Sturdy and Lightweight! In-depth Review of SKBs Shallow Rack

When carrying rack-mounted equipment, one of the biggest concerns is…the rack case. Every day I receive inquiries from customers about purchasing rack cases and one of the most common requests is for "a rack case that is as light as possible, but also sturdy”. When it comes to carrying equipment and rack cases, of course we want to keep the weight of the rack case as low as possible.

So today, among the many rack cases available, I will thoroughly review SKB's Shallow Rack, a lightweight and sturdy rack case, by trying it out firsthand!

The following products were selected for this project.

SKB / R2S 2U Rack Case Shallow Rack

First, let's start with the outer box.

This is well packed for a case.

By the way, when you open the box, this looks...

Like this.

It’s wrapped in another bag on the inside. By the way, when opening the box and pulling it out of its packaging, I felt that it is made of resin, so it is very light for a rack case of this size. It also feels sturdy to the touch.

Now, let's open the lid and take a look inside.

The interior is also solidly built.
The rails were riveted to the case body with no rattling.

By the way, there are uneven surfaces at the top and bottom of the interior as I showed you earlier. As can be seen from the outside, this structure allows for stacking the cases of the same depth in the same series. This is a very nice design for those who have the same case or different units of the same series.

Now, let's look at the lid.

The inside of the lid looks like this.

It is a little uneven, but I am concerned about the clearance (depth). So, let's measure it.

The deepest part of the bumpy part is about 6 cm.

From the convex part in the middle, it is about 3.3 cm.

There is a drop of 1 to 2 cm from the sash portion of the case body to the rail portion, so even if there is rack-mounted equipment and there are knobs or connectors on the front, there is sufficient clearance.

Finally, let's look at the details.

There are four rubber feet when placed down flat.
Strength shows no issues.

The catch lock is black to match the color of the case.

By the way, this catch lock is a flip-up type, so it automatically snaps up when twisted loose.

The handle part is easy to hold and firmly attached on both sides.

Incidentally, screws for rack mounting are also included. Since 2U parts (8 pieces in total) are included, you can safely store 2 units of 1U equipment.

How was it? Some may think that rack cases are all the same… but if you look at them carefully, you will see many differences in texture, features, weight, and the feel of each part.

The lightness of SKB's resin case is impressive. In addition, it is not only lightweight, but also has excellent strength and impact resistance, as well as sealability and a high degree of freedom of design by using a molding method called rotational molding (rotomolding method). We highly recommend this rack case to those who want durability while keeping the weight of the case itself down.