Travel Cases?
 

Im going from the mainland to Hawaii in a couple months and need to haul a decent amount of video and still photo gear (2 tripods, GL2, still cam, 5 lenses, and a bunch of accessories) It would most likely fit in a couple Pelican Cases, but these don't seem lockable. I need sugggestions as to what would be best to haul all this gear in and the best method of doing it. Checking it on the airplane seems innevitable but I am paranoid of theft and tampering. Would shipping it over be a better idea?

Any thoughts?

All are appreciated - thanx!

I believe you are not allowed to lock your check-in luggage anymore. You may want to look into this further, although every time I travel the rules seem to change.

Put the locked Pelicans in cardboard boxes and ship them to yourself in Hawaii on about a 1 or 2-day shipment. Do this the day you leave and you will just get there and they will too.

Make certain you have FedEx mark them Top Load Only (they have big red stickers for this) and insure them for all the gear is worth.

Hand-carry what you can of the most expensive bits.

I belive on most Pelican cases there's a place to use those luggage locks that are fairly skinny.

I generally ship my gear for convenience (usually I use a private shipper which is a bit cheaper than Fedex, plus they are often able to palletize all my cases so they travel together as a unit). But I have had to check them at the airport more than I would have liked to, also. Matt is absolutely correct about not being able to lock them initially, but once they get through the screening you can put the locks on then. And yes, Pelicans do allow for small-gauge locks (although I've become a convert to Storm cases over the Pelicans).

Mike's shipping advice is smart.

If it makes you feel any better, I've travelled with/shipped anywhere from 6 to 10 cases probably 40 times over the last 10 years, and outside of having the latches bunged up once or twice, I've never had a problem with theft or damage.

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles Papert :If it makes you feel any better, I've travelled with/shipped anywhere from 6 to 10 cases probably 40 times over the last 10 years, and outside of having the latches bunged up once or twice, I've never had a problem with theft or damage. -->>>

Locked or unlocked?

Thanx for the reply Charles

It actually depends--more often than not, unlocked. I use plastic zipties to prevent casual "investigation".

You can lock your equipment but make sure you use TSA approved locks.

Most locks features the Travel Sentry logo, which alerts TSA personnel that they may open this lock without destroying it with a set of passkeys which they have and can relock them after inspection. Some will even tell you via logo color change that the lock has been opened.

Hope this helps.

Most airports I have been through (especially Atlanta) allow you to lock the case AFTER it has been inspected and scaned by the Air Transportation inspectors. You can stand there and watch it go through the screener and then hand the lock to the inspector and he will lock the case and tag it as having been inspected. Bob Safay

Also, if it is not an option to personally lock & unlock the case, you can possibly get plenty of extra keys and then give a key to the TSA guys so that they can unlock it. However, you will not get the key back. The best bet is to get a TSA lock that they have a master key to as someone else mentioned.

Alex F