Ful Workhorse Equipment Bag

[AL-Ump]

Greeting fellow umpires

I know @MadMax has a Ful Workhorse and likes it.  In a post I saw from back last year he said how great the bag is, but then said that all of the zippers had been replaced.  Does anyone know if this is a common problem?  How long do the zippers last?  Is the bag a great bag in spite of sucky zippers?

Just curious.  My F3 bag is not long for this world and I'm looking for it's replacement.

Thanks!

Al-Ump

[BLWizzRanger]

FWIW, I am pretty sure that I haven't come close to the amount of abuse or traveling that MadMax has done these past years but I am on my second or third year with it (200 games perhaps?) and my zippers and material are still fine. I haven't traveled on a plane with it either.  Just throwing it in the back of my car.

[MadMax]

22 hours ago, AL-Ump said:

but then said that all of the zippers had been replaced. 

You got me… a little. I had the primary perimeter body zipper repaired. That was because – as @BLWizzRanger points out – with the amount of traveling I do with it, the airlines, railways, buses, and car rides with it have not been kind to the “bottom” of it, and the stitching holding the zipper teeth to the border were fraying. 

Then, another airline cracked off one of my zipper tabs at the “beetle” (do they call this the wedge body?), so I had nothing to make new loop thru. So my luggage fixer just outright replaced the zipper. It was the side pocket. 

That’s it. Otherwise, it’s been extremely reliable since I got it in 2018. This year, I passed it on to one of my “crew kids”, as he was dragging around a saggy-backed, slug-of-a-bag from Champro. I got myself a brand-new Fūl… just a slightly different color. 

Back on the road again! 

[AL-Ump]

Sweet - thanks for the update!  I didn't mean the question as a "gotcha", I just wanted to make sure the zippers were not a systemic issue.

On my Force 3, I've made an inner support structure out of PVC pipe that keeps the bag's exterior shape and offers some protection to the bag's contents.  It creates an inner frame for the exterior skin.  Have you done anything like that to your Ful?  

[MadMax]

2 hours ago, AL-Ump said:

It creates an inner frame for the exterior skin.  Have you done anything like that to your Ful?  

That’s a brilliant idea, but not necessary on a Fūl Workhorse, since the entire lower section is a molded plastic tub. I keep my base shoes and softgoods in this section, my CP, shins, mask(s) and hats in the upper main compartment, plate shoes (in bag) in the “foot” compartment (wheel-end), accessories in the “head” compartment (handle-end), and stopwatch(es), lineup folder, plate brush, pens, chapstick & gum in the side pocket. 

49 pounds and he flies! ✈️ 

[834k3r]

2 hours ago, AL-Ump said:

On my Force 3, I've made an inner support structure out of PVC pipe that keeps the bag's exterior shape and offers some protection to the bag's contents.

As a fellow F3 bag owner, I'm intrigued. Care to share more detail?

[Velho]

  

[BLWizzRanger]

5 hours ago, MadMax said:

 just a slightly different color. 

 

Just slightly Navy, I suppose.

[AL-Ump]

Here's a couple pics.  3/4" PVC pipe from Home Depot.  Think it was 2 of the 10' sticks plus 8 of the corners.  The tricky part is to get a really good fit, you have to cut the material and assemble it inside the bag.  If you put it together outside it will never fit in.  No glue, just held together with compression and fit.

I carry my shoes and equipment on top and my unmentionables in the bottom.  Clothes in a separate hang up bag (Honigs). 

[SeeingEyeDog]

@AL-Ump, this is one of the coolest things I have seen posted on this forum. Thank you for sharing this and I am nominating this for Post of the Year...

~Dawg

[cgroom]

10 hours ago, AL-Ump said:

3/4" PVC pipe from Home Depot

Now that its complete, do you think 1/2" would suffice or if you had to do it again would you still roll with 3/4"?

[AL-Ump]

I've seen someone use the 1/2" tubing and to me, it looks a little flimsy, especially with the length of the Force 3 bag's side.  If it was divided into sections, maybe it would be better - but I'd be a little nervous about the pounding that goes on in a normal flight load/unload.  It just didn't seem sturdy to me.  The stiffness (strength) is a function of the pipe diameter used - actually a squared function.  Going from 1/2" to 3/4" pipe yields a 71% increase in the strength - almost double.

[MadMax]

11 hours ago, SeeingEyeDog said:

@AL-Ump, this is one of the coolest things I have seen posted on this forum.

Ya ain’t going to ever see anything as cool as this – in bags – coming from Wilson. 

To expand this… did you know that DHL is the official courier 🚚 of MLBUs? All of the umpire gear is ferried and shipped from venue to venue by DHL, whether by road or air, and arrives to the ballpark to be delivered and deployed in the umpire locker rooms. The clubbies are the ones who actually unpack and deploy the gear, but what does DHL convey all that gear in? Travel cases, that look a helluva lot like roadie cases ( ya hearin’ this @concertman1971??). Hard-shell, latched… and there are MLBUs who just arrange their gear within these roadie cases, and eschew all the flim-flam of gear bags… 

So! If Wilson is supposed to be the Official / Exclusive Supplier of MLBUS, then why haven’t they made a travel unit like this? Why is their gear bag so… so… obtuse? 

Huh. 🤔 

@AL-Ump‘s structural enhancement is very much akin to these DHL cases; closest I’ve seen from a luggage standpoint, other than the Fūl. 

Now, I have seen colleagues use rolling tool cases as “gear bags”, and I’ve been awefully tempted to do it myself. Several have used Husky, Cobalt, or Ridgid -brand. Of course, the one I would want is the same one of my league umpires used this past season – Milwaukee (tap tap @The Short Umpire ). But, I’m just paranoid that I’d be A) overweight (50lb cap for flight), or B) inviting every bit of abuse, pilfering, or theft because it looks so tempting and expensive. 

It’s why I never bought TheNorthFace basecamp bags, despite them being absolutely bombproof. We’d hear nothing but horror stories of people knifing, pilfering, or outright stealing these bags because the likelihood of very expensive outdoors gear & clothing being inside was very very high.

If I’m scavenging from an airport carousel, and I see a large, rolling gear bag with “Wilson” and the MLB logo on it… there’s a pretty good chance I can pawn or eBay the stuff inside and make some fast money. 

This is also why I AirTag / Tile everything. 

16 hours ago, BLWizzRanger said:

Just slightly Navy, I suppose.

Ha! Absolutely not. Charcoal w/ sky blue trim. 

4 hours ago, AL-Ump said:

The stiffness (strength) is a function of the pipe diameter used - actually a squared function.  Going from 1/2" to 3/4" pipe yields a 71% increase in the strength - almost double.

I gave you the Confused emoji face, because you sprung math on us. 🧮 

[cgroom]

1 hour ago, MadMax said:

Travel cases, that look a helluva lot like roadie cases

I seem to recall that several umpire equipment companies from the 90s would sell "professional" travel cases like this guy:

 

[cgroom]

I took a quick trip to the big box store this morning. The 3-way 3/4" schedule 40 connectors were $4.39/each 🫠

Amazon has a set of 8 "furniture grade" connectors for $13.99 that should do the trick.

[AL-Ump]

Thanks guys for the kind comments, but this modification wasn't created by me.  One of my umpire buddies did it to his bag years ago and I've seen a few different versions over the years.

I'm glad I was able to share the modification with you!  Hopefully it help keep the contents of your bag a little safer!

[dumbdumb]

6 hours ago, cgroom said:

I seem to recall that several umpire equipment companies from the 90s would sell "professional" travel cases like this guy:

 

yes, the american league used this black one and the national league used the blue colored one made by Priesmeyer Bros. Trunk Company out of Missouri, and went back as far as umpire George Barr using their trunks along with the teams but of course those trunks were without the wheels.

and with the transport that @MadMax 6 mentioned, prior to DHL it was Pilot Air Freight majority owned by MLBU attorney Richie Phillips that provided the no umpire touch service.

there is something to that Bull Durham movie where crash is on the bus telling them about his short callup to the show. you never have to touch your bag again. umpires too.

[concertman1971]

On 10/2/2024 at 9:18 AM, MadMax said:

Travel cases, that look a helluva lot like roadie cases ( ya hearin’ this @concertman1971?

Are you stalking me???