LEVEL8 Top Opening Luggage: 36 Items Packed, Lid Stays Up
I packed 36 clothing items for a 10-day trip into the 28-inch LEVEL8 Top Opening Luggage and still had room for toiletries. Here's how it held up.
The LEVEL8 Top Opening Luggage is worth buying if you travel for a week or more and hate digging through a flat-laid suitcase in a cramped hotel room. I fit 36 separate clothing items for a 10-day trip in the 28-inch model and still had the whole top zip compartment free for toiletries. Buy.
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How this review was made: written from my own video review of this product. Every opinion here is my own, from using it myself.
| Dimensions | 29.5 Γ 17.3 Γ 14.2 in (28-inch size) |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 96L, expands to 105L |
| Listed weight | 12.3 lbs |
| Shell | Polycarbonate, textured, two-tone taupe celadon |
| Handle | Extra-wide, four height adjustments |
| Warranty | Limited lifetime (manufacturing defects) |
Thirty-Six Items. One Suitcase.
I spun it with two fingers and it completed the turn on its own momentum. The LEVEL8 Top Opening Luggage has 360-degree casters that are genuinely smooth, not “smooth for a checked bag” smooth, but spin-it-across-the-room smooth. I noticed it immediately because most large 28-inch bags fight you on airport tile; this one doesn’t.
Look at the colors. It’s kind of like a two-tone taupe. TSA approved combination lock on the side, a grab handle on the front so you can pick it up when you need to. And then the thing that actually sold me: it opens from the top, so you don’t have to lay this all the way down flat.
The Lid Stays Open By Itself
Two straps on either side of the lid hold it up. That’s the whole mechanism, and it’s the feature I’d keep. On most suitcases the top flops down on your hand while you’re loading. This one just stays in place, so I had both hands free the entire time I was packing.
The top-opening flap gets you into the contents without clearing floor space first. In a tight hotel room that matters. You open the flap, grab what you need, close it. No unpacking ritual.
Inside that lid there’s a large zipped area. I didn’t put anything in it during the main pack, which turned out to be the smart move. Toiletries, medicines, delicates, all of it went up there at the end.
The wide handle frees up interior packing space
The extra-wide handle spreads the pull force across the bag instead of yanking one corner. Four height adjustments, so you set it where your arm naturally sits rather than hunching to whatever the bag decided. If you’re tall, that’s not a small thing on a long terminal walk.
The other payoff of a wide handle expandable suitcase is internal. The handle tubing on a lot of bags eats a channel right through the middle of your packing space. This design frees that space back up, which is part of why I got 36 items in.
And the expansion itself. Unzip the expander and you go from 96L to 105L, roughly another two inches of volume. I used it.
What 36 Items Actually Looked Like
Seven pairs of pants, two full-size jackets, five pairs of socks, two pairs of shoes, five pairs of underwear, four undershirts, six waffle knit shirts, and five graphic t-shirts. Thirty-six separate items, packed for a 10-day trip, and I wanted to test the theory rather than just repeat a capacity number off a box.
The shoes were the variable. I put them in the front of the bag, toe down and heel up, so they weren’t sitting on top of my clothes and weren’t getting crushed either. The bag is large enough that you get that variability, which you don’t have in a 24-inch.
Everything went in without compression tricks, no vacuum bags, no rolling so tight the fabric creases. The jackets were the real test; both fit flat without folding the lapels under. When I zipped it closed the top compartment was still empty, meaning the 36-item load didn’t even reach the ceiling of the main cavity. Packing for two on a shared trip is a realistic use case, not a marketing exaggeration.
Interior organization helps here. Zippered storage pockets, side privacy pockets for valuables, compression straps to keep the load from shifting. The lining is RPET fabric, soft against clothes. None of that is exotic, but it’s all present, and the compression straps are what keep 36 items from turning into one shifting mass.
Check today’s price on Amazon βFour Knobs That Keep It Off the Floor
Four knobs on the bottom raise the shell above the ground when you lay it flat. There are matching ones on the side, so when you set it down on its side the shell still doesn’t touch the floor. Those knobs protect the suitcase from scratching on airport tile and hotel carpet grit.
I care about that. I want to make sure it looks good as long as it can look great, and a textured polycarbonate shell hides handling marks better than a glossy one anyway. The shell is meant to absorb impact while staying light. LEVEL8 backs the Adventure line with a limited lifetime warranty on manufacturing defects, which is a longer commitment than most bags in this shape carry.
Where It Sits Against Other Checked Bags
Most large checked bags are clamshells: lay flat, unzip, two halves on the floor. That’s the category default and it’s fine at home. It’s miserable in a hotel room where the only floor space is between the bed and the wall.
Front-opening bags solved part of that, but they usually give you a laptop pocket, not real access to the main compartment. A top-opening design is the rarer answer. On MVP’s sales-rank tracking this one has been moving faster lately than its 90-day average, which tells me more travelers are finding the format than were a few months ago.
No, It Isn’t a Carry-On
This is the 28-inch, the largest size they sell. It gets checked. Every time. I think people see “top opening, quick access” and picture overhead-bin convenience, and that’s not what this is. The quick access is for your hotel room, not the aisle.
The other misread is on weight. The listing says 12.3 lbs empty, but when I had it in hand and on the scale area of my setup it read closer to 23 pounds, and I was measuring it packed-ready rather than bare. Either way, a full 28-inch bag gets near airline weight limits fast. Pack to the limit, not to the volume.
When the Size Works Against You
At 29.5 inches tall this is a two-person-lift bag once it’s loaded with 36 items. Stairs, a walk-up apartment, a small car trunk, a regional jet gate check, those are the moments the 28-inch stops being an advantage.
Short trips are the other mismatch. For a weekend you’re paying a checked-bag fee to move a mostly empty shell. This bag earns its format at a week or longer.
Buy the 28 Only If You Travel Long
Get the 28-inch if your typical trip runs a week or more, or if you’re the one packing for two people. That’s who the 96L-to-105L expansion is for. If most of your travel is three or four nights, a smaller size in the same line gives you the top-opening lid and the wide handle without the bulk penalty.
On color, the two-tone taupe celadon is the one I’d pick again, mostly because it’s distinctive on a carousel and it doesn’t scuff-show the way a dark gloss does. It does exactly what the name says, and the wide handle freeing up interior space is what pushed me from 96L to fitting 36 items with room left over. For week-plus trips, this is the bag I’d check every time, check the current price on Amazon.
Pros
- Top-opening flap gets you into the main compartment without laying the bag flat
- Side straps hold the lid up on their own, so both hands stay free while packing
- Fit 36 clothing items for a 10-day trip with the top compartment still empty
- 360-degree casters spin with fingertip pressure
- Four protective knobs on the bottom and sides keep the shell off the ground
- Wide handle with four height settings, and it frees up interior packing space
Cons
- At 29.5 inches it’s a checked bag only, and heavy enough loaded that you’ll feel it on stairs
- The weight I read in hand ran well above the 12.3 lb listed figure, so watch airline limits
- Oversized for anything shorter than about a week of travel
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the expander zipper still close if the bag is overpacked?
The expander adds roughly two inches of volume, 96L to 105L, and it’s a separate zip from the main closure. Expand first, then pack, rather than packing to bursting and trying to zip the expander after. The compression straps inside are what let you pull the load back down.
How do I clean the textured polycarbonate shell?
Damp cloth and mild soap, then dry it. The texture on this shell is the reason small handling marks don’t show the way they do on gloss. Skip solvents and abrasive pads, which will dull polycarbonate permanently.
What does the limited lifetime warranty actually cover?
Manufacturing defects in materials and workmanship, per LEVEL8. That’s the standard scope, so it covers a zipper or wheel that fails on its own, not airline handling damage or wear from normal use. Airline damage is a claim you file with the carrier, not the brand.
Can TSA open the combination lock without cutting it?
Yes, it’s a TSA-approved combination lock, which means agents have a master key for it. Set your own combination before the first trip rather than leaving it on the factory default. If a bag’s lock isn’t TSA-approved, agents will cut it.
Will the wheels survive rough pavement, not just airport floors?
The 360-degree spinner casters are built for smooth surfaces, and that’s true of every spinner, not just this one. On cobblestone or broken sidewalk, tilt the bag onto two wheels and pull instead of pushing it upright. The wide handle makes that two-wheel pull noticeably easier than a narrow one.
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LEVEL8 Top Opening Luggage
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