Highlander Hauler Duffel 65L review – a functional, fit-for-purpose duffel at a great price

This is a proper duffel bag. No frills, no pretention, not a great deal of charm – just a shell of tarpaulin stitched together with big buckles, burly straps and beastly grab handles. It is what it is – like it or lump it.

Scottish brand Highlander’s mission is to create quality gear available at an accessible price point. I’ve had the pleasure of testing several pieces of Highlander kit and have always been impressed with how solid it all is. This is kit that’s been tested in the notoriously fickle – some would say difficult – conditions of the Scottish Highlands, so it has to be up to scratch. In my experience, it’s a brand that places functionality above flair and, while the components and materials in the more budget-orientated offerings aren’t as fancy as you’d find in a premium Patagonia or Fjällräven product, the gear always does its job.

The Hauler Duffel is the absolute epitome of all this. I was keen to shoulder it for various springtime exploits, testing its functionality and durability when compared to the best duffel bags around today.

First impressions

As a Manchester United fan, I quite like the red colorway, with its black base, handles and print. Pop a United badge on it (and a much bigger price tag) and you could fool people into thinking it was official merchandise. It’s also available in dark grey, black and ranger green. I like that Highlander don’t beat around the bush with their colorway names like some brands. As someone who’s slightly colorblind, I find it frustrating when a backpack’s color is labelled as Safari Dawn or Dread Rising, or similar.

It immediately struck me as a duffle of considerable ruggedness. The little details seen on more premium duffels, like embossed logos and customized zip pulls, are mostly absent here. However, these are often ‘nice to haves’ and stylistic features rather than anything you’d care about when hauling a load of heavy gear into situ. A look under the bonnet reveals compression straps in the main compartment, an innovation I’ve not seen in other duffels. It seems Highlander has only included certain features if it thought it would really make a difference. Function over style.

The zippers are chunky, the stitching is reinforced, the grab handles are meaty, the materials feel robust. It’s just as a duffel should be.

No-nonsense materials

Scotland can be a very wet place (though not as relentlessly often as some would have you believe). Nevertheless, Scottish people have their own word for when its grey, miserable and the rain is coming in more horizontally than vertically. They call this dreich.

So, it’s perhaps no surprise that Highlander has opted for a highly protective tarpaulin shell coated with water-repelling polyurethane. The brand don’t go as far to say it’s totally waterproof but I reckon you’d have a tough time finding conditions that’d penetrate it. So, your belongings will be fine on the hop through the dreich between the car and the club hut, or the dash between Glasgow Central station and Queen Street.

The tarpaulin shell is 500-denier, so should put up with quite a bit of abrasion too. Meanwhile, the base is made from a hefty, tough-as-nails, 600-denier polyester, protecting it against wear and tear.

Storage options

The belly of the beast is the main compartment, which is a huge space for stashing gear. It’s opened via the usual U-shaped zippered top. This has two zippered mesh compartments on its underside, great for storing items you want to keep separate, be that books, headlamps, your wallet or power bank and USB cables. On the top of the lid is a little ID panel for international travel. The main zippers have holes that sync up when placed together – this allowed me to insert a little travel padlock for additional security. No nasty surprises at baggage collection, then, while the ID slot means that even if another passenger has seen fit to buy the Hauler, you'll be able to tell which one's yours.

A particularly nice touch, and one that’s conspicuously absent in many more premium duffels, is the pair of interior compression straps inside the main compartment. These are great for squeezing down items like sleeping bags or bundles of clothes, leaving more space to cram more in.

There’s an additional zippered compartment at one end of the pack, ideal for stashing wet gear and the like, or for stashing the shoulder straps when not in use. Rounding up the storage offer is a small, zippered compartment on one of the sides. This one is well sized for items like pocket guidebooks or other travel documents. Best not put your passport in there though, as the Hauler’s size means it’ll be going in the hold rather than the cabin.

Unlike many duffels, there are no daisy chains around the outside for lashing extra gear to. However, you could always use the grab handles for this purpose if you were really desperate for some lashing.

Solid design with a few nice touches

Half-a-dozen meaty grab handles occupy the perimeter of the duffel – I could grab it in my sleep! The two end handles are horizontal, while two on each side are vertical, so I was able to seize them with both hands and lift it aloft with ease.

There are the usual hand carry straps that come together at the top. A padded handle holds them together with Velcro, while at the same time providing an ergonomic and comfortable surface for the hand to hold. Finally, for a backpack style lift, there are removable, padded shoulder straps too.

The chunky zippers are waterproof and all come with rudimentary pulls for easy manipulation while wearing hiking gloves in winter.

Like all Highlander’s kit, the Hauler Duffel comes with a 282-year warranty – a year for every Munro in the Scottish Highlands. So, when your great-grandkids give the Hauler to their grandkids, there's a good chance it'll still be under warranty. The year 2307… it doesn't bear thinking about.

In the field

I’ve been testing the Hauler Duffel throughout spring and early summer, both for everyday family use and for more adventurous outdoor pursuits. All in all, I found it to be a functional operator that did everything it needed to. It’s a good budget option, though there were a couple of areas where I found it wanting compared to some of the premium competition.

My biggest qualm with the Hauler was regarding its main zippers, which aren’t the smoothest when zipping the top lid back up. It wasn’t an issue while unzipping the bag, but when closing everything up I’d have to pull with so much force that I was worried I might break them. Time will tell whether or not this will end up happening, or whether repeated use will loosen whatever it is that’s making them a bit more of an effort to close up than they should be.

It’s also notably heavier than some of the competition, albeit for a third of the price of many. With this in mind, it’s difficult to complain too much.

I like both the main carry options. It’s as comfortable to backpack carry as you’d expect a duffel to be – meaning that it’s fine for medium distances but you wouldn’t want to be carrying it around all day like a daypack. The straps are noticeably broad, which spreads the weight of the carry, a quality that’s not always the case.

I highly valued the ability to ratchet everything down with the interior compression straps, meaning I could really go to town with cramming stuff in for family camping trips and the like. Another feature of the interior I liked was that you get two zippered mesh compartments in the lid. This simple division stops items from sliding back and forward and getting all bunched up.

All told, this is a solid duffel for those who want to save a few pennies. There are some thoughtful touches but it’s generally functional rather than spectacular – not quite as slick as some of the more premium duffels out there.

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