The Bowens Delux Kit Bag: Mod

If any of you have the bought yourself a brand new Bowens Delux Kit bag then you have my deepest sympathy. I believe that the newer version of the bag may be an improved model, I don't know for sure, but if like me you have an old version be prepared for it to be completely useless in it's current state. For the amount of money it's sold for - its pretty upsetting. Thankfully mine wasn't bought new....

My Bowens kit bag, designed for carrying lighting equipment, is made to standard that allowed it to fall apart within the first few outings. If like me you don't like to give up on these things then please read on to discover how I bodge modded mine to make it more acceptable.
---

The first problem with the bags is that they're aren't made with much structural support, especially around the wheels (see below). This tends to mean the fall off (as they are attached to material rather than a hard surface with screws rather than nuts and bolts). Eventually this leads to the wheels wearing away in a manner that causes the bag to wobble uncontrollably when it's being wheeled.



The first task then is to add structure and sturdiness to the bag. Bowens quite happily replaced the wheels for my bag, twice, so the company did well on this front. But as you can see in the picture below the support on the rear end of the bag is a petty sad looking piece of flimsy plywood. After taking this out I replaced it with maple 9 ply.



At the same time I also layered the bottom of the bag with ply board. To support the corners I took a two pieces of bent aluminum and placed one on the inside and one on the outside - thus giving the wheels something solid to bolt onto.

Remember to cut the bolts on the bottom of the bag so that the ends don't grind on the floor, or worse, into the wheel. You will also need to re-drill the holes in the Bowens wheel brackets unless you have a larger bit of aluminum.

And there you have it. A very simple, very ugly bodge/mod of the Bowens lighting bag.