in Luggage, Travel Gear
Lucas Luggage
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With hundreds of brands of luggage available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed about making the right choice.
With more people travelling around the world every year, there’s a lot of good budget brands out there right now, happily taking advantage of all this extra custom.
Today, we’re taking a look at a quickly expanding name in travel gear, Lucas Luggage.
The Pros and Cons of Lucas Luggage
Pros
Cons
The Verdict
Lucas Luggage is designed around one thing: delivering affordable luggage that won’t break the bank whilst doing its job.
That’s exactly what it does. Every piece of Lucas Luggage we reviewed was decently made with a lot of nice features that make using it, whether packing or traveling, simple and easy.
Obviously, being a budget friendly brand, you can’t expect super strong construction, the best materials, or loads of gimmicky add-ons. But what you get is well made for the price and will generally do what you need it to.
If you buy with this in mind you won’t be disappointed. If instead you’re looking for something robust and hard wearing that’s going to be able to take you all around the world and back, you might want to look elsewhere.
For a standard case, it’s hard to compete with Lucas’ 28” softsided checked case. Clean and professional looking, with a massive amount of expandable internal space and a ridiculous weight of just over 7lbs, as a general-purpose travel case it’s hard to beat at its price point.
Why Should You Buy Lucas Luggage?
There are several reasons why Lucas is an excellent branch choice if you’re looking to pick up some new luggage.
First off is clearly value. For the price, Lucas make excellent products, with a lot of built-in options and nice features compared to similarly priced brands.
The second reason to choose Lucas is variety. They have a wide range of different styles of luggage available. So, no matter who you are and what you’re looking for, you’re going to be able to find a product that suits your needs. That’s great, especially at this price point.
Third is size and storage. In every product we looked at, the amount of internal storage room compared to the total size of the case was generous. Plus, a lot of their soft side or carry on cases are also expandable, some by a surprisingly large amount.
When you take this into account alongside the fact that Lucas cases are all surprisingly compactly built, with no wasted space, then you know that you’re getting a great deal for your money.
Is Anything Bad About Lucas Luggage?
We won’t lie, the build quality of Lucas Luggage isn’t the best out there when compared to more expensive brands.
But that doesn’t mean bad build quality. In general, if you buy one of these cases it’s going to do exactly what you want it to do. As long as you don’t mistreat it or fill it to the point where you bust the seams, you should get a good few years of normal use out of your purchase.
The only major downside is the warranty. If something does go wrong, the Lucas Luggage warranty isn’t much good. Other buyers have mentioned that it takes forever to get replies from the company who handles the warranty.
There is also currently no direct Lucas Luggage website, it’s all handled through third parties. So, when you buy one of these, factor that into your expectations.
However, Lucas cases are very simple to repair. For example, if a wheel breaks, it’s simple to buy a set of Lucas Luggage replacement wheels online. These can be easily fit from the comfort of your home, using common tools.
Lucas Luggage Reviews
Other users of Lucas Luggage tend to emphasize the design, the fact that you get so many smart features, and the amount of packing space in each case.
The only downsides we could find were when something went wrong with a particular bag, but that’s to be expected. The negative reviews were few and far between and didn’t seem to be particularly out of place, so it wouldn’t concern us if we were buying from Lucas.
Our Top-Rated Products
Lucas Designer Ultra Lightweight 28” Case
Luggage type: Standing checked suitcase
Dimensions: 30” x 18” x 11”
Weight: 7.2lbs (3.2kgs)
Internal capacity: 100l (112l)
Our top choice, this case delivers on exactly what most travelers are going to be looking for, at a really reasonable price.
First off, the construction. As Lucas’ best piece of luggage it stands to reason that the Ultra Lightweight 28” Case exemplifies everything we’ve said about Lucas as a brand so far. In terms of build construction, it’s solid, and if looked after will last a good long time.
There are some nice touches. The 8 wheels are made of high impact polyurethane, and are rough and tough, making it easy to drag even when it’s completely full. It also sits really low on its wheels, giving it a stable center of balance that makes it hard to tip over. This means once you’re moving, momentum does the rest to keep it going, even when it’s at maximum capacity.
The handles are also excellent. There are multiple built into the case, giving you several easy ways to move it. The top handle is large and easy to hold, fits the hand well and it’s made from aircraft grade aluminium, so won’t buckle or flex. For short movements, like getting your cases onto the checking desk, the side handle is generously proportioned and easy to hold.
What does stand out when you’re holding this case is the weight. It’s ridiculously light for a case of this size. Compared to equivalents, it’s around 25% lighter than you’d expect it to be, which is fantastic as it gives you so much more capacity to play with.
Despite the light weight, when you open it up, you’ll discover a huge amounts of packing space. The large number of Internal and external pockets make organizing your belongings much simpler.
The entire case is made from high density plastic which is relatively tough and simple to clean. You can literally just wipe it down to get rid of most common stains. In terms of design, it comes in a wide range of colors, including bolder styles that are contemporary, attractive and guaranteed to stand out in a crowded airport.
Like most Lucas products, it comes with a 5-year warranty, though we mentioned the issues with Lucas’ warranties earlier, so we probably wouldn’t rely on it.
Apart from the warranty issue, which realistically isn’t an issue when you’re paying this price, there’s so much to love about this product. Light, durable, with huge amounts of packing space, for holidays or business traveling, it really is a fantastic choice.
Lucas Convertible Underseat Carry On
Luggage type: Under Seat Carry On
Dimensions: 15” x 8” x 13.5” (22”)
Weight: 5lbs (2.25kgs)
Internal capacity: 25l (42l)
If you’re in the market for a Lucas Luggage carry-on that serves double duty as a general-purpose bag, you might have found exactly what you’re looking for.
The standout offering? Huge amounts of smartly divided storage room. Seriously, it might look like a carry on, but you can open the top section of this bag and pull out the expandable storage section in less than 30s, almost doubling your storage space.
Internally, there’s a big Velcro pocket on the front flap, which is perfectly sized for tablets, and might even take small laptops. You also have a side pocket with built in USB socket for phones, and a set of elastic hold back straps for clothing and towels.
Externally, the Convertible Underseat Carry-On is classy and restrained. Monocolor apart from black fittings and bright yellow, heavy duty zippers, it’s not going to stand out, and would fit comfortably amongst other business travelers.
The handle is large and easy to hold, made from high quality aluminium, fits comfortably into the hand and slides easily back into its housing when not in use.
Which brings us to our only real complaint about the Convertible Underseat Carry-On. The wheels. Rather than multidirectional spinners, it has big, bulky fixed wheels built into the housing. In our opinion, spinners would make it easier to move. However, they would add a whole bunch of extra length to it, so there’s positives and negatives.
Apart from only being able to go in a straight line, it’s incredibly easy to move with the full size pull handle. There’s also a luggage strap, which allows you to sling this bag over the handles of other bags and move them all together. Something you’ll appreciate when you’re struggling with a full complement of bags.
Expanded, this is pretty much large enough to be used as a main piece of luggage for a weekend, but collapsed it’s perfectly sized to be used as a day bag, gym bag, overnight bag or more. If you’re looking for a multi-purpose travel companion, we’d say to take a serious look at this bag before going elsewhere.
Lucas Treadlight 24” Hardsider
Luggage type: Hard side standing checked
Dimensions: 25.8” x 16.7” x 10.3”
Weight: 8.2lbs (3.7kgs)
Internal capacity: 60l
Hardsider cases are perfect if your luggage needs more protection, or you plan on picking up fragile valuables to bring home with you.
With that in mind, this case certainly fits the bill. The outer shell is an incredibly robust polycarb casing that will keep your items safe, even if your luggage takes a beating or the handlers decide to be a little less than friendly with it.
It comes in multiple colors, all of which look classy and understated. It’s going to stay looking good too, because it’s also treated with a special scratch resistant coating, so it’s going to stay looking good, as long as you don’t mistreat it.
In use, the Treadlight 24” Hardsider is solid but pleasant. The handles are made from aircraft grade aluminium, which are incredibly light whilst still being tough, and the four spinner wheels, corner mounted, give the case a wide standing base and a low center of gravity, so it’s pretty stable. The full 360-degree range of movement also makes it simple to move over any surface, even when laden down with all your stuff.
Internally, there is a large number of pockets, as well as having a zippered divider and elastic down straps which let you keep your stuff organized.
Bear in mind that hardside cases are non-expandable, so make sure that you’re buying a case which has enough internal capacity for what you’re taking. Apart from that, however, this is a decent and hard-wearing case that’s sure to last a good long time.
Lucas Ultra Lightweight Carry On
Luggage type: Lightweight carry on
Dimensions: 22.8” x 14” x 9”
Weight: 5.8lbs (2.6kgs)
Internal capacity: 36l (40l)
Essentially the same as our top choice, this Lucas ultra-lightweight carry on is different because it’s designed specifically to meet carry on size and weight regulations.
Like all the Lucas sets and bags we looked at, there’s a lot to love about the construction. First off, as the name suggests, it’s extremely light, which is such a bonus for hand luggage as it gives you a bigger limit to play with when you travel.
Moving it around is simple, as it has the same high-density plastic spinner wheels, arranged in pairs on the corners. They’re resistant to damage and make this bag really easy to manoeuvrer, gliding over everything in their path.
It’s constructed from high quality material, with tough polyester as the main fabric, that’s resistant to damage and easy to keep clean. The handles are also the same aircraft grade aluminium, keeping weight down whilst still being resilient and easy to hold.
Another positive is the storage. Like the Ultra Lightweight 28” case, this luggage is highly expandable. Once opened up, you’ll find a large amount of internal storage, but it is relatively disorganized, with several inside pockets.
Even full, it fits cleanly into overhead compartments. However, once opened up, the amount of extra storage space is incredibly impressive. Fully expanded, this bag is large enough and strong enough to serve double duty as checked luggage on the way home.
Like all the bags here, Lucas’s Ultralight carry on comes with their standard 5-year warranty, but like we’ve said with most of our reviews, it’s not something we would rely on. Apart from that minor niggle, there’s pretty much no reason not to consider this bag. The fact that you’re getting an amazingly diverse, multi-use case that can work as checked luggage or a cabin bag, for a really reasonable price, means this case is suitable for almost anyone.
Conclusion
Choosing Lucas Luggage is the right decision if you want something lightweight and tough enough to be used as a general-purpose travel case a few times a year. With that in mind, there’s not much better than the Lucas Designer Ultralight collection.
Good looking, inexpensive, with tons of room built into a really light frame, if you’re looking for something to use as a lightweight main checked case, there’s not much better.
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