I bought the Black Diamond Stonehauler Pro 45 duffel in early summer. It's been brilliant as a carry-on bag for weekends away in Europe. It seems fine to me in a rucksack mode for a couple of km. I think if you want more than that you need an actual rucksack. Love the detailing and toughness. I'm also going to use it as my carry on ski boot bag when I head to Japan this winter. Great bit of kit.
TNF Base Camp. Best duffel. My 80L has seen countless airport floors, baggage carrousels and everything from major oceans, the gobi desert, public transport, the steppes of Africa to the Tasman highlands. It’s hast been thrown around, crammed, overpacked, sat on. It rode the trans-sibirian-railway und everything it forgot. And after all of that I replaced one zipper pull with Paracord and it has a few scuff marks. Still works and I would still trust it any day of the week. It is a real workhorse. No real features but securely holds your stuff. 15 years and counting. No Goruck or anything else I own that claims to be tough as nails has ever been abused like this one. And my Gorucks have failed multiple times just during office use (Batwing stitching tearing apart carrying to and from the car…)
@@JBOutside1 would love to see your results. My 140L base camp has been through similar stuff -packed with 40lb of gear, dragged across parking lots and squished intro trunks week in and week out for 10 years (hockey bag) and checked on 20+ plane trips. The biggest issue is the zipper has a tear but still works.
My tnf base camp started flaking on the outside after 5 years of use. The coating started falling apart. Had to replace the whole bag, because it was no longer water resistant.
@@JBOutside1 I still have that version as well. I travel with a backpack, so I much prefer the single shoulder strap + smaller hand hold straps. Much more useful for me.
i prefer the eg over the pd just because to me the way it opens doesn't cut off access to the ends the way the pd does; it's not a lot, but if i don't have the horseshoe then give me eg. And don't forget about the OG basecamp duffel!
Great video. I love the horseshoe opening. I have a vertx contingency duffle that I haven’t swapped out for a while with that feature. That 1733 is always looking good 😅.
Hey JB good video. Right there with you on the Patagonia. I don't have the duffel but I have the current MLC 30 and it's excellent bang for the buck. Really nice exterior materials, very good design with a few nice touches, decent even if not premium materials and solid build. And, hits a great price point. It's great for maximizing underseat for US flights (and carry on for smaller dimension carriers). So, it's not surprising that the duffel might be similar. And, totally agree on the PD cubes.
I really appreciate the review but I can't stand this trend of duffles now carrying like big backpacks. What happened to the trusty detachable shoulder pad? I feel like a duffel carried in hand and/or over the shoulder and a backpack work so well together so why are manufacturers of late (Wandrd, Patagonia) still doing this? Frustrating to say the least.
Because wearing a bag over just 1 shoulder is a flawed concept, it's just not comfortable or practical. Having 2 straps for both shoulders (backpack) is simply a superior way to carry a bag.
@@doctorgonzo7777 Then it's great that they have dozens of travel backpacks with great harness systems just for the people that find carrying a bag over a shoulder or across the chest too... taxing. As a reasonably fit human being, it's never been an issue using a duffle that way.
@@doctorgonzo7777 ...unless you're trying to use it with a backpack...then it's problematic. That's the point here...but I agree if that's all you're carrying
@@JBOutside1 sure if you wanna use both a shoulder strap bag and a backpack at the same time it would be needed. But i bet the percentage of customers that use it like that are very very low.
