RS Rolling Carry-on

I don’t have one of these devices. But I see m discussed often around here and several members of my recent Scotland tour were happy owners of RS luggage items.

Luggage is a trade off of, among other things, capacity, durability, name brand, quality of materials, craftsmanship, and manufacturing quality control. In the world of 40 liter carry on wheelies, it’s hard to beat the Rick Steves unit for value. Are you comparing other units such as eBags, Eagle Creek, Costco, or Vuitton?

The wheelie is heavy at six to seven pounds. The carry on backpack version is only three pounds and has the same capacity. But that is a different discussion and not the question you asked.

I just took my RS Rolling Carryon to Italy for a three week trip, independent for 9 days and RS South of Italy tour. I had used the case previously for a Hawaii trip and domestic flight. It works very good for me, along with my PacSafe tote. I'm very happy with the combination. It was easy to pull up and push down bridge steps in Venice, easy to carry up hotel stairs, easy to lift into plane and train overheads and didn't tip as long as I weighted the bottom with shoes. Because it's expandable, be cautious not to over pack which will make it larger than airline allowable dimensions. That's OK coming home when you want to check luggage with souvenirs. but outbound, watch your size restrictions for carryon.
FYI I'm 68 y/o but in pretty good shape if that makes a difference. Four of us had the same carryon on the RS tour.

There is concurrent thread talking about the same luggage:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/packing/carry-on-bag-that-doesn-t-tip-and-rolls-well

I also have the RS Rolling Carry-on and it has worked fine for me. In the last 4 years, I've taken it to Scotland (RS tour in 2017), Madrid and Dublin (2015), and most recently to Italy (Oct 2018). It held up great on all 3 trips. It does help to pack heavier things toward the bottom as it's standing. I used RS packing cubes on all 3 trips as well and they really help keep things organized. I've also used it for 2-3 domestic trips. I bought it in 2015. My mom also bought one for the Madrid/Dublin trip and hers held up well, too.

Hi folks and thank you so much for your very informative responses! This really is helpful. (I am also looking at TravelPro and others in local stores.) Trip isn't until fall, so I have some time to mull it over. Thanks again, and Happy travels!

Due to recent questions like this, I went back into my Consumer Reports, and in December 2018, they had their wheeled carryon luggage review. So here's it in a more concise manner, join and look them up if you want more details:
Points Name Highest item rated

92 Briggs & Reilly durability (bad: heavy bags)
91 ebags *Did the best in all categories: durability, Ease of carrying & packing, stowability, wheelability (but careful, larger than stated, I believe)
90 Eagle Creek Durability

89 LL Bean Durability

89 Rick Steves ease of carrying, packing, stowability

89 Kirkland Durability

88 Travelpro nothing rated highest
Others also with 88 points: Tumi, London Fog, It Luggage. The rest drop from there. PS: sorry, I can't get the format to shrink into any easily readable format.

BTW I love my RS wheeled carryon.

Don't wait until the last minute to order one. I've owned all three of the large wheeled carry ons offered by RS. They either arrived with manufacturing defects and had to be replaced or broke after a few weeks.

May I suggest you go to eBags and look at the selection of two wheeled bags they offer and read the reviews.

And thanks so much for the additional responses, everyone!