Wheels, handles and the parts that go first

In our range 47 cases run double spinner wheels, which is eight wheels rather than four. That is not for the rolling. It is for what happens when one of them takes a kerb badly.

Wheels

A single wheel on a spinner mount carries a quarter of a loaded case on one small bearing, and it does it while the mount is being twisted sideways. Double it and each wheel carries half as much, the mount is braced against the twist, and a flat spot on one wheel does not stop the case rolling. Doubles also sit quieter on hard floors, because two small contact patches ring less than one large one.

What kills wheels is not distance, it is grit. A cobbled street packs stone dust into the axle and the wheel starts to drag. Wiping the wheels down after a rough trip is dull and it is also the single most useful thing you can do for a case.

Handles

A telescoping handle is aluminium tube inside aluminium tube. Play in it comes from tolerance, and tolerance comes from wall thickness, and wall thickness costs weight. We spend the weight here. The rattle in a cheap handle is the sound of the stages moving against each other, and every one of those movements wears the stop.

Do not lift a loaded case by the telescoping handle. Lift it by the side grab handle, which is bolted through the shell and meant for it. The telescoping one is for pulling.

Zips and catches

A zip fails at the ends of its run, where the slider changes direction under load. Overpacking is what pulls a zip out of line, so the fix is packing less rather than pulling harder. On the frame cases there is no zip on the main closure at all, which is one of the reasons we keep building them.