J. Winter JW Hard Case

[MooseMan]

Greetings,

Does anyone have experience with these types of cases? I know that "flight" is not in its name but are they a good alternative for flight case or are they just good as a hard case so to speak? I knew someone who owned one and it seemed to work for him but I never had the chance to ask him if he has ever traveled with it. I am aware that the case is hard plastic but if the situation comes when I do have to fly, how will my 381 hold up? I am currently looking for a flight case nonetheless but I thought I would ask about these cases as well.

If you have thoughts to share on this case (because you have used it or know someone who has used it) based on travel, do not hesitate to comment!

Cheers

[Tom]

I've had a Winter case.

I liked that they were relatively lightweight and were rather "form fitting" and slim compared to cases from other companies like MTS whose cases are bulky.

Winter cases are hard cases but they are not flight cases. People do fly with them and sometimes get lucky and come out with no issues (and then come to Tubenet and proclaim them to be flight cases) but I wouldn't do it. Although I do like the design of Winter cases, they are not strong enough and don't have appropriate hardware for air travel. The case may withstand a flight or two but the shell WILL crack and the latches will fail plus the aluminum trim on the mating edge will get "sprung" and the case won't ever close right.

The only drawback is that the wheels have a very narrow track and the cases are pretty tippy when rolled.

[MooseMan]

Ok, thank you for the feedback. I thought they weren't going to hold up. Currently, all my traveling that isn't in car is done by bus but I was just wondering for the instances when I am going to have to travel farther. Id rather buy something strong enough for both situations now, rather than buy the J Winter and then sell it in order to buy a flight case when that trip comes.

Cheers

[doublebuzzing]

Speaking of JW hard cases. I have attached a photo here of the one that came with the Cerveny I have. Isn't it odd that on the upper lid of the case there is no padding to prevent the valves from falling up into the case if the (flimsy) single strap holding the tuba down doesn't hold? Do most of the JW cases have more padding on the upper lid? If not, that would be a concern to me.

[Tom]

Much has been said about flight cases before on Tubenet, but here are some highlights.

There are only a couple of cases that are road worthy and can actually serve as flight cases. They are Meinl Weston's aluminum trunk, Walt Johnson's fiberglass cases, Accord's carbon fiber cases, MTS' vault series (never seen one in person but they look pretty good - NOT the regular MTS cases). Otherwise, it's built-to-spec stuff like Anvil cases.

Here are some links for you:

Meinl Weston flight case discussion:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=60450

Walt Johnson flight case discussion (with photos):
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=45106

Accord Cases discussion:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64398&start=48

MTS Vault:
http://www.mtsproducts.com/

Tom "despite all of that I will NOT fly with a tuba"

[Tom]

Speaking of JW hard cases. I have attached a photo here of the one that came with the Cerveny I have. Isn't it odd that on the upper lid of the case there is no padding to prevent the valves from falling up into the case if the (flimsy) single strap holding the tuba down doesn't hold? Do most of the JW cases have more padding on the upper lid? If not, that would be a concern to me.

The lid on mine looked just like that, though I do not recall having impressions of the valve paddles left in the fabric. I don't think it fit that tight. Perhaps you have the wrong model case for that particular model of tuba. Winter does make quite a few different sizes that can appear similar. Mine did have one strap that went across the case. Honestly, most of the time I didn't bother with it and just set the tuba on top of it.

[doublebuzzing]

Speaking of JW hard cases. I have attached a photo here of the one that came with the Cerveny I have. Isn't it odd that on the upper lid of the case there is no padding to prevent the valves from falling up into the case if the (flimsy) single strap holding the tuba down doesn't hold? Do most of the JW cases have more padding on the upper lid? If not, that would be a concern to me.

The lid on mine looked just like that, though I do not recall having impressions of the valve paddles left in the fabric. I don't think it fit that tight. Perhaps you have the wrong model case for that particular model of tuba. Winter does make quite a few different sizes that can appear similar. Mine did have one strap that went across the case. Honestly, most of the time I didn't bother with it and just set the tuba on top of it.

It fits perfectly but the strap holding the tuba down broke in shipping so the tuba wasn't secured inside the case. That's why I'm wondering why there isn't a pad on the lid so that even if the strap lets go, it would still secure the tuba in place.

[Kevin Elliott]

My Miraphone 186 BBb has travelled from California to Ireland and back in a JW hard case. I had it shipped over from California to Dublin so the case was placed inside a custom built wooden crate. I wasn't too worried about how it would handle this journey and there wasn't even a scratch on the case when I took it out of the crate.

Coming back from Dublin to California was without the crate so I adopted a "hope for the best but expect the worst" mindset. To my great relief, everything worked out fine in the end, thanks mainly to the Aer Lingus team (not the case), who were very careful with the horn and didn't even charge me the oversized luggage fee. Would I put this case on another flight? Perhaps but I would definitely be tempting fate!

Tom's earlier assessment of the pros and cons of this case is spot on. The potential hardware failures he describes are very easy to imagine happening if your luck runs out. Since you are looking specifically at flight cases, I would look over the links Tom listed and get one those instead.

Has anyone had any experience with Rouillard Cases (http://www.rouillardcases.com/#!about-us/cee5) up in Canada? I didn't come across a tuba case on their website but they seem to make cases for everything else so why not a tuba flight case?