One of the problems I’ve recently been trying to solve is how to cart a large amount of diving equipment around with me, especially as I usually have multiples of everything ready for testing, as well as all the bulky kit needed for cold water diving. Combined with the fact I’m often driving around in a hire car I’ve been looking for a solution. Luckily for me, an email dropped into my inbox from the folks at Solent Plastics based in the UK.
This 3rd generation family business has been supplying government, commercial, military and domestic customers with all manner of types of plastic boxes and they wanted me to try out a few of their solutions suitable for divers of all types.
The first box they shipped me was the 170-litre Extra Long Wheeled Storage Trunk (we’ll be testing the other boxes they have in the coming weeks).
This box is a real monster. 170-litres sounds like a lot and it definitely is! This box is capable of gulping up two full sets of scuba kit, including regulators, BCD’s, masks, fins and a drysuit – all with ease.
Despite carrying such a huge load of kit it’s actually a surprisingly nimble box with two sturdy wheels on one end and a large red flip handle on the other end, meaning I could wheel the box forwards or backward with ease and not risk putting my back out.
Considering it’s a box full of diving kit, it’s also quite striking – the black box and lid are offset with red highlights on the handles which managed to turn a few heads in the hotel I was staying at.
It also coped quite well whilst I manhandled it over some quite rough terrain, although I probably wouldn’t recommend taking this onto the beach with a heavy load as you’ll need two people to rescue it.
The lid itself is extremely sturdy and useful to use for getting kitted up on and will happily support up to 100kg. It also has integral padlock loops that allow you to securely attach the lid to box and keep the contents secure.
The only negative point for me was the sheer size of this thing. Whilst it’s great and practical for the amount of kit I needed to cart around, it’s also too big for most sensible sized hire cars I’ve used. It would fit nicely on the back seats which was fine for me as a solo driver, but trying to get it into the trunk/boot of any medium sized car along with passengers might prove tricky.
All in all, this is a wonderful piece of kit – it is robust, heavy duty box that looks good and is priced the same as boxes half its size. I’ve been extremely pleased with using it and whilst it’s probably a touch too big to be my primary box for normal recreational diving, anyone who has a lot of equipment and want a single mobile storage solution this is it.
Features
- Capacity: 170 Litres
- Load Capacity: 80 Kg Load Capacity / 100 Kg on Lid
- Weight: 6.5 Kg
- External Dimensions: L 1050 x W 500 x H 500 mm
- Internal Dimensions: L 890 x W 390 x H 390 mm
- Color: Black with Red Handles
Price
- GBP£47.24 / ~USD$ 62
BUY NOW – solentplastics.co.uk