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 Lighten your load
Theo Boshoff
We have seen powered golf carts on the golf courses across the country, but have you ever seen your travel luggage and briefcase or attaché case wheeling itself along the airport corridors?
Well, apparently Live Luggage has brought out a range of power-assisted luggage that now features a motor that basically drives itself around. Okay, it’s not as if a person can leave it on its own to find its way somewhere; there still needs to be a helping hand from a human to steer it in the right direction. Key, however, is that pulling or pushing heavy luggage around is now much easier and less strenuous.
It took the company five years to develop and refine, but it’s here now. Apparently the company is also recognised as being the first to bring these to market.
The design uses pancake or flat wheel technology and includes an anti-gravity handle that distributes a major part of the total weight of the suitcases over the powered wheels. This increases efficiency and makes it much easier to transport than standard luggage.
The luggage features an intelligent torque control system that powers the wheels when the handle is tilted and is also designed to only supply powered assistance when required.
The built-in tilt sensors only power the wheels when slope gradients are between 15% and 35%. What does this mean? If you let go of the handle, the suitcase won’t run off on its own.
The power to run the luggage is supplied via a rechargeable 12V Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery pack located inside the base of the case.
 There is, unfortunately, a bit of a drawback with these power assisted cases, as you will have to carefully choose what you want to take with on your travels or be prepared to pay the excess luggage fees for about 7.6kg, as this is how much more the case weighs than the standard hard case luggage of similar size.
Live Luggage MD Neil Armstrong believes it’s a small price to pay when a 30kg bag now feels like only 3kg when you lug it around. Tests by the company show that a fully charged suitcase of 32kg can run for approximately 2.7km.
There are three different series of powered assisted luggage available, comprising Classic Series, Hybrid Series and Sports Bag Series.
We are not sure about the pricing as yet, but have been told that the luggage will be available from the Fraser Luggage store in Sandton City, Johannesburg, from this April.
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