew used these suitcases, they started to notice how the tiny wheels worked well on polished marble, but got jammed on any sort of real world surface. That’s when we started to get the tilted wheeled bags (first via Travelpro), as this let designers fit two larger and softer wheels, without upsetting the stability of the case.
The downside? Tilt wheeled bags are uni-direction (there’s no side to side), and require strength to support them (kind of like a wheelbarrow). So while the larger wheels do well over rougher ground, their uni-directionality means the cases are worse in tight and busy stations and airports.
So how can we have our pie and eat it too…?
The recent market rush to lightweight hard cases has seen ever increasing investment in the 4 caster approach (generally known as Spinner cases). In a quest to stand out amongst the masses, Rimowa and a couple of other brands are just starting to upsize these casters – offering bags that work beyond the polished floors of first world airports.
With the better examples of these, you can push and pull them in their upright position, even stacking several other bags on top without expending any energy keeping them upright. Or you can tilt them to walk longer distances and negotiate the bottom two wheels over larger obstacles. All of a sudden those tactile indicator paths for the blind shouldn’t trip you up infront of everyone (that was embarrassing…).
So now all we need is some of those rad luggage designers that read our blog to start applying these larger castors to luggage that can compress and fit a tight space, while remaining durable, lightweight, and affordable. Make sure you fit soft enough tyres, and perhaps make me handsome also. Haha, as easy as that 
OK, I'll admit Tilt Luggage can be awkward at times…
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Hold on to you hat, we have have an 80mm wheel on the way that should up the ante for designers on this and a concept to take some of the load off during that 2 wheel longer trek.
Haha, thanks Peter. For anyone that doesn’t know Rotacaster, it’s like a wheel made from mini wheels, which allows side to side as well as forward and back movement – http://www.rotacaster.com.au/
Peter, do you plan to have some softer tyres on those? A resilient 75 ShoreA or so? All the versions I’ve seen so far have had pretty hard options only…
Ando, our initial 48 mm wheel was 90A, however we have just released our a 65A polyurethane roller model which still provides a pretty robust wheel. We are also working on a 25A sanoprene roller for lighter applications such as Lego Mindstorm robotics which we expect to have within the next 2 months. The 80mm wheel will have a similar range of roller durometers.
Sounding great Peter. Most luggage still runs tyres that are too hard, struggling over bumps and obstacles and jamming on small grit that scratches hard floors. While soft tyres can increase rolling resistance if they are a very ‘dead’ rubber, so long as it’s a resilient rubber, then life is just better (and quieter!).
On a random one, have you seen the Honda personal mobility product? It’s kinda like a unicycle Segway, but it uses a drive wheel very similar to the Rotacaster, just with sideways drive added through a clever ‘disk sandwich’: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cuIJRsAuCHQ
Imagine that on luggage!
Thanks Ando, had seen the Honda unit before, very impressive stuff. Who knows where it might end up.
Why is it that a whole massive section of potential consumers is simply being ignored?
The Backpack is dead, hooray someone invented the wheel so that clever people don’t have to carry things anymore
Long live the off road wheelie bag
If only someone would damn well invent it !
I cant for the life of me understand as I either drag my incompetently small wheeled bag up cobbled streets or lug the equivalent in an archaic backpack, why someone has not intelligently designed a bag to suit real travelers. How many backpackers actually go packpacking these days, flashpacking is the reality. If I need a real backpack for a hike in Nepal, i’m hiring a Sherpa. For anything else I want a wheelie bag
I travel for a living, I’m an aid worker, I go places others only dream of, doing crap they wish they could but probably can’t.
One night its a five star hotel Dubai or Geneva for a meeting with Donors. Another its a fortified camp in the southern Sindh valley in Pakistans. I’m in and out of cars, trucks, planes, buses and airplanes. In the next two weeks I’m booked to fly yog-jkt-kul-bkk-kat-bkk-kul-syd-cnb-syd-kul-jkt-yog-sub and thats normal. In amongst all that are stairs, cobblestones dirt tracks, mud, rain, hills, hotel rooms and foyers and through all of it I expect my luggage to hack it.
Imagine when bag manufacturers finally cotton on to the wheel revolution that happened with stroller and pram manufacturers about 15 years ago. You know the one where all those stupid strollers with office chair wheels for mum to push slowly round the shopping market were replaced with large wheels that ma n da could go jogging with, offroad or on.
Imagine a bag that has wheels that are 4-6inches not two, imagine it with wheels that retract back from the corners when the handle is retracted for safe and easy stow on, and protrude when the handle is extended to ride up and down stairs and over cobblestones.
Go further, imagine the offroad equivilant with a small dolly wheel on a huadralic arm that extends to the floor forming a triangle and leaving the bag at rest in a towing position when the bag is lent over. Or imagine the series trail bag with a single wheel and a handle that splits and clips to either side of your belt so you can tow it up hills instead of carrying it on a single walking track.
Imagine that bag, with straps on the outside so you can attache shit to it, with bits that divide off to be carries separately
Then you are imagining what will exists in 10 years to cater to the ever growing flashpacker market
because it is simply too logical not to…
so when will bag designers wake up
that’s my question
Some great thoughts there Dave. It sounds like you’ve learned these needs the hard way!
I think the reality is that off-road wheels are tricky. Just look at the Mars rovers to see the kind of articulated craziness that is needed for wheels to navigate rough terrain. Having said that though, simply being able to deal with cobblestones would be a good start, and that should be very achievable (not that anyone yet has).
Another factor certainly feels to be that outdoor people have always hauled the load on their back or head, and so these brands haven’t really played with wheels the way they maybe should. And then there’s weight. Structure for wheels adds weight, and right now every airline is charging like fiends for weight.
None of that is insurmountable though, it’s just difficult. It feels like something Osprey should tackle with their global trekker vibed luggage. Hybrid bags with big and soft tyred wheels that tuck in neatly. Mmmmm, that would be neat to see…
Saw this and thought of your wants for suspended luggage: http://www.vvego.com/on_deck.htm
If you wade through the Hazard4 catalogue to page 47 (http://hazard4.com/catalog/h4_CL_catalog2012-web-RGB.pdf), their air-support wheeled bag has some pretty chunky looking wheels. (They also add PALS, which I find confusing for a rolling bag, but I’m sure it’s a good time.)
Wow, never seen those guys…
I think I’ve played with those wheels before at another supplier, and if they are the same, then the tires are just not soft enough (which you can’t see in the pic). For great rough terrain ability, you need both large diameter, as well as soft but resilient tires. Suspension would reduce the need for these two elements, but then would be adding weight.
It ain’t easy, but it’s possible…
I travel extensively with my work on film crews and have two decades of practice loading and moving luggage. . Who wants to push vertical spinner-wheel suitcases thu airpotts, hotel corridors and parking lots?. That’s assuming one of your bag’s wheels isn’t still going round and round on carousel 5 after being broken off by baggage handlers! Please luggage companies- bring back the 2 wheel roller suitcase!!!
Hey Ando,
Thanks for mentioning our Ravven Rollaboard (sorry for being late to respond) Anyway, much of what is mentioned in this thread with regard to innovations in rolling luggage, we are experimenting with regularly…including single wheeled applications.
We receive queries weekly about the Ravven and its date of launch. I would appreciate any feedback as to what others want/need in their carry on’s and wheeled luggage pieces–we never rest searching for the latest, forward thinking solutions.
This is a fantastic website…I’ll be back to see what is new.
Happy Holidays to everyone.
Robert Porter
Founder&Friend
Vvego International