I like a good tool bag. Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag is a GREAT tool bag. The reasons are varied but mostly its greatness centers on its flexibility and durability. When people grab a tool bag from… well, wherever they grab them, it’s often with the idea that they’re getting the best they can for the money, and “hopefully” it’ll hold up. The Veto Pro Pac is for people who’ve already gone that route… and failed. It’s for the professional who understands what a tool bag should be, and what it shouldn’t. It’s designed by people who have, frankly, been there, and done that – and it shows.
The Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag comes across as a bag you don’t have to baby. You can throw it, slam it, kick it around – it’ll be fine and so will your tools. And that made us happy. ‘Cause we like to throw and kick things around… and so we begin our review.
Editor’s Note: Check out our best tool bag roundup to see our top picks.
Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag Build Quality
OK, let’s start with the weight. Empty, the Veto Pro Pac LC weighs 6.6 lbs. That’s a lot of weight – about a pound or so more than a standard brick. Now, with that said, what you need to understand is that all that extra weight isn’t there for no reason. The Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag has a weatherproof body fabric that is rated to 1800 denier. That means that the fibers used to make the Veto Pro Pac’s fabric weighs 1.8 kilograms if you took a single thread of it and stretched it out to 9,000 meters.
For contrast a single strand of silk is 1 denier. On top of that the fabric is PVC-impregnated, making it more resistant to abrasion, water, and tearing. Speaking of abrasion, the entire bottom of the case is made of a 3mm thick polypropylene (plastic) which means you can plop this case down in a puddle and it will be fine. It also means that you can jam sharper tools down into it and not worry about them cutting through the bottom and tearing the bag to pieces. The areas of the bag that fasten the material to plastic are secured by Marine brand steel rivets that looked solid to us and were placed on top of doubled-over, double-stitched fabric. With luggage, I’ve learned to look for oversized industrial-strength zippers, and finding them on the Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag made me feel secure that this was yet another area of the bag I didn’t have to baby.
The Interior
If a normal tool bag is a 1 bedroom apartment, the Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag is Donald Trump’s penthouse suite at the 58th floor of Trump Tower. It’s simply an amazing storage solution for any journeyman or tradesman. In fact, we doubt anybody wouldn’t want to have just one since it holds up to 75 tools – if you really know how to pack. The interior is laid out really well. In particular, what we liked was the 4-tiered approach of the bag.
The pockets are intelligently laid out and of enough varying sizes that it’s easy to insert a ton of tools in places where they make sense and fit well. Both sides of the bag are identically appointed, with the same pockets and compartments separated by the center fabric-lined stiff plastic divider. In addition to the open pockets, there are zippered storage compartments both inside and out. In particular, a wide, but shallow pocket exists at the top inside of each side of the bag which seems perfect for reciprocating saw blades and smaller drill bits.
On the front of each zippered cover are two more zippered compartments – a shallow one on top and a medium-depth one just below it. These will be limited if you still want the capability of folding down the panel to convert your tool bag to an open-format, but it’s excellent use of space and the additional material beeps up the bag even further.
The Exterior
I know we started with the interior, but let’s back out to the exterior for a moment. This is what’s known as a closed bag, meaning that you can literally zip it up and all of your tools are protected from the elements and ready to go. When you’re ready to use the bag, you can then unzip it, roll down the flaps, and secure them using the included snaps.
On the outside of one side of the bag is a mounted stainless steel tape measure clip that we loved – it’s absolutely brilliant and worked flawlessly with three brands of tape measures that we tried, including the popular Stanley FatMax tape. The other side of the bag includes three vertical pockets that are perfect for your carpenter’s pencil or a thicker marker. On the same side is a handy bolt snap affixed to a strap that gives you a great place to store electrical tape and/or rolls of Teflon tape.
The handle is made of a durable thick rubber that overmolds the polypropylene structure riveted into the double-thick fabric. I can’t even say it without it sounding tough as nails. The handle contains the Veto Pro Pac logo and is ribbed so your hands can grab it even when oily and not let go.
Normally, I’d wonder at a plastic handle, but once you pick up the tool bag, you’ll know instantly that if this handle breaks you must have fired a sawed-off shotgun at it point-blank. Normal wear, tear and abuse isn’t going to phase it. Neither is dropping it off the back of a truck bed… four or five times. Another nice feature is that the handle is somewhat movable, so it doesn’t force you to find clearance for its 6-1/4″ of height when you store the tool bag.
Testing and Use
We loaded the Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag with as many tools as we could find. In particular, we loved how it could fit a small “Alice” hammer (finishing hammer) into it as well as Speed Squares, chalk lines, and multimeters. It’s not just for hand tools but is flexible enough to handle a very wide assortment of tools, wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, bits, and blades. It’s nearly infinitely configurable and tough enough that we never felt like we had to baby it or do anything other than simply shove our tools into place and pull them out when needed.
The Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag really comes across as a tool bag that would be perfect for the tradesman. It’s small enough that it won’t hold every single tool you own, but why would you want it to? Some of the larger bags are more like tool organizers. Load them down and you will need to be willing to carry around 50-60 pounds of tools around with you – perhaps leaving a larger bag in the back of the truck is more the design.
For the LC, however, this is a bag you can pick and and go with, and it’s something we felt could be just as easily customized for the electrician as the air mechanical professional, carpenter or plumber. We kept looking at it and loading and unloading tools to pick and choose which direction we wanted to go. In the end, I think we just need to grab another bag – something I bet will be the conclusion of many who jump into a really robust portable tool bag storage solution like this.
Conclusion
With a 5-year limited warranty, the Veto Pro Pac Model LC Tool Bag isn’t just tough – it’s got a company that backs up its tough claims. We enjoyed using it, but more than that, we appreciated the durability of the product. It’s nice to have a bag that can be tossed around without concern for the safety of its contents or the bag itself. This is that kind of product. Tool bags come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but it won’t take long to find that when you shop around, the Veto Pro Pac comes across as competitively priced for its quality and intended audience.
You’ll pay much more than the $230 asking price for a decent tool – why not for a tool bag that will keep them organized and safe? We can highly recommend the Veto Pro Pac LC Tool Bag. While the company makes a wide variety of tool bags, we’re betting this one is one of their more popular models. It offers a great product for users who don’t mind paying for quality.
