NuGuy

Heyas Afterburn,

The irony of your post is that the Purdy Neat, as it WAS, was the premium product.

I bought mine in 1998, replaced one handle, two sets of wheels and had the main zipper resewn once. In 14 years, that's pretty good. The PNs older than mine are even sturdier.

The problem with the current LW units are, actually, that they're the current LW units. 14 years of trimming material has left you with a bag that seems no different than the other roller bags that fall apart after 3 years. I tap on the frame, and I can't tell if it's metal or plastic.

For example, The striker plate on the bottom of my PN finally wore through. After 13 years of getting pulled over curbs, I thought it that it had performed well. I got it replaced with the the current part, which was a complete joke. The old part was at least 1/8 thick, and it's no wonder it lasted that long. It was clearly designed to take a beating.

The new part was so thin I can't believe it was meant to do anything other than be decorative. I told the guy who fixed it that it won't last a year, and he agreed. We were both wrong...only made it 8 months. Since there's no way I'd trade my current bag for a new unit, I got ANOTHER new striker plate, and bolted on some thick L channel on the corner.

If you want to go back to building a "premium product", go back to building them the way they USED to be built. The dang things were tough, which is why people bought them.

BTW, I never saw the point of making them light weight. It's a ROLLER bag. If you can't heave up a bag that weighs a pound or two more than a bag with a plastic frame, you have other issues.

By the way, I spent $200 on mine in 1998. That was a lot of money for a suitcase in 1998.

Nu