Customer Reviews The North Face Rolling Thunder 30"

Bottom line: This bag hauled and protected my expensive motorcycle gear over a long international trip and functioned as designed. Love it. Details: I bought this bag (36") for a trip to India where I needed to carry a lot of motorcycle gear and clothing on a 3 week tour through the mountains. The bag itself went on 10 different jets round trip from the US so it had plenty of airport handling. Overall, it seemed to hold up very well except some abrasion to the outer rubberized coating. On the actual trip, it was hauled in a van so not much abuse or exposure to the elements other than in/out daily at various stopping points where it was thrown around. The airport handling instantly made the bright orange dirty but that is to be expected and adds character in my opinion. The orange is awesome for spotting the bag a long way out on a bag carousel or when they're tossing it into a jet on the tarmac - it's nice to have something that stands out in the sea of black bags. As mentioned earlier, there was some chaffing of the outside rubberized coating that wore through to the fabric in one spot. I think it was partially due to how I had the bag packed but on the other hand I wish it was a little more robust. Basically the toe of a riding boot was putting a pressure on the bag and it rubbed through the coating in that area. I'm not concerned about aesthetics of the patch but that is one thing to consider when the bag does get used in a rough environment: how do you repair damage to the coating if/when it wears through? Perhaps the NF support people can comment on that?

I used this bag for a 10-day trip to South America, and it was a great choice. Very durable and not overly large, unlike those huge hiking backpacks everybody has (which you can also only load/unload through the top, so you have to remove all your stuff if you want to reach something at the bottom). I used vacuum bags to pack everything and even had space left over. The backpack straps are convenient for when you want to wear and not carry the bag. My only complaints: the straps are removable and therefore sometimes become detached when you're trying to put the bag on. There is also no shoulder strap included, so you cannot sling the bag over your shoulder as you would a regular duffel. But I used a removable strap from an older bag and it worked fine.

Recently taken delivery on the Rolling Thunder 22" Bag and it has made 3 trips, well constructed and very light, but seems to be very strong with durable material, the lack of a harder shell material like its predecessor doesn't seem to be bad, the interior is accessed without opening the bag in half so that is a plus access-wise. Good wheel set and handle also seem pretty tough. Time will tell as we still have several trips to go in the next few weeks.

I replaced an old Samsonite 22" rolling suitcase with the Rolling Thunder 22". The exterior dimensions TNF provides matches my Samonsite exactly. However, the Rolling Thunder has tapered sides, meaning the overall volume is much less than a suitcase that is perfectly rectangular. As a result, the Rolling Thunder is smaller than the suitcase I'm replacing. Other than that, the bag seems to be made with high quality... time will tell if it holds up to my ~15 year old Samonite.

Kinda pricey for what you get. Could have added a laptop computer sleeve on the back side for easier storage. Overall stylish and light weight works great for overhead compartments.

Use this as carry on bag for 2-3 day work trips. Previous model of this bag was great. This new one seems cheaper built.

The wheel broke while abroad. The lifetime warranty is really worthless as it is valid in the US only, and requires shipping the luggage, which is expensive, complicated, and not practical.

It looks like a solid bag but the wheel is junk. I have to send the bag in to get fixed. I would not pay full price for this bag. NF is an image, not a reliable supplier for equipment.

The quality on the bag is outstanding, pretty much impossible to break, sturdy zippers, the overall pannel is quite resistant. for me the only downsides are, that there are no handles and huge size

Love the design, quality, size, etc. I would just love for it to have 4 wheels for easy transport. It's quite a hassle to have to pull the big bag from one of the side straps.

I travel frequently (60k miles/yr flights, 100k+miles/yr driving) for work < -- doesn't include personal travel The telescoping handle thus far is excellent. It's smooth, locks well. Pulls out nice and parallel. The wheels do roll well over rough surface. They are protected well enough from baggage handlers. The zippers are also protected well from baggage handlers. The hard side, is a little thin, and doesn't do a great job of really holding its shape. And I think it will crack, with repeated tosses/ impacts. The front/top zippered pocket is pretty much useless if you're packing the main interior The interior volume is excellent, at the cost of the structure rigidity and support. If not stuffed completely full, will fit in CRJ200 and ERJ145 overhead compartments It is/ was a good idea to go over all the the fasteners on the luggage and make sure they are torqued properly, a few were loose and wouldn't have made it back state side.

Oversized and clumsy. No extending handle. It clips your heels as you walk along..? We have some of older NF rolling luggage15 years old. Thousands of miles on w/out incident. They were absolutely the ticket I had hoped this new one would them. It doesn't. I returned it.

Great product, but now I've lost one SPECIALTY screw in the handle making it useless. The only way to have it repaired is to send it to a warrenty facility. I wish northface made parts more available!

Unfortunately smaller and quality not as good as the other 2 I purchased years ago. Think I am going to return sadly!!

Gets easily damage

This is a nice bag, but does not fit in Air Canada's baggage tester - doesn't even fit when unpacked (have tried). The 8.5 inches quoted in the bag's dimensions are off - and do not account for the wheels etc. If this bag were a bit smaller it would be guaranteed to work for carry-on travel, but, as it doesn't actually fit in the testing devices at airports, it's not carry-on guaranteed (sadly).

Agricultural development trips. Hauling equipment. Bag came apart at the seem where soft case meets hard case. "Life time Warrenty" was a gift card $70 short of replacement, plus...the $60 to ship the broken one to them. Miss the old quality driven NF.

The bag I brought has its logo already coming off from the front. I would have liked the bag to be spotless but this was not even one day from buying the bag. The purchase date on this review is wrong as it was cancelled, so I purchased the bag from the Broadway store in NY on 03/12/2021

I bought this bag (30") as a replacement to the large roller Patagonia bag for long term trips and rock climbing trips that I have to fly to. The actual soft part seems very durable and I'm happy about the bright yellow color. I'm sad that the quality seems much worse than Patagonia's quality. The wheels are a hard plastic, the bottom is base is a hard plastic that seems like it could crack easily with a tough throw (re: checked bag loading) and the zipper tabs are plastic. Also wish there was a cloth liner separating the main compartment so I could separate dirty items from clean ones. I don't think I would buy this again sadly.

With this big size it must have a handle to pull. The two sided grips are too close to the shoulders and Cann't be pulled when it is full with heavy gears.

Bought this while traveling to replace an cheap luggage bag. Unfortunately it doesn't lend itself to being a great air travel luggage bag. 3rd use ripped the seam joining the hard bottom to the nylon upper. Also, this bag is so big that if you pack it 3/4 full (which is easy to do on a weekend ski trip / family trip) iit tends to be over the 50 pound limit for "normal," checked luggage. Bottom line: it's a good bag for traveling via car / organizing gear but won't hold up to the rigors of airline travel.

I've really loved this bag, however, a corner seam pulled out, so I sent it to TNF to repair under their 'lifetime' warranty. Apparently, it can't be fixed, so they sent me a gift card for the cost of a new one, but one thing I LOVED about the bag was that it was a beautiful navy and grey, which is no longer available. I really just wanted my bag fixed, not a new one. I wish someone would have communicated with me that they deemed it 'not repairable and given me an option (and to be fair, you select replace if not repairable or return when you send it back, but the associate at the store definitely made it sound like they would communicate with me to let me know my options). Overall, bummed with how this turned out. I now have no bag, a $300 first certificate, and ugly colors to choose from. If I just had the money, I would probably go with a different brand so that I could get a color I actually wanted.

I love the bag! It looks good and works good! My ONLY issues are that screws came loose right away on the handle and it doesn't fit by smaller plane carry on. The screws coming loose is why I ranked this so low. It's upsetting that I paid what I did for this and it had quality issues like that after very little use. I do a lot of week trips with this so it can get bulky for a lot of carry one, but that's not a problem with the bag, just my packing! Bag is very functional. I have no problem fitting what I need for a week in it.

I liked this bag when purchased. We bought two. This bag has not held up for the durability that I expected and read about.

I am an airline pilot and use this bag 20 days/mo. I expected it to hold up for a few years, but one of the wheels came apart after only a few months. Hopefully Noth Face will send me a new set of wheels. The rest of the bag is pretty sturdy and holds up to baggage handlers tossing it around day after day. For the price they better send me some new wheels. My last bag I bought at Ross for $19 and it lasted 3 years before it fell apart. Come on North Face!