Tow a trailer up an incline with cart

[Wild Skies]

For storage purposes and on a weekly basis I would like to tow a relatively light (< 500 lb.) empty aluminum trailer (Aluma 6310H BT) up and down from the backyard of my walk-out basement lot. The lot has gradual incline of about 7'-8' of vertical over a 40' run. The gas cart is a 2009 Yamaha Drive with 3" lift, 12" wheels, 22" tires and has a Madjax rear seat with foot rest, a Madjax Universal trailer hitch would simply be bolted to the footrest.

1. Will the foot rest be beefy enough to handle it?
2. Will there be enough stability at the front of the cart?
3. Will the stock motor have enough torque and will the light weight of the cart hold up over time?

[LVCJ]

For that size trailer and the run, your cart should be fine from a power/stability standpoint. The issue to me, would be the hitch. I would not trust a hitch that just simply attaches to the footrest of the back seat kit. You need to get a hitch that attaches to the frame of the cart and extends out. There has been a thread or two on here discussing this. I will try to find it and post.

[Lochlin]

Eh, with complete respect to the previous poster I think you would be ok. A 500 pound trailer maybe has a tongue weight of what, 100 pounds tops? You can probably lift the tongue with one hand. That's less weight than most of the people who are stepping on the foot rest and it handles those ok.

Now, load the trailer up and it's a different story.

[LVCJ]

This one is for an EZGO but the idea is the same.....
http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...forcement.html

[Wild Skies]

Gents, I appreciate your opinions. If I knew positively that the universal hitch would work without creating problems, I'd prefer that because of cost and ease of installation. However, it undoubtedly would be better if I'd go with the Madjax hitch that attaches directly to the frame. But, by doing so would obviously necessitate an extension to clear the foot rest, does anyone know if a 12" extension is long enough?

[BigShowDuramax]

I made a hitch that attaches to the footrest just like the ones you can buy (except mine was free) and I routinely pull my jon boat loaded with gear and 5x8 trailer up a hill in my yard with no problems at all. My thoughts were similar that the weight of these trailers has got to be less that the weight of the people that would stand on the footrest from time to time.

[Mooncarter]

IDK about the footrest idea. I'm inclined to go LVCJ's route and attach it to the frame. If it were mine I would install a small receiver type hitch from the frame buy a slide in that would extend past the footrest a few inches. No worry about stress on footrest, and you can easily remove/install it in seconds.

[sho305]

With carts generally if the cart will pull it you are ok, if you have it on the floor to get it moving that is pushing the limit. I pulled lot of stuff with my stock motor G9 such as up to 18ft bass boats, hay wagons (empty), small utility trailers loaded, even moved a 19' v8 powered boat a few times but it had difficulty doing it. And this was with 22 tires and a little work on the clutches but not a big spring. Yes its dangerous to go at any speed with too big a load I moved real slow with things that weighed much more than the cart and only on level or near level ground.

The issue is more your seat, some of them are not made to do more than they do. Put it this way, if you could rope your footrest to a tree and take off with the cart on the floor and be entirely confident it would not damage anything, then you are good put a hitch on the footrest. If not you should put a bar to the frame. The second issue is tongue weight and that depends on what you pull, if you can put that weight on it and no issue then you are ok. I hook something heavy on mine and the front tires are nearly off the ground the front goes up and back down. I go really slow. That is a trailer with a jack that can not be lifted by hand. But I welded up a hitch and bolted it to my frame and bumper. If you use your footrest its back more and that leverages more torque on the cart so less weight will push down more. If you can lift trailer by hand likely its fine, just be careful mostly, trailer will jackknife a cart too. Its not that bad if you have traction because carts are rear heavy but in grass it will slide unless you have aggressive tires. If its a trailer large enough to hold the cart or smaller that is no big deal, long as your hitch can handle it. Now I have a clone in the cart and pull anything it will move, which is pretty much the same things because the CVT does not like to go beyond at certain point at zero mph no matter the power you have, and I wont trash it trying. If I gas it and no movement I don't pull it. I also have a cut sheave for lower gearing that helps.

The receivers are a standard size, if you get one on the cart then you can make hitches to slide in to it. The large ones are 2", any 2" tubing should fit it you just have to drill a hole for the pin and put a ball or whatever on the other end. If you did that then you could make one for with and without the seat, you could make a bracket that hooked to the footrest also that was right on the hitch. Even the smaller car size may work fine you are not going to be pulling that much anyway. Mine only has a ball and a hole for garden stuff, its just a 3/8 plate with brackets to mount it.

[icyveins]

just remember the drive has a lot of leverage hanging out over the rear axle making the steer really lite with any sort of weight on the rear.

[SandbaggerYDRA]

I just wanted to add that consideration needs to be given to the ability to stop. In most cases the cart has enough power to pull something heavy, but the stock braking system may not be enough to stop safely.