Last Updated on November 16, 2020 by Lisa Vargas
The L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag is an amazing and affordable bag that brings lots of features to the table, which not compromising quality and integrity. L.A. Police Gear is a company that is known as a one-stop-shop for all things police, military, camping, survival, and miscellaneous everyday carry gear!
LA Police Gear was founded in 2001 by Los Angeles area police officers with the mission of bringing awesome deals to law enforcement officers, but now anyone can place orders, no matter what your profession is.
This company carries other brands besides its own including my favorite, 5.11. Tactical, Merrell, Streamlight, and Under Armour just to name a few.
Today we are going to look at one of their more economical bags and show you why we liked it so much. We will look at comfortability, durability, zippers, buckles, and stitching, and water resistance and then give you our final opinion.
Just a quick note, at the time of writing this post, this bag was sold out and now we’ve noticed it’s back but only in the maroon color. I’m not sure when they will have the other colors back in stock but you might have to keep checking back. You can get that bag at either L.A. Police Gear or you can try Amazon as well.
L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag
Editors Comments: The Jumbo Bail Out Bag is perfect if you’re prepping on a budget. It’s got a ton of pockets, is durable for the price, and makes it super simple to organize all of your gear.
Note: As I write this, this bag only comes in Maroon right now.
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- Capacity: 18 L
- Dimension: 20″ x 11″ x 15″; Main Compartment: 16″ x 5.5″ x 13″
- Pockets: 12 exterior pockets, 7 interior pockets
- Hydration: End pockets proved useful for 16oz. water bottles.
- Material: 600D Polyester with PVC Coating
- Manufacturer: L.A. Police Gear
Bottom Line: A budget-friendly, durable bag loaded with external pockets for organization.
Pros
- Had several outside pockets to fit extra gear into
- 30% larger than the original version
- Tight-grabbing velcro on the outside pocket to securely keep items locked down
- Very well made for the price range
Cons
- Smaller than some other bug out bags on the market
- The plastic swivels on the shoulder strap can sometimes squeak
- If you overstuff it the bag can lose its balance and fall over.
Summary
L.A. Police Gear is known for making great tactical bags for under $100 price point. There are several features that make the L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag a great, economical bug out bag if you are prepping on a budget.
For starters, you will notice right away that it has several outside pockets. This allows you to put walkie talkies, survival tools, and other important items on the outside so that you can easily access them.
On the inside, the bag has seven more pockets with a center divider that helps to organize your gear for easy access. This is called the “Jumbo” bag because they had an earlier version of this bag which was 30% smaller than the newer version.
It also has a nice, wide removable strap which always comes in handy because it gives you a few different carrying options. This bag also contains a pocket inside for a Nalgene water bottle which is a nice organization feature to have in a bug out bag.
All of L.A. Police Gear’s tactical backpacks are constructed from reinforced materials such as nylon and polyester to extend their lifetime. Many have a water-repellent coating, so your gear and supplies stay as dry as possible. They’re made for the roughest conditions and most difficult trials while remaining lightweight and easy to carry.
Read The Full Comparison Review: Best Bug Out Bag For SHTF
Our Analysis, Comparisons & Test Results
performance comparison
The L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag wasn’t expected to go head to head with some of the other bags that we tested because it was in a lower price range. What we aimed to do is figure out if it would work well enough for a bug out bag and hold up like we needed it to.
Since this bag is smaller in capacity, it will be easier to carry around with you using either the drag handles or the shoulder strap. Because of its smaller size, you’ll also need to think about how you are going to use this. We got about 2 days worth of supplies in this bag to feel comfortable, but anything more than that just wouldn’t fit.
Our supplies included a 3600 calorie ration bar, flashlight, freeze-dried food backpacking meal (3) stormproof matches, Wetfire cubes, extra t-shirt and socks, small first aid kit, handsaw, water packets (8) water purifier, multi-tool, tactical pen, and a few other essential items.
I was able to organize them all pretty well because of the fact there are several external pockets on this bag. It can be a little tricky though because when you start packing this bag, you need to balance it out properly because of the way it’s shaped, it can topple over pretty easily. Not that this is a crucial problem, it just makes it a little annoying.
Read Full Comparison Review: Best Bug Out Bag For SHTF
Comfort And Fit
When it comes to comfort and fit, we gave this bag an 9. Since it isn’t designed to be worn like a backpack, the most important thing in this category came to the ability to carry it comfortably by the grab handles and shoulder strap.
The Jumbo Gear Bag has a nice, wide, comfortable removable shoulder strap for carrying. We didn’t have any complaints when using it in our testing. The hook and loop carry handles are padded for comfort as well, which we really thought was impressive in such a cheaper price-point bag.
Durability
We loved the durability of this bag and gave it an 8 out of 10 on our rating scale. Yes. I admit it’s not as durable as some of the other bags we have look at, but you have to consider the price point.
So therefore I must rephrase and say that for its price point, we were pleasantly surprised at the durable nature of this bag.
The Jumbo Bail Out Bag also has a unique polyester lining to protect your delicate items from scratching. This was a nice feature that made us little a little safer when putting things like a compass, eye glasses, and a signaling mirror in the bag.
There’s not too much that we didn’t like about this bag when it came to durability at this this price point level. You cant’ complain when you buy a bag under $50 and turns out to be a little bit lesser of a bag then some of the more expensive options on the market.
Zippers, buckles, and stitching
We gave the L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag a 6 out of 10 when it came to the zipper, buckles, and stitching category.
We just weren’t impressed with the zippers and were a little concerned that they would be the first thing to fail on this bag if anything goes wrong.
The zippers feel a little weak because they don’t move as freely as they should. I was feeling like I might break them if I wasn’t careful. So if you’re opening and closing the zippers all of the time, it could wear faster than usual due to the rigidity in my opinion.
With that said, these zippers are metal but they are treated with plasticoat so they look like plastic but they really aren’t. The zippers all have paracord pulls on them which makes it easier to locate and open the bag.
The top has only one zipper which seems to limit the size of the top opening and made it a little harder to reach for items you might need to get to in a hurry.
One other thing that I noticed on this bag is its super heavy-duty velcro closures. These probably help keep your gear in their place better than the zippers do! This is something that comes in handy and made me feel a lot safer with putting some of my smaller gear into.
Storage Design (Pockets, MOLLE)
When it came to storage design, the L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag has a lot to boast about due to its many organization pockets on the outside and inside of this bag.
When we counted the pockets on this bag, it had 12 exterior pockets, 7 interior pockets, and 2 exterior hidden hook and loop closure pockets that would be a great place to put store a weapon. It even had an inner mag pocket where you could store your AR15 30 mag.
The inner compartment of this bag is nice because it can fit a 15″ laptop if that’s something that you wanted to carry around with you. Now, depending on the situation, a laptop might not be the smartest use of the space, but if you were going to use this bag for something else like running around town, or going back and forth to the office, it’s nice to know you can fit a laptop in it.
Within the main compartment, it has a removable center divider which comes in handy if you feel the need to separate some of your items. I’ve always found it nice to be able to separate my clothes from my gear with this removable center divider. I’ve seen a lot more bags that seem to have this feature, which is great!
To add to that, the center divider has two slip pockets on one side and the reverse side is covered in loop backing.
The only drawback in regards to the pockets is I found that my 32 oz. Nalgene bottle wouldn’t fit into the cinchable water holders on the ends of the bag, but it will fit into one of the large side pouches if you leave the top sticking up out of the zippers.
Water Resistance
This bag doesn’t have as thick of material as some of the others so I would highly recommend you coast this bag with some weather-resistant coating spray.
At the same time, we didn’t expect this bag to be anything super fancy when it came to water resistance.
I wouldn’t carry this bag out in a heavy rain storm, to say the least, but I’m sure it could resist some light rain. Keep in mind that most bags aren’t waterproof anyhow, so don’t worry that this one isn’t either.
I always tell people that if they are super concerned with the bag and contents inside getting wet, bring with them a large, black garbage bag that you can place the bag inside of. That’s the best advice I can give.
Our Final Verdict
The L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag did a great job of providing what we wanted in a bug out bag. Because it’s quite a bit smaller than some of the other bags on the market, you’re only going to be able to use this as a 48-hour bag perhaps, so don’t expect to pack it for a week.
Although it is 30% larger than the previous Bail Out Bag from L.A. Police Gear, it still only has an 18L capacity to hold what you need to get buy. I personally would use this bag in my car or even as a get home bag.
conclusion
Final Thoughts
The L.A. Police Gear Jumbo Bail Out Bag is a fantastic find for all of you out there who are prepping on a budget. I personally wouldn’t go with anything else if I wanted something cheap. You can’t get much better in terms of quality at this price than this bag.
Read The Full Comparison Review: Best Bug Out Bag For SHTF
If it’s good enough for law enforcement then it’s probably good enough for you!