Review of the eBags Mother Lode 25" Wheeled Duffel

I haven’t been this stoked about a luggage review in a long time. This piece will definitely be coming with me to India and be traveling with me (and I’m sure Ben is going to try to steal it). There are a variety of reasons that this luggage is different from other’s I’ve reviewed and I’m going to go through the pros and cons of the eBags Mother Lode luggage in my review! It’s an eBags brand but this site carries some of my favorite luggage and backpack brands like Samsonite, Tumi, and Jansport.

The eBags Mother Lode 25″ wheeled duffel: it’s a hard side + duffel style combined

The exterior is hard side on the bottom and the top (both flaps) but then the top top part has soft expandable fabric, similar to a duffel. But when you look at it from the side, it is hard shell on both the top and bottom flaps (if that make sense, if not, look at the photo for reference). This is good for when you overpack, assuming I am not the only one who packs a bag until it’s about to burst.

I choose to get the black not because I love black luggage (actually it’s annoying to find on the belt) but because the inside of this luggage is bright orange which I thought was a nice color pop.

Space-wise, this is a large bag. It’s not oversized, but when fully stuffed can hold as much as a 30” luggage I would imagine. If you fill this to the brim, it could go overweight so be sure to weigh your luggage before heading to the airport.

Durability

This is not necessarily the most trendy looking bag but it’s not ugly either. I would say it’s more to purchase for practicality and durability. If you are an organizational freak like me, the eBags Mother Lode has compartments which I’ll show later that make packing fun and I don’t say that as an exaggeration; I actually love packing!

When you get the luggage there is a little paper inside with two long cables. It explains that these need to be added to the luggage and are important for the stability. I am not sure why it doesn’t ship already added, but regardless, it’s not hard to bend them and put them into their designated spot on the left (soft) side of the bag.

Inside compartments and packing tips

When you open up the luggage you’ll see on the right side there are heavy-duty compartments held on really tightly by strong velcro. You can take these and move them to change the size of the compartment or remove them altogether.

If you own packing cubes, it makes sense to remove this. I use ebags packing cubes most often and have 3 sets actually which is probably overkill, but in my opinion, you just can’t have enough. Without packing cubes, you can keep these compartments which would basically serve the same purpose (except not compress your stuff).

On the left, there is a flap which holds everything on that side down and will compress it when you push it down and strap it. Once you lift it open you’ll see an open soft compartment and a zipper hidden on the bottom. Even though this is the soft side, the fabric is so thick you could still put pretty much anything on this side as the bottom and sides are hardshell, only the top is not.

Overall I’m obsessed with this bag and it’s knocked a few of my other pieces of luggage into storage! You can click here to buy the Mother Lode from eBags and read more reviews.

For more packing hacks you can check out these 17 tips and if you love this bag, you will love my other eBags review of the IT luggage they carry in this article.