> are there ANY horror stories out there about
>how some guy used a Pelican 1650 and it arrived destroyed, crushed, the
>contents mangled, etc?
The case is quite resilient. So far the only physical damage to the CASE I
have heard about is when someone used locks on the case. Most locks will
not hang correctly from the case, and the lock often sticks out and gets
jammed against something and breaks off the holes/corner. But the rest of
the case remains in tact. But with TSA rules these days, locks should not
be used anyway.
Now equipment breakage is another problem. Here are the 2 main reasons (I
think) that people have had damaged equipment using the Pelican (or any
other case for that matter):
- The packing foam was jammed against the main tuning knob or other
protrusions from the radio. If you drop the case, where does all the force
get placed? On the protrusion... This was very common with people
shipping FT 1000 MPs, where their main tuning knob got smashed in. The
packing foam should only come in contact with the CHASIS of the equipment.
Take a look at the foam that comes with any piece of equipment you buy. The
foam does NOT contact any of the knobs.
- Make sure there is enough foam, and it is a high enough density. Packing
a 30-50 lb piece of equipment requires foam that is very dense - I.e. when
you squeeze it with your fingers, it's somewhat hard to squeeze, and you
cannot compress it very far. For a large piece of ham equipment, the
Pick-n-Pluck foam that Pelican sells you is not dense enough.
FYI: the ASA packing guidelines suggest 2" of foam. Sometimes there may not
be enough room for 2 " in all dimensions. This occurs with the MP, and with
the ACOM 1000 I use. But I have not had (nor heard of) a single failure
when I adhered to items 1 & 2.
Kenny K2KW
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