Luggage
Dave’s Guide To Luggage Mobility, Flexibility, Compatibility And Packability.
All those “abilities” should be your guide when you choose your travel goods and that goes for both your luggage and what you put into it.
It’s far easier to roll your bags than lug them by handles or dangle them from your shoulder. So either buy bags with built in wheels or get a luggage cart of some sort.
Luggage
Those little foldaway trolleys of collapsible tubing, large wheels and bungee cords are inexpensive and do the trick, but they pose almost as many problems as they solve. Airlines do not permit them to be carried in overhead bins; they are awkward underfoot and are easily damaged when checked.
Try instead the lightweight, flat-folding ones that fit in a carry on. One such is the Conair Travel Smart. A smaller but sturdy model.
When wheels first appeared on bags they showed up on four corners at the bottom of conventional suitcases. These were pulled with attached leashes. This arrangement – still around – is notoriously unstable tipping easily in corners.
Airline personnel were the first to adopt the dual-wheel vertical cases that are towed by a pullout handle, wide side at your heels. I personally much prefer this and my bag is strong enough to be pulled with my 3yr old sat astride it!
All the cases have some way to attach smaller pieces (handbags, briefcases, computer carriers, etc.) to them. The first ones used a detachable J-shaped wire hook to hold the add-ons. These hooks had a habit for detaching themselves and getting lost forever in overhead bins and taxi trunks. More satisfactory are today’s adjustable, removable, stowable straps.
On some matching sets of luggage the smaller bag has an open sleeve that slips over the pulling handle of the larger bag. This solves any problems of the smaller bag sliding off to one side and unbalancing the towing operation as you indulge in your gate-to-gate airport aerobics.
Dave’s travel tip: It’s a fact of physics that if the weight is carried low and away from your towing hand on the handle it makes for easier pulling. Sometimes with heavier or poorly balanced loads, or in crowded areas try pushing rather than pulling.
But before we leave wheels, consider their size and construction. Most rolling bags now use inline-skate wheels, which roll easily. The wheels on one of my first rolling bags had wheels without ball bearings. They overheated easily and then would lock so that the luggage was being dragged rather than rolled. They were also as annoyingly noisy as squeaky shoes at a funeral.
A final word about wheels: If you often cross rough terrain in parking lots, mount curbs or steps or tow over thick carpeting, look for the largest wheels you can find to ease your task.
Besides the mobility of wheels consider the size and empty weight of your bags.
Some airlines are stricter than others but if you want to have a carry on bag most of the world’s airlines limit your search to those that do not exceed 21” or 22” in length, Southwest, TWA and US Airways are the most generous allowing a 24” bag with a total of 50” for a carry on. The empty weight of a bag, particularly a carry on, is important because a bag heavy to begin with might require an extra Dave to heave it into the overhead once it’s packed. Of course, somebody might come to your assistance but my travel motto is: “Never take more than you can handle alone.”
