Types of golf carts and utility vehicles

While the general class of small, 4 wheeled, multi-passenger vehicles was invented for golf, they've been modified to take on all kinds of other roles. Depending on your needs, you may actually prefer a more specialized vehicle like those described below.

Golf carts
At their most basic, golf carts have a 2-person bench seat, a rack that holds a couple of golf bags, and little else. Most buyers choose to upgrade their carts for comfort, safety, capacity, or performance – here are some of the most popular upgrades.

 

There's really no end to the amount of customization you can do to a golf cart: some buyers who use their cart of everyday transportation choose to trick them out with custom paint jobs, fancy rims, sound systems, and other extras more typical of full-size automobiles.

Most of these extras are available in all the carts described below, so be prepared to talk through a list of customization options when you're choosing any of these vehicles.

Utility vehicles
Utility vehicles are the off-road cousins of golf carts. They have some features of golf carts – bench seats for 2 or 4 people, 4 wheels – but in many other ways are more like all terrain vehicles (ATVs). They sport large, knobby tires for better traction in mud and loose surfaces, higher ground clearance, stronger suspensions to take the pounding of off-road travel, and overall are more suited to outdoor work than other types of golf carts.

For farm work, hunting, and other work applications, utility vehicles top ATVs because of their ability to carry more than one passenger as well as a payload. For cargo hauling, you can choose from flat platforms, beds with solid walls or rails, or even hydraulic dump beds.

Burden carriers
Burden carriers fall somewhere in between golf carts and utility vehicles. They're not designed for the roughest outdoor use like utility vehicles, but they can carry considerably more weight than standard golf carts. They're popular in manufacturing and other industrial use, where they're used as miniature haulers.

Personnel carriers
Personnel carriers are the buses of the golf cart fleet. Typically used for carrying employees around large facilities, they can carry 6 or sometimes 8 passengers comfortably.