Review of Husky 22-Inch Rolling Pro Tool Tote (Picture Heavy)

[MailManX]

About 1 month ago, purchased a Husky 22-inch Rolling Pro Tool Tote from Home Depot for my RC tools. I really love it, so I want to post this review along with some pictures. I hope this review will be useful to a few people on the forum. Please note: Although the “Husky” logo appears prominently in many of the pictures, I am not affiliated with Husky or Home Depot. I’m just an average RC enthusiast sharing my honest opinion. It won’t offend me if your opinion differs!

When I first got into RC Crawlers, I started keeping my charger, batteries, parts and tools in an old SKB 61-Note Roto-Molded Electronic keyboard case.

SKB 1SKB-R4215W Roto Molded 61-Note Keyboard Case Black | Musician's Friend

I had purchased that case (used) to hold a 500-series helicopter which I no longer have. It’s a great case. Tough as nails. It even has wheels at one end. However, it’s one BIG downfall is that it’s, well, BIG! It is so long that it won’t fit in the trunk of my car. It will fit across the back seat of my car, but that’s not always optimal. It is also very awkward to lift when it’s full of stuff.

In my quest to find a better portable case for my RC stuff, I began looking for another hard case. I actually had in mind the Stanley FatMax 020800R 4-in-1 Rolling Work Station.

STANLEY Hand Tools :* 020800R *-*

In pictures, the 020800R FatMax looked like it might be perfect for chargers and larger items in the bottom, plus parts, tools and batteries in the upper sections. However, it had to be able to fit in the trunk of my car without laying down. I measured my trunk height, then went to the store and measured it. No luck. It’s too tall.

I had not even thought of a soft-sided tote until I was walking through Home Depot and saw one on display. I was pretty impressed. It was a bit expensive at $129, but I bought it on impulse (Hi, my name is Michael and I have a tool addiction…).

Husky 22 in. Rolling Pro Tool Tote-GP-44449N13 at The Home Depot

This 22-inch Rolling Pro Tool Tote is the largest soft-sided tote that Home Depot sells. Luckily for me, it JUST fits standing up in the trunk of my car. For a soft-sided case, it is seriously beefy and well made with a heavily reinforced bottom and back and a very strong extendable handle. When full of parts and tools, this tote is pretty heavy. However, the two strong straps across the top make lifting it into the car much easier than trying to manipulate that seriously long SKB box that I have. It also has very strong lifting straps on either side.

This 22-inch Rolling Tote has THREE wheels across the bottom. They are solid wheels with good bearings. The fully loaded tote handles a heavy load without any problem and rolls easily on reasonably flat surfaces and lawns. It is not for off road walking expeditions over rough surfaces, but that’s not why I bought it. For me, it’s a base station. My job takes me away from home quite a bit. I take my crawlers with me. That’s why it was important to me to have a tool-box capable of fitting into the trunk of my car. When I stay in hotels, the tote goes with me into the room so I can work on the crawlers in the evening when I’m not running them.

I had an interesting experience in practical use of the three wheels: Besides holding extra weight, I wasn’t sure what the purpose was for having three wheels. However, I was recently pulling this tote along the sidewalk to my hotel when I had to move over for some people walking the other way. One side of the tote went over the edge of the sidewalk. I braced myself for the expected drag, but it never happened. Even with one wheel hanging in the air, the other two wheels on the sidewalk kept the tote upright and rolling easily. I don’t know if Husky had that in mind when they installed three wheels, but I like it!

I especially like the many, MANY pockets on this tote. I use the outside pockets for things I want access to the most such as my batteries and one of my chargers. The various sized inner pockets are great for my voltage tester, hand-tool kits, lights, spare parts, wire, tape, glue, etc. The numerous mini-pockets and straps across the inner back wall are perfect for my various individual hand tools such as pliers, vice grips, wire strippers, side cutters, clamps and so on. There are even two small zippered web pouches on the inside top flaps where I keep my extra charger adapters and the CellLog battery tester that I use all the time. They are safe there, but quickly accessible.

Finally, the large space in the middle of the tote works well for things like my second battery charger and power supply, electric drill and driver, heat gun, soldering station, my rolled up Cow Pad, etc. You could also fit a smaller 1/10 scale or a 1/16 scale crawler in there.

The closest soft-sided tote that I could find in comparison is the Klein Tools Tradesman Pro Organizer:

Tradesman Pro Organizer Rolling Tool Bag - 55452RTB | Klein Tools

It is a also a very well-built tool tote and has awesome, large wheels. Video on YouTube shows that those wheels will easily roll over rough surfaces. However, I don’t need that ability. The Klein tote also more expensive than the Husky tote. Overall, I found the Klein tote to be too small for my needs. I have a lot of stuff.

UPDATE: The center space of the tote is vary large, so it’s rather easy to pile too much stuff in there. That makes it hard to keep organized. I considered buying plastic organizer boxes to stack in there, but settled on using smaller totes that fit inside the large tote. That ended up working extremely well and I’m very happy with the final result.

Now for some pictures:


01: Here is how I used to carry my stuff. Very bulky and disorganized!



02: Exterior of the new Husky 22-inch Tool Tote with original packaging:



03: Exterior unpackaged. Lots of pockets outside! You don't even notice the side lifting straps unless you look for them.



04: Rear - Very sturdy. Notice the THREE wheels along the bottom. That has proven to be very practical.



05: Top Open:



06: Looking inside - Lots of pockets in there, too!



07: Large flap along the front interior covers larger pockets:



08: This is all the tools I wanted to put inside the tote:



09: The outside pockets are quite large and deep. This shows some batteries and a LiPo bag sticking out before I pushed them down:



10: The batteries and LiPo bag are still there, but completely secured in the pockets:



11: An Onyx charger, a scale, some glue, etc, before I pushed them down:



12: Now the charger and other items are secured in the pockets:



13: It's filling up, but I got everything in!



14: Looking under the large flap on the inside front wall:



15: Oops, almost forgot the Cow pad, but it fits too!



16: After filling up the center of the bag, I decided it was too disorganized. I went back to Home Depot and found some smaller bags that would fit inside the 22-inch Tool Tote:



17: The open-topped tote will fit perfectly in this space I made:



18: And here it is in that space. I put my Hitec 4X charger, the power supply and associated testers, balance boards and adapters into this smaller tote.



19: This closed-top tote sits on top of the open-topped tote. I put my Hakko 936 soldering station, solder, shrink wrap, liquid tape and other soldering related items into this tote. Now I can simply lift these two smaller totes out for easy access and good organization.



20: Everything fits with the top closed. Even the Cow pad is in there on one side:



21: Totally zipped up. There is a stong "rain flap" that folds over the zipper:



22: LAST PHOTO: All zipped up and ready to travel.

[DeoreDX]

So do you take all of this every time you head out to go RC'ing somewhere? I have a tool chest in my office I keep a lot of my hobby tools in, but when I go anywhere in the field I basically take this:

Hobby King 4-in-1 hex


Leatherman Wave


Body Clips


A bunch of AA's for my TX.


Throw in various battery packs into my Mountainsmith Small Messenger bag and that's it. For an overnight trip I throw in an Accucel charger.

[Perkolator]

Looks like a hotel room to me, so my guess is he DOES take these tools everywhere

Nice rolling tool bag though. Looks very spacious and practical. I might have to get one for my non-rc tools - sucks when I need to go somewhere to fix something for someone and tossing all my hand tools in a box or bag just doesn't cut it anymore. I think we should all ask for one for B-day or Xmas.

Are you an electrician with apprentices under you that don't own their own wire strippers and dykes? Just how many pairs does one need? For me the general answer would be that one could never own enough tools but seriously though...

[rockhugger]

I like your effrots, and this is likely the most organized I've seen, but
to me it still looks unorganized. That is the difficulty with our stuff, I'ts all a bit different and no company has made a bag specific to rc junkies, that carry too much crap. I bought a cheap 10.00 toolbox from Home dep. which really carried enough. It held the charger (as if 8 batteries weren't enough) a few assorted pliers or dykes, Hex wrenches, shock fluids, spare axles, n tranny, which I've never had to use, a flip top compartment full of misc..

Between crawling and short course, and a good circle of friends... there are always enough tools and parts to go around, to get us through the day. Rule of thumb is any stock parts go in the misc toolbox compartment after being upgraded, chances are someone you know will break that part cause they haven't upgraded it yet.
NOw I just lock up the car, put on my camelback with a Losi multi wrench, wheel nut wrench, a small plano (6 compartment 1.99) box full of very organized nuts bolts, hexes and pins, same spare drive train parts, and go walkin. I don't plan on building the crawler out in the field, so I stopped trying to put the whole bench in the bag. By this point, you pretty much know what is going to break, and lipos are cheap enough to have so many that technically one could leave the charger at home.

Originally Posted by DeoreDX

So do you take all of this every time you head out to go RC'ing somewhere? I have a tool chest in my office I keep a lot of my hobby tools in, but when I go anywhere in the field I basically take this:



Hobby King 4-in-1 hex


Leatherman Wave


Body Clips


A bunch of AA's for my TX.


Throw in various battery packs into my Mountainsmith Small Messenger bag and that's it. For an overnight trip I throw in an Accucel charger.

I like that wrench... I've spent years trying to simplify what I tote out on a trail run.

[MailManX]

Originally Posted by Perkolator

Looks like a hotel room to me, so my guess is he DOES take these tools everywhere

Yup, hotel room. I live and work in the San Diego area, but have been on a special assignment for the past seven months in the Los Angeles area very near LAX. They put me up in a hotel during the week and I go home on weekends. I take my cars and tools with me to the hotel. I have two crawlers and two bashers. After work, I find places to run the cars while it's still light. Sometimes I go to the beach which is only a few blocks away. I also go to some of the local parks. Sometimes, after dark, I will run in the parking lot at my place of work because it's lighted. They have some planters and rocks that I can crawl on, plus they have a couple of ramps and speed bumps in the parking lot that I can go fast and jump over.

In the evenings, I work on the cars in the hotel room while watching TV. At first, I took all the tools you saw in the pictures. Now I'm learning what I do and don't need and am cutting back a bit. It's hard for me to do because I'm a tool junkie. I like to repair, mod, cut, solder, etc in my hotel room. I use my Cow Pad on the desk and a rotating car stand on top of that.

Last night, I spent a bunch of time modding a Dinky Link S-Style servo mount for my Axial Ridgecrest so that it would accept a large Hitec HS-7980TH servo. That meant doing some grinding with my rotary tool. I was glad that I had it with me!

I still love the tool bag. It is perfect for what I need it to do. Over the past few weeks, I've gotten it more organized.

[rockhugger]

Ahh the traveling Rc junkie. That makes a lot more sense now. You've done a fine job of organizing for sure. You should get a panavise for the hotel room, then you'd be set for hotel fab works.

[MailManX]

Originally Posted by rockhugger

You should get a panavise for the hotel room, then you'd be set for hotel fab works.

Funny that you should say that! I own a panavise but had not put it in my RC bag yet. Just this week, I needed it but didn't have it, so I made a note to add it to the traveling collection.

[MailManX]

Originally Posted by Perkolator

Are you an electrician with apprentices under you that don't own their own wire strippers and dykes? Just how many pairs does one need? For me the general answer would be that one could never own enough tools but seriously though...

I know what you mean. I looked at the picture after posting it and said the same thing - "Seriously?" All those tools seemed like a good idea at the time. No, I'm not an electrician. Yes, I am addicted to tools. I purchased multiple sizes and shapes of each.

When I started thinning out my travel tools, that is the first thing I addressed. I have learned which sizes I need the most for the RC's and which handle shapes are the most comfortable in my hand. Those tools stay in the bag. The rest stay home in my tool cabinets.

[ghtpdm5]

i've got an older version of this bag, and for all the parts boxes i can stuff in it, i'm very happy with it.

















i also use it around the farm, rolling tools back and forth between the house and shed, also if i need tools in a more remote location like the out buildings or grove. i've chucked this thing in the truck and drove 2 hours on the interstate, also fits in the car trunk well enough. i mainly use it for parts storage with rc stuff now, the boxes kinda took over, but if i remove them, i can fit a 3/8" socket set, 12v drill and impact, the larger 18v drill and bit set, the giant b&k precision 388-hd with test leads (lots of them), and even my smaller portable dc source and its cheap (dad bought when chasing a wire in the semi, junk compared to the b&k) multimeter.

for rc tools, i found that a backpack works better, just a nice tool set with metric and standard hexes and a pair of pliers. the backpack travels better, holds the lipo bag, and i have the camera bag clipped to it. i wish i could fit the transmitter and chargers in there as well, but an old pistol case works ok while protecting them.

[2JSC]

I hear a lot of people bash on Husky for a lot of reasons, but you gotta hand it to them. They do make some damn nice stuff. I have 2 of the smaller zipped totes that you have (the one inside your 22" tote). One for work to keep tools in, and one in my Jeep that I have some recovery tools in. I also have a 3-drawer tool box that holds a number of tools right now, but will transition it into my RC tool box. I've been extremely pleased with all of my Husky totes and boxes in the past. I've only had one where the zipper broke, I took it back, and they exchanged it for a newer version(that came with a free small hip pocket).

Excellent review and I love all the pictures showing what all you fit inside. I don't think I'll ever need one of those for my RC gear, but damn, sure makes me want one.

[ghtpdm5]

i have a few husky products beyond the bag, and really, i have no complaints. their fabric stuff holds up really well, my bag has rolled miles with me and still hasn't popped a seam.

my favorite one is the drill holster that i got around 06 for doing a tin job. been drug on sharp tin edges and hit the dirt crawling around under trucks and such. no problem at all, no loose seams and never dropped a drill. cannot recommend it highly enough if you are working on something where you need a drill and to be mobile as well.

[dezfan]

Nice looking set up.

I use assorted Husky bags for everything from a small portable tool bag for my truck, another as a range bag and another case for my Kel Tec Sub 2000.

Well built and affordable.

[MailManX]

Originally Posted by ghtpdm5

i've got an older version of this bag, and for all the parts boxes i can stuff in it, i'm very happy with it.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the older Husky bag and how you use it. I feel good about knowing that mine should stand the test of time. I love how you use the plastic parts boxes. I think I NEED some of those, too!

[MailManX]

Originally Posted by 2JSC

Excellent review and I love all the pictures showing what all you fit inside. I don't think I'll ever need one of those for my RC gear, but damn, sure makes me want one.

Thanks for the compliment on the review. I enjoyed writing it.

If I was at home all the time and just made short local trips to play with the RC's, then I'd certainly have a smaller travel bag with fewer tools. The big bag is VERY heavy. It's all I can do to lift it in and out of the trunk of my car. But I tend to turn my hotel room into a large pit station and impromptu fab shop, so it requires a lot more tools.

In fact, that brings up a funny story from earlier this week. Every day when I leave the room for work, I hang the "This Room Is OK" sign on the door so nobody comes in. I keep my room clean and organized. I certainly don't need the sheets and towels washed every day. I'm only there for 4 to 5 days at a time before heading home each weekend. This past Wednesday evening, someone knocked on my door and proclaimed, "Housekeeping!" When I opened the door, I recognized the manager of the housekeeping crew (I know almost everyone there since I've stayed at the same hotel for seven months).

She said, "How come you never want your room cleaned?"

I invited her in and said, "Look around! I don't want my stuff messed with. Besides, I figure your crew is happy to have one less room to clean each day."

With wide eyes she said, "What do you do in here?"

I replied, "I work on my RC trucks in here. This is my hobby and these are my tools and my passion."

She just rolled her eyes and said, "You boys and your toys!" Then she smiled, said thanks for letting her know what's up, wished me well and went on her way.

[tuner]

I use the older style husky rolling bag at work every day. I install office cubicles and beat the crap out of it. Every installer at work has husky from the small 14" roller up to the 22" roller. I had the first one they made that didn't have a skid protector for the retractable handle but when it stopped working because of dents I upgraded for free at Home Depot to the newer style and have used dvery day for about 6 months. Everything husky makes is good in my opinion.

[MailManX]

It is very gratifying to hear several people step up about using Husky products, or at least some of them. I personally do not have any Husky tools, only the tool bags. I tend to be a bit of a tool snob at times, but the Husky bag was exactly what I needed at the time. I know that there are a lot of Husky bashers about, so when I wrote the review I was a little afraid that I might get flamed. I probably would have on a different forum. I am impressed with the caliber and decency of the people I am "meeting" here. Thanks for all the thoughtful comments.

[2JSC]

Actually most of my work tools, and until recently my personal tools as well, are Husky brand, except for a few electronic specific ones. I buy them because of price, warranty, and ease of exchange if I happen to break one. I do a lot of driving all over Arizona for work and I'd I broke a tool it's usually not fat to a Home Depot to swap out the tool. I've been fortunate enough to have been the recipient of a SnapOn tool box loaded top the gills with tools, but I've always been a fan of Husky's products. I just bought new a new belt pouch that holds several drivers and pliers and am liking it so far.

[phllint]

Originally Posted by DeoreDX

So do you take all of this every time you head out to go RC'ing somewhere? I have a tool chest in my office I keep a lot of my hobby tools in, but when I go anywhere in the field I basically take this:

Hobby King 4-in-1 hex


Leatherman Wave


Body Clips


A bunch of AA's for my TX.


Throw in various battery packs into my Mountainsmith Small Messenger bag and that's it. For an overnight trip I throw in an Accucel charger.

I probably take more than that. I take all my parts for me and to help and or fix other peoples rigs also. if all you take is a 4 way wrench and a leatherman, then you have had some really short days when you break.

[phllint]

I personally love the bag. I bought mine about 3 months ago after using a klein tools bag forever that worked great cause of the 6 inch wheels. it rolled over everything just didn't hold enough sh*t. this bag is great and holds it all.

[MailManX]

I know this post is four months old, but I want to add a quick blurb. It applies not only to my Husky Rolling Tool Bag but to any suitcase or rolling briefcase that has an extending handle. I have found that the wheelbase of most 1/10 and 1/8 scale rigs will fit nicely around the handles. Even when the bag is full of tools, I can stack three or four rigs on top. It has come in handy for me many times as I've hauled my RC's to various locations.