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Tool Rolls with Internal Zippered Pouches, Yea or Nay?
Is this an improvement on the form factor, or a subversion of it?
By Rain Noe - September 11, 2020
The whole point of a tool roll is organization. The traveling worker brings a suite of tools needed for a particular task, unfurls the roll on a worksurface and can easily see and access each individual tool. The design dictates one tool per pocket.
A company called Rugged Tools, however, has taken a different approach with their tool rolls: Discrete slots have been replaced with zippered pouches, each meant to be filled with multiples within a particular category--combination wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers et cetera. And I can't decide if this approach makes any sense. Take a look at their supposed use case:
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If you're bringing that many tools to a jobsite, and multiples are jumbled together though separated by category, doesn't a conventional tool bag or tool bucket with multiple compartments already solve this problem? If you still need to fish through multiples to find the one tool you need, what advantage is conferred by going with the roll form factor? I'm particularly interested to hear from those of you who do travel with tools, and what your expected use cases would be.
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Rain Noe
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Tool Rolls with Internal Zippered Pouches, Yea or Nay?
The main advantage of a roll is that they pack smaller and flatter. They also don't clank around as much as a fully loaded toolbox. I keep a roll with zippered pockets in my car because it's old and living on borrowed time, and I've found that the combination of a tool roll with some basic organization tools (like socket rails) allow me to neatly roll it away under a seat and keep things organized enough to not be frustrating. The main thing I recommend is familiarize yourself with what you're going to be working on and build out your tools around it (I have a Japanese truck and motorcycle, so I rarely carry any SAE tools, etc.)
For stuff like wirenuts, zipties and other loose consumable items this makes sense.
I agree that there isn't much difference between this and a regular tool box, multi compartment bag, etc as far as functionality goes.
One benefit the zippered compartments have over a tool roll is the ability to hold small items such as fasteners, socket heads, anything that isn't your traditional long narrow form that tool rolls hold so well. I did a motorbike ride across Australia and used a Fox Deluxe Toolpack. It was the best of both worlds with one compartment having elastic loops perfect for spanners etc a large zippered compartment where I kept cable ties, fuel hose, electrical tape. It had two small compartments which had fuses, racing wire and some small tools like a valve puller.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I see this working for the user who wants to bring their tools and all their consumables and fasteners in one soft package. It would be better if it had traditional tool roll loops to hold spanners etc as well as one or two large zippered compartments for small or odd shaped items. Excuse me i need to contact a bag maker in China...
Buckets tip. Buckets let sawdust and metal filings in through the top. Maybe you don't like that and want something different. You can go into your "and what's the deal with these airline peanuts?" bit now.