Tactical is Practical

There are a lot of competing approaches when it comes to luggage. You may want your luggage to be a status symbol, or as effortless as possible, or as big as possible, or maybe even smart.

I took a different approach: I want my luggage to be a tool for relieving my travel worries. A tool that allows my belongings to be literally thrown into a metal sky tube, then jet-propelled across the globe at 300 miles/hour without breaking anything. My luggage goals were:

There is one conspicuously absent item from the list and that’s weight. With any luggage, weight and price are inversely proportional. Because I worry less about my luggage knowing I can afford to replace it, I’ve gone with a cheaper but heavier setup here.

Even though I immediately loved the 1510 as–is, I knew I could readily improve it.

Removing the wheels from the Pelican is a simple affair. Unscrew the wheel assemblies with a standard Phillips screwdriver, then use a hammer and punch to knock the axles out. I immediately discovered the new and old wheels had identical bearings. The Pelican bearings appeared to be better quality, so I swapped them into the new wheels, then reassembled them. The result was as I hoped: smooth and quiet.

Though the Pelican case offers loops to accept TSA locks as well as double-throw latches, there’s still a non-zero chance that case could end up open on the tarmac. In an overabundance of caution, I drilled ¼” holes in front of the latches to accept locking pins that guarantee that latches stay securely closed when the case is handed off to a baggage handler if gate-checked.

Out of the box, the 1510 comes with nothing in the interior. It’s just a plastic box. While there are a variety of options available from Pelican and others, I’ve chosen to keep mine simple in the interest of flexibility.

In the top of the lid, I want to keep all of my small items like my portable sound machine or the ever-growing collection of dongles & chargers that various devices demand. For extra space, I grabbed the Pelican accessory organizer — it’s a series of zippered mesh pockets that attached to a hard backing which screws securely into the lid.

A luggage tag may disappear, a glued-on nameplate will not. Using a vinyl plotter to make a stencil, I spray painted my last name on the case. For a bit of fun, visibility, and as a nod to my Futurama fandom, I added a huge Planet Express logo sticker.

Here’s my full parts list:

A Pelican case may not make for the lightest luggage in the world, but it is practical, fun, and unusual. Though my favorite feature of the case, though it has nothing to do with luggage, is that it will easily support an adult’s weight. It serves additional duty as its own seat in airports and train stations, and even as a step stool which I’ve used to gain new vantage points for my travel photos.

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