eBags Mother Lode Duffel Review

Our family couldn’t decide whether to get a hard shell or soft suitcase, so we ended up getting a hybrid, the eBags Mother Lode TLS 29″ Wheeled Duffel. This duffel is a monster. It is 12.5 pounds, and can hold a ridiculous amount of stuff. We have been using it for 6 months on our RTW. During the 6 months, I’ve noticed good things about the bag, and also a lot of annoying features. Here is a complete list of pros and cons of the duffel:

Pros:

• Large Capacity
• Expandable
• Wheels Are Sturdy And Smooth
• Smooth Zippers
• Hard Shell and Soft – At the Same Time!

The bag is really large, and it holds most of our family’s bulky travel gear. To add to the large capacity, the bag has an expanding zipper. It’s so big that you have to be careful not to overload it so that it doesn’t exceeded airplane weight limits.  Over the course of 6 months of intense use, the wheels haven’t had any problems. I also really like the zippers. They feel really secure and strong, while being smooth. The zippers conveniently lock together.

One of the main reasons that we bought the bag was because it was both hard and soft at the same time. The back half of the bag is hard, but still a little bit flexible. It isn’t completely hard like some plastic hard shells. On the other hand, the front side of the duffel is completely soft, but it does have two fiberglass rods to keep its shape.

There are a good amount of pockets, and the bag comes with Velcro dividers to keep stuff from sliding around.

Cons:

• Telescoping Handle Gets Stuck
• Heavy
• Too Big To Manage At Times
• Compartments Could Be Arranged Better

Other minor issues:

• Since the main compartment is accessible from both a large top compartment, and the main opening, it’s necessary to use two locks.  One lock is needed to secure the main compartment, and one more to lock the front compartment. It’s a bit of a pain.
• Also, the soft front compartment has a fiberglass frame, but during one of our flights, something heavy must have been thrown on top of the bag, making one of the fiberglass rods fall out of place and pop a tiny hole in the side of the suitcase.

• I would recommend that you put fragile things towards the back (hard side) of the duffel bag, because it’s less likely to break there.
• The eBags logo on the back of the duffel bag is obnoxiously large.

At times, the bag almost feels too big. The size and weight makes the eBags Wheeled Duffel Bag clumsy and hard to maneuver. From past experiences, I’ve noticed that the bag could use a handle on the side to help with the lifting. There are currently two handles on the top of the bag, not including the telescoping one. They aren’t very useful because they are in completely unnecessary positions.

The telescoping handle started jamming after a while of use. Ever since checking the duffel in the airport, the handle started telescope less smoothly, and sometimes it gets completely stuck.

The shape of the duffel is also an issue. It is very narrow as in distance from one wheel to the other, but very wide as in hard back to soft front. When rolling over rocks or curbs, the bag can easily flip over. I would much rather have the bag wider from wheel to wheel.

The layout of the bag is also annoying. When the bag lies on it’s back, it opens in half. The bag is extremely deep making it hard to access things on the bottom of it.

The Verdict:

I personally don’t like this bag very much. I would prefer if it were either completely soft, or completely hard. The design could be a lot better, but it does its job and is a decent bag.

You can get the eBags Mother Lode TLS 29″ Wheeled Duffel on Amazon here.

There are also several smaller versions of this bag, like the 21 inch one which you can find here. I personally think that the smaller versions are better because they are less bulky.