Should we take our own golf cart?

[Updated:  see Buying, Carrying and Using a Cricket Golf Cart]

Whenever we rented RVs, we we would see people using golf carts to get around the campgrounds.  We didn't think much about it, though, until we stayed at a cabin at Fort Wilderness many years later and they wouldn't allow cars in many places.  Instead, we had to rent a golf cart for $48/day.

Having a golf cart would certainly be a luxury, and we wondered how much we would use it.  After all, we have bikes we enjoy riding and we like to get out and walk.  But if you're staying in a campground for more than a few days, it would be nice to have a cart to run up to the store, or just take a drive through the campground at night.  In the larger campgrounds or resorts, I can see where it would really be nice to have one.

Golf carts can be pretty big, though, and I wasn't sure how we would carry one once we bought our motorhome.  We would have a tow vehicle, but there was no apparent place to carry a cart.

Cricket SX-3

At one of the Tampa RV shows, I saw a small, collapsible golf cart called a Cricket.  At first, we thought that a Cricket, measuring about 60" long and 28" high when collapsed, would fit in the basement of the motorhome.  But it won't because the chassis rails are too low.  So I began to wonder if it would fit in the back of a pickup truck.  As it turns out, it will.

Buying something like a Cricket cost a bundle, though, when you add up the cost of the cart and it accessories.  The cart itself is over $3000, and then you have to add a cover (for transport), rails (to load it in the truck), and a top (to keep out the sun).   By the time I priced out what I wanted for a Cricket, it was something over $4700.

Kangacruz - Aspire

While lurking around a forum somewhere, a contributor mentioned something called a Kangacruz.  The Kangacruz has specs very close to those of the Cricket.  I priced the Kangacruz with all of the options I'd want (minus the rails, which were about $200), at about $3200 after you adjust the price for  the U.S. dollar (Kangacruz is sold by a company in Canada).  I'm sure it cost more to ship it, but the same is probably true for the Cricket.  At this point, I'm leaning to the Kangacruz.


Since we plan to spend more than one month every year at Fort Wilderness, we'll probably get a golf cart.  We'll need the ramp (to get it in the truck), a top and the cover so that it'll be covered up when we're transporting it.  But I think we'll be very, very glad we have it.