Upgrade your Pelican
I initially swapped the latches on one of my Pelican 1535 Air cases with TSA locking latches for the times I need to check it for a flight. It’s not so much for security as the general public has access to the TSA keys. And thieves are thieves. I’ve seen first hand that the stock latches were able to come unlatched from an impact and with how bags are handled at airports there’s some risk. I’ve also had some of the stock latches break in standard daily use.
Sometimes, I would put cable ties on the cases and a toss few extra inside with a note asking TSA to (hopefully) replace them because putting TSA approved padlocks on was annoying and I picked up my case from the baggage carousel with them missing.
The push button action on the TSA latches gave peace of mind in daily use since they require two actions to open them; depress the center button and lift to open. Additionally, it is much quieter to open/close which has been great when I need to access a case on a set with sound rolling. When I realized they made these push button latches without the locking mechanism, I swapped them out on my other cases.
It’s a quick and easy procedure. All you need is a hammer and pin punch like this and it can be done in 5 minutes. I’ve seen others have success with a hammerless spring punch like this.
Newer 1535 and other model Pelican Air cases now come with the push button latches.
