The Squeakiest Wheel Gets Oiled

The above was one of my grandmother's favorite sayings. One of my biggest flight attendant/pilot pet peeves is loud, squeaky roller board wheels. There's no reason to have inoperative wheels that are louder in the terminal than the ever annoying, constantly playing TSA announcement "unattended baggage will be removed immediately for inspection and may be damaged or destroyed".

And I was guilty of said wheels. They were loud. I've had my bag for three years and these are my second set of wheels; they used to roll beautifully. I have roller blade wheels and for about two and half years, they functioned perfectly. In the last few trips, I've noticed my bag being a bit harder to drag and noisy. At first, I didn't even know the sound was coming from my bag! When I got off my last trip (ps - I just worked two trips in a row, which is something I haven't done since September!) and my dad took a look at them. The bearings had rusted a bit, so he cleaned them up and WD-40 - ed it up! He claims they're now all ready to go. I'm hoping to get another year or two out of my roller but I'm ready for a new tote. Tote #3.