Bat-Caddy X4R Remote Control Cart w/ Free Accessory Kit

I have used my bat caddy X4R 4 times now and it has worked flawlessly. I love being able to walk with my arms to the side (especially when going uphill).

The pull pin that holds the anti-tip wheel in was broken when I received the unit. I am using duct tape to hold the pin in from falling out for now. I have called and email Bat Caddy twice but still have not received a replacement pull pin. I guess I will have to buy one at my local hard ware store. If not for that I would have given it a 5 star rating.

Everything works as advertised . I am impressed and so is everyone that sees it. We are from Canada and are winter snowbirds. I have at least 5 people a day that stop me and ask where I got it and how much. I am sure I have already sold several of them. If I owned bat caddy I would have demo days at the courses that the snow birds flock to. They will sell themselves.

I had deliberate for quite some time about purchasing an electric caddy. Glad that I made the right choice for me. The Bat-Caddy x4r is easy to use, light weight, and quite.
I wanted a clean appearance (not the Mars rover look),so I did not install any of the
accessories. Most of them are not well thought out. I will use the rear extension on hilly courses. The remote control is fairly simple, just takes some practice. All in all a very good piece of equipment that will keep me walking the golf courses, but saving me some energy.

My husband is an avid golfer whereas I am more comfortable at the 19th Hole. This past spring he hurt his shoulder and for once started using a pushcart instead of carrying his clubs. When one of his golfing buddies let him borrow the Bat-Caddy X3R, my husband was thrilled and loved it. For his birthday, I decided to surprise him with the upgraded Bat-Caddy X4R. It was unexpected, yet he could not wait to put it together and use it! This has now been used every time my husband goes out on the course.

The only negatives in this review are pretty nit-picky and very easily overcome or adapted to... Most importantly, this is one of few golf purchases that I haven't had even a second of buyers remorse about. It was definitely money well spent! Thanks, In The Hole, for your recommendation.

Complete Review:
Purchased for $794 (seems typical retail on the net) from In the Hole Golf. Shipping and some accessories were included. Accessories included a “score card holder�, an umbrella holder, and a seating assembly. Part 2 will be written after 10 “on course� uses.

There’s nothing unique about my cart except it's named "Casey Caddy Cart". There's plenty of photos on the internet (Bat Caddy XR4), but if you want a personal bag-optional photo of Casey Caddy Cart for your collection, let me know and I’ll be happy to email you one.

Shopping Experience

After painstakingly going through the Internet collecting information on the �best� powered walking cart to buy, Michael from In The Hole Golf helped me through their chat function. My issues were:

o Overall Weight
o Price versus value
o Solidity of construction
o Repair history
o Warranty and repair work
o Ease of use
o What happens if it fails/runs out of battery on the course??

Michael had additional data points I hadn’t considered that were helpful. He also had all the information at his fingertips, which enabled me to comfortably decide to buy on-line “sight unseen�.

The next day, In The Hole Golf advised me via email that there would be a delay in shipping (5-10 days). That’s fine -- as long as I know, I can deal with just about anything.

Wow. Before the “pre-delay� shipping window was even over and the delay waiting began, FedEx showed up with the package. To keep the delivery promise made by their business partner, Batcaddy had FedExed about 75 lbs of freight. They did it so fast that the IHG hadn’t yet been informed it was shipped on the day it arrived to me.

This is how business partners should watch each other back! The sales process, customer service and the “keepin’ o’ the promises� phase are very important to me. These guys did all the right things, at the right times. Both In The Hole Golf and Bat Caddy really impressed me.

Reasons for Buying

o Weight – About average than most electric carts. A lithium battery (lighter) would be great, but they don’t hold same charge.
o Price versus value – The only other cart I really liked, E3 Emotion, was about double the price and didn’t seem to have the supply chain or US presence of BatCaddy.
o Solidity of construction – No returns. The retailer was unaware of many BatCaddy returns, and none on this model.
o Repair history – Few known warranty repairs on any model. To date, 100% of issues on this model were caused by user error and fixed over the phone by the retailer.
o Warranty and repair work – See above. Warranty service repair physically located in US. One year warranty, 180 days on the battery.
o Ease of use – Easy, especially as used without the remote – two buttons and a knob. Bought the remote version as something that “might� be useful, but that seems simple too – at least around the living room.
o What happens if it fails/runs out of battery on the course?? Well, good news is that if you have no power you can “free wheel�, which basically means the engines are not engaged. Bad news is, you’re pushing about 60 pounds plus bag and the handle isn’t a “T�, it’s more of an “L� (i.e. one hand). Lesson: Keep it charged, hope for no failures. Sort of like the first Macintosh portable computer, the MacLuggable. You can do it, but its best avoided.

Initial Positive Impressions

Well packaged, even though it came in the ubiquitous and self destructive cardboard that is used in China. The box had obviously seen some knocks during shipping and the packaging protected the product just fine. The individual pieces were also well protected by individual cardboard compartments and were each plastic and sometimes bubble wrapped. Lots of thought in this process for both product safety and visual impact when opened.

The total box was heavier than I expected, but not crushingly so.

Sure enough – in inch high white letters, Made In China, right on the battery plate. Unusual, as on machine tools that’s generally stamped where you can’t see it easily, almost as an apologetic after thought. Not so on this product! As I “put it together�, I realized why. Someone had their "thinking tuk" on when they made this.

Assembly? Take it out of the box, take off the plastic (there’s none of that brown Chinese protective gunk that is impossible to get off of machine tools!), open two hinges, tighten the knobs, put the clever umbrella/scorecard holder on, plug in the battery and tighten the waterproof seal, secure the cased battery down, put the bag on and bungee cords on, and …. Wait. All done?? Really?

Didn’t even seem fun, it was over it began. Even a thorough reading of the instructions failed to identify any humorous Chinglish phrases. (“Please don’t cross any rails lest suddenness happens!!� is my personal fav.)

The welds all look good, and the silhouette is pleasing to the eye. As a matter of fact, you have to really look when the bag is on the cart to tell it’s anything but a normal pushcart. Everything is understated.
I have a feeling I’m really going to enjoy this cart, and will post “Part 2� of this review after using the cart for 10 rounds.

Initial “Less than Positive� Comments


(Because human nature is to drill down to the less than positive comments, these are far more lengthy than the really need to be. None of them except 2 appear to have the potential to be a “big deal�.)
1. More instruction and a picture as to how to mount the Umbrella and Scorecard holder would have been nice. It actually fits a total of four different ways, but only one way works well. It’s not intuitive. (About 90% of the assembly time was figuring this out.)
2. Only real construction issue I have is the way the main backbone of the frame connects to the bottom section of the cart for use. The fastening device is a machine screw mounted on a large knob. Granted, it’s relatively easy, but that’s gonna wear out or strip in time and it doesn’t look like a self repair for most. This is a real opportunity for improvement. Using a long machine screw at the most stressed (and variable force load bearing) point of a device that will be continually tightened and loosened does not seem to be a good application, unless for some odd reason this is a pre-built failure point.
3. Yeah, for a 60 lb cart I could conceivably end up pushing or pulling someday, it’d have been nice to have a handle I could grab with both hands.
4. Ok… the “Score Card Accessory�? I suppose, provided the score card isn’t too thick. Way I count it, this device holds two balls, a pencil, a score care, and maybe a number of tees. There isn’t room to even hold the remote control, which would seem to be a good idea. On a scale of 1-10, the scorecard holder rates a good, solid “Sucked�.
5. The mechanical connection of the electric power train to the wheels is two plastic pieces that interlock through the wheel hubs to the axle. Looks like any wear (and wear will happen) would escalate rapidly once it began to occur, but time will tell. Again, maybe a pre-built failure point? It would almost make sense, and it’s easily user repairable.
6. Turning radius could be tighter, but hey… we in Boston are masters of the three point turn so I can live with it.

Thanks, hope this was of some help to those considering a purchase.

Bob