Saturday, November 29, 2014

Atomik Race Hauler Bag

Hello everyone! Today I am reviewing the Atomik hauler bag, Part#: 2007RE. 

The bag comes in a compact form, with all the drawers folded up. The colors are very vivid and and materials feel high quality! Right out of the box, I was simply impressed with the product.

 The wheels are smooth and easily glide along the sidewalk even with a fully stocked hauler.  There is an awesome telescoping handle in the bag that lets you handle the bag as if it where luggage. The buckles snap together tightly and the all the straps are strong enough to support the weight of a full bag. Although the buckles are sturdy, they are plastic and I often avoid lifting the hauler using the shoulder strap alone. There is a nice handle you can use to lift the hauler bag.
This is the back of the hauler bag, it is a larger pocket that I put all my stickers and manuals in. The pocket proved to be more useful than I had anticipated. I was able to fit several manuals, stickers, set up sheets, and fliers with ease. This image shows the bag in the compact state, but the flap for the pocket is marked by the silver line. The pocket is as tall and wide as the bag.

 The zippers on the hauler bag are very large and heavy duty. I have not had any issues with the zippers and I am actually quite impressed with their quality. I have got dirt and clay in the zippers and I have vigorously zipped and unzipped them. I have been unable to get the zippers to falter in any way. I don't expect the zippers to last forever, but so far they are great.






There is a compartment at the top of the hauler bag that you can organize your tools in and put all of your highly used race day parts and accessories in. I have tools,  ride height and chamber gauges, sticky tape and more in that pocket. There is a plastic tray that you can also put screws and other small parts that you may be using during rebuilds and such.





 Here is a shot of the pocket after I put in some tools. There are several slots to securely store your tools.

The shot also shows all the drawers put together and the flap that covers them, the flap is all rolled up. The flap is very well thought out and conveniently sticks to itself once it is rolled up. The big drawer on top it very large. I can fit a Short Course truck in there easily, but I ended up putting all of my plastic containers full of parts in there, and a bunch of other stuff. There are four smaller drawers, with one of them being cut off a bit so that in can fit next to the wheels.

The drawers them selves and the structure of the hauler bag is made of corrugated plastic. The drawers are very strong and hold a good amount of weight in them. I was able to fit all my parts and electronics in the bag as well as all of my tools. In other words, I fit a ton of stuff in this bag.
 Here is a shot of the bad on a race day. You can fit some vehicles on top to make for even more convenient transport. The shoulder strap doubles as a vehicle strap.
There are also some pockets on the sides of the case, two on the left and one on the right. I store all of my batteries in the left two pockets and in the right pockets I put my Lipo bags and some various papers.  You can see the bright red zippers of the left pockets in the shot on the right.

I really liked the branding of the case, it is big enough the support the brand, but it is not gross and overbearing.

The size of the case is great since it fits all of my stuff, but also easily fits into the trunk of my corolla.













The Cons:
     -I have used this bag for a few months and have taken it to various tracks. While using the tool holders, the stitching on one of them had simply ripped.  I have been very tough on this bag and more than likely ripped the stitching because of the way I pulled my tools out.

    -When there is a lot of weight in the bag, the drawers can sometimes bind and are tricky to pull out.

For build quality I give this Hauler bag a 8.5/10:
     -The bag overall is very sturdy and the materials used make for a high quality product. The stitching did not stand up to my abuse, so I docked the Hauler bag for that.

For ease of use and set up I give this bag 10/10:
    -The Hauler bag is very easy to set up and put together. Everything is intuitively designed and you find that your needs and wants are met. There is plenty of space, but the bag is not too big. There is a smooth and strong telescoping handle that is also well hidden when not in use. The zippers are big and heavy duty, but they still glide and open easily even with dirt, mud, and whatever other things you pick up at the track on them.



Overall, this bag is great and for the price and it gets a 9.25 rating. The size of the case is perfect for the compact racer, but also caters to the racers that like to carry lots of stuff with them. The telescoping handle is sturdy and allows you to easily pull the hauler bag through the pits. All the compartments are well thought out and provide plenty of space to store things. The Hauler bag is not perfect, but it works great and the price point is spot on at 150$.

 Remember to register your products with Atomik so that you can take advantage of their warranty if something goes wrong.

 Good luck at the races! Remember, you can always ask me for help, just look for the Venom powered Pro-Line vehicles and the KLA logo at the track.



-Matthew Garcia