Transporting Hardware How To?

stellar92010

Senior Member
So I have a few stands, snare stand, cymbal, tom, from the Pearl 1030 series. What is available to carry these in? A duffel bag, chest, what? They are rather heavy so I am just wondering how you pack this kind of hardware to travel-gig.
 
http://www.justdrumsonline.com/p-3075-mapex-rolling-hardware-bag.aspx

I use this one. Relatively reasonably priced. I used to use a hockey bag, without wheels. You can get them now with wheels and they are probably one of the cheapest solutions.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/5/SportsRec/2/HockeyIce/HockeyBags/PRDOVR~0830208P/Reebok+XT+Pro+Hockey+Bag.jsp?locale=en

Whatever you get, wheels are a must! I can't believe all the years I dragged around 60 or 70 pounds of stuff in a bag on my back.
 
I use one of these that is strapped onto a 4 wheeled mover's dolly (someday I'll get around to just bolting the dolly onto the bottom). I can fit my stands, mic stands, and 2 briefcase style hard cases (one for drums mics and the other for miscellaneous stuff like folded up kick pedal, tamborine, shaker, extra sticks, tool kit, etc...).

It lives in our trailer, so I also have a Road Runner rolling hardware bag (the band calls it the "body bag"). The main zippers broke after 2 years so it's relegated to being my backup if I need to transport my gear in my car.
 
I use a homemade carrier. (It's on the right)

It's an open-ended plywood box inside a duffle bag I got from the army-navy store. I roll it on a platform cart I got from Harbor Freight for $20. It's open-ended so I can just fold the legs of the stands and put them in without further breaking them down. Saves a lot of time when setting up.
 
I use a hard shell golf case made by SKB. It has wheels built in and is big enough to hold all of my hardware plus mic stands and a duffle bag full of cables. I got mine off craigslist for $25 in like new condition.
 

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I use a hard shell golf case made by SKB. It has wheels built in and is big enough to hold all of my hardware plus mic stands and a duffle bag full of cables. I got mine off craigslist for $25 in like new condition.

That's a great idea!

I used to put all of my hardware in a hockey-style bag. The problem was that it took two people to carry it. I took a cue from OSHA and now I use several smaller bags that can each be carried with one hand. It takes an extra trip to the car, but overall it's much easier to handle, easier to load the car or fit my gear into odd-shaped spaces, and I don't put my back at risk every time I need to move my kit.
 
If you're going the SKB Golf Club hardcase route, check out the SKB Freedom golf club case. Hard plastic case with wheels, but it stands up and the top half comes off, so you don't have to lay it down and open it like a clam to get your hardware out. I find it handy for mic stands and speaker stands, but it could be useful for drum hardware, too.
 
I don't carry much hardware, and I split it all between a small rolling trap case, and a heavy duty hardware hardware bag. Over the years I've discovered that lifting one heavy case into the truck is not the way to go, and now my trap case is sorta light, and the bag is sorta light, so loading and unloading is easier on my body. The bag also travels on top of the rolling trap case when rolling into and out of the venues. Something to think about. From my teens to my thirties I had no problem exerting myself loading a big heavy trap case, now getting into my later 40s all that earlier lifting has taken its toll.
 
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