Probably the most important characteristic of good luggage is durability. We use luggage away from home to carry our precious belongings so if it doesn’t hold up through the trips, it can cause a lot of grievances. So what if there aren’t enough pockets inside a suitcase to keep your things in place? None of that matters if the suitcase breaks mid-trip! While most people do check durability of the luggage shell and zippers, the wheels on rolling luggage are often completely skipped over even though they are the most vulnerable to damage sometimes. If a wheel doesn’t work, the luggage is pretty useless, and therefore many people throw away the whole piece and get a new one. But that’s a huge waste of money and completely unnecessary. With replacement inline skate wheels for luggage quite readily available in some hardware and sports stores as well as online, You just need to remove and replace the damaged wheels with inexpensive new ones.
Note that this is more of a viable option for luggage with inline skate wheels and less so for spinner wheels. If your bag has the latter you have to be extra careful to get the right replacements for spinner wheels and ensure that the old wheels are easily removable. Anyway, you only should consider spinner wheeled luggage if you only go from car to airport to hotel and back where your luggage only has to be wheeled over smooth floors. If you’re going to drag it over pavements and cobblestone streets, then stick to the two-wheeled inline skate types. Even these wheels can get damaged over time. They can shred, stop rolling properly or even crack.
However, the nice thing about most inline skate wheeled luggage is that you can replace the wheels yourself pretty easily. No need to throw the luggage out or ship it to a repair center (and possibly pay for shipping). Luggage skate wheels can be found online, they’re inexpensive, and most come with all the other necessary parts needed to fix them to your bag. Just make sure to measure the diameter and thickness of the old wheels first so that the replacements will actually fit. Generally the closest size that you can find will be fine. Also keep the bearings and axles from the old wheels just in case the new wheels don’t come with them or they don’t quite fit.
Take a look at the instructional video further down this page to see how to replace wheels for luggage. But in the meantime, check out the following popular luggage wheels that are rated highly on Amazon.
This Eric & Leon Set of 2 Luggage Suitcase Replacement Wheels is the most popular choice, as you can select from a few different sizes of wheels from 50mm to 87mm. The smaller wheels are 18mm thick, while the larger ones are 24mm. They all come with 6mm ID ABEC 608zz Bearings and axles and you should check these sizes as well before buying the right package. Each package includes two wheels, two bearings and the appropriate axles, wrenches and washers. Customers love this set because the wheel assembly is high quality and easy to install once you have the old set removed.
If none of the size selections from the above work for your suitcase, check out the Forwardsell Inline Outdoor Skate Replacement Wheels. They’re pretty similar to the Eric and Leon set but with a few more in between sizes. However, the bearings aren’t as high quality.
If the above two picks aren’t suitable, Amazon has a wide selection of replacement luggage inline skate wheels to suit your needs.
How to Replace Luggage Wheels
“Inline Skate Wheels” image by 丁 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons