Caddytek offers a full line of reasonably priced golf push carts, and the CaddyCruiser ONE is their first four-wheeled model. The CaddyCruiser ONE is the first cart we’ve tested with a suspension on the front axle, which did a great job of keeping the cart rolling smoothly even when we wandered into a gopher-cratered wasteland.
The CaddyCruiser ONE folds extremely flat, which is a big plus as it makes it possible to fit both the cart and a golf bag in the trunk of a small car. The cart unfolds in a jiffy, and has sufficient storage space to fit your entire menagerie of fuzzy animal head covers.
It’s not the flashiest of carts, and the plastic wheels don’t exactly knife through the thick rough, but the CaddyCruiser ONE’s combination of features and functionality make it a solid value.
Pros:
- Folds into a flat and compact shape
- Easy to fold and unfold
- Front axle suspension makes for a smooth roll
Cons:
- Plastic (EVA) wheels don’t roll as easily through the rough
- Ho hum looks
Retail price: $189.00
Availability: Discontinued. Replaced by the Caddytek CaddyCruiser ONE V3
SIZE/WEIGHT
At 16 pounds (as tested), the CaddyCruiser ONE is a little lighter than the average push cart in our tests (compare this to the lightest cart, the Tour Trek Tahoe, at 10.5 lbs., and the heaviest cart, the Sun Mountain Speed Cart V2, at 20 lbs.). The CaddyCruiser ONE is a slim 13.4 inches tall when it’s folded, trailing only the Sun Mountain Micro Cart (12.5 inches tall). This makes for easy storage in the trunk of your car.
EASE OF SET-UP
Assembling the Caddytek CaddyCruiser ONE took 14 minutes, and was simple enough, although the instructions left a little bit to be desired. The manual fails to tell you that when shipped, the axle of each wheel has a little rubber cover on it that needs to be removed before you pop it into the hole. Secondly, unless you read the “Package Contents” part of the manual, it isn’t obvious that the front wheels are a bit smaller than the rear wheels – at least until you install them in unmatched pairs. In any event, solving those problems doesn’t require a PhD from IKEA, and serve as mere bumps in the road.
The CaddyCruiser ONE is deserving of the “ONE” moniker, as it unfolds in a single step. Just put your foot on the front wheels and pull up on the upper part of the cart until the cart clicks into position. Voila, you’re finished! You can further adjust the handle height at that point, but you don’t have to.
Folding the CaddyCruiser back up is a 2-step process: push the release button on the handle, and then push down on the handle. The cart will fold in upon itself and will click into a retaining bracket when complete. The CaddyCruiser’s retaining bracket holds the folded cart together relatively well, and there is less danger of the cart drooping and beginning to unfold when you pick it up with one hand.
ON COURSE IMPRESSIONS
The Caddytek CaddyCruiser ONE has the same EVA plastic tires as the CaddyLite ONE, which don’t roll as smoothly as foam or air tires. The extra effort required to propel the cart isn’t overwhelming, but you’ll notice it when trekking through heavy rough. The advantage of having four wheels is that the cart stays pretty stable on the course. With our CaddyCruiser test cart, we didn’t experience any of the creakiness that we found in the CaddyLite – maybe somebody just did a better job of tightening the nuts and bolts!
- Caddytek doesn’t make much ado about the suspension for the front axle, but we loved it. The “give” that it affords smooths out the ride over bumps or into gopher holes, and helps reduce the jarring that usually occurs when a cart is pushed over concrete curbs.
- The bungee straps for securing a bag to the cart (there are upper and lower straps) are easy to hook together, and keep the bag snugly in place.
- Caddytek uses a foot-activated brake system in its carts. Located just inside the left rear wheel is a pedal. Pressing on the pedal with your foot will activate a spring that inserts a pin into the nearest notch to stop the wheel from rolling. Pressing on the pedal a second time will activate the spring again and release the pin. Where reaching the pedal was awkward in the Caddytek CaddyLite, it’s much more accessible on the CaddyCruiser, due to a different handle angle. There are only nine total notches into which the brake pin can extend, which means that the cart will continue to slide a bit forward or backward before the brake catches it.
- As mentioned above, the wheels are made of solid EVA plastic, so there is no danger of winding up with a flat.
- The handle pivots up or down to fit the height of the user. While a little gauge on the side of the adjustment knob only indicates four handle positions, there are actually more than that (the adjustment knob features a number of gear teeth). At the same time, the accessible angles are somewhat limited. The ridges of the rubber grip on the handle are much nicer than those on the CaddyLite (which were a little rough on the hands).
- The alignment of each the front wheels is adjustable to the extent that you find that the cart is veering in one direction. An Allen wrench is necessary to make these adjustments (it’s included with the cart).
STORAGE/ACCESSORIES
The storage and accessories available on the Caddytek CaddyCruiser ONE include:
- a mesh storage basket suitable for holding head covers, a jacket, six-pack, or any of the other miscellaneous stuff that golfers like to carry around. We initially worried that the open end of the basket might lead to things falling out, but everything seemed to stay inside over the course of our test rounds.
- a small valuables tray with a magnetic lid. The tray wasn’t large enough to fit our “test case” of 2 golf balls, a GPS device (we tried it with a Skycaddie SGXw and a Garmin G6), an iPhone, a set of keys, and a wallet – we were only able to get the lid to close if we excluded the GPS device. The tray has 3 indentations that are meant to fit golf balls, and has a small elastic strap, which seems to be made to secure a phone (an iPhone fit perfectly in it).
- a plastic clip attached to the lid of the valuables tray that is designed to hold down a scorecard and secure a pencil.
- an umbrella mount that holds an umbrella upright to provide you with shelter when it’s raining or if the sun is beating down on you. The umbrella mount quickly screws into a hole on the handle. One nice feature is that there are two knobs that can be used to adjust the angle at which the umbrella is held (one for forward/backward and the other for left/right), resulting in pretty good coverage. The umbrella mount clips on to the cart’s frame for storage and access during play, and stays secure even when the cart is folded.
- a moderately-sized cup/bottle holder that will hold most bottles. The bottom of the cup/bottle holder is nylon webbing, which can be velcroed up or down to keep the cup or bottle snug
- five holes for storing extra tees
- two holes for storing ball markers
- a stencil cut-out for marking a straight line on a ball
STYLE
Four wheel carts are stereotypically less stylish than their three-wheeled cousins, and the CaddyCruiser ONE doesn’t really break from the pack. The bag sits more upright in the CaddyCruiser ONE, giving it more of a stolid look.
The CaddyCruiser is available in black or white. The wheels are black with red trim on both the black model and the white model we purchased (although we note that in Caddytek’s marketing photos, the white model is shown with yellow trim)
VALUE
The Caddytek CaddyCruiser ONE retails for $189, placing it as the third least expensive golf push cart we tested, and generally seems to be available for even less at Amazon, The Golf Warehouse (TGW) TGW and other retailers. At that reasonable price, it comes with features not found on higher priced carts, including the extra storage basket and the suspension on the front axle.
