Do You Own Your Own Golf Cart?

i have a shop smith with tons upon tons of extras and im trying to trade on C-list for a golf cart (hopefully with trailer included). most courses i play at are $35 and under with a cart. if i had my own cart they would only be $15 and under. might even could start playing the $50-$60 courses then lol. i know with electric carts replacing those batteries can get pricey quick but what about gas carts. maintance and care tips? im familiar with cars and working on them but never messed around with golf carts before.

Beter make sure first that the courses you play allow personal carts...

didnt even think about that, but ive seen personal carts at all the places i play before so thats no biggie

I don't see the advantage unless you live and play at a private club. The expense of purchasing, maintaining and transporting the cart would likely negate any monetary benefit. Especially if you get a nice cart. It would take years to break even. I only have experience at private clubs but we were charged yearly and monthly fees to use our own cart. There was no savings but it was nice to be able to keep the clubs on the cart and use it to commute to and from the house to clubhouse in the cart. We kept a minimum of personal items in the cart, all of it golf specific.

a gas cart?   oh geeze.. i'd hate to be paired with you.

really? most our courses use gas carts. u gotta remember i live in MS lol

I don't own my own cart although I wouldn't mind if someone gave me one :) Here you find them all over, and some homes have golf cart gararges attached to their homes. When I was way younger I thought they were for convertibles like MGs or Miatas haha!

im not buying one. im hopefully trading something i dont have room for and cant use for something i will have room for and plan on using 1-2 times a week to play golf with.

Most of those are grandfathered on to the course. Very few places nowadays allow personal carts.

like i said i live in MS and we are very laid back lol. i see people with their own trailors and golf carts at the courses i play at all the time. they arent all old either lol . husbands and wifes with ther bulldog decked out cart and speakers and all that. i was just wondering which cart might be easier to maintain and all that. pro and cons and all

Our course only allows members to bring their own carts and even then, only if they pay the trail fee.    This is still a good deal though if you play a lot of golf because the trail fee is about equivalent to the cart fee for 20 rounds.   We bought our cart a couple of months ago (got hell of a deal on it) and have already covered the cost of the trail fee.  At the rate we are playing, we will have covered the cost of the cart before the year is out.  This is probably why you are seeing several personally owned carts.  But if you are not a member, I would be surprised if they let you bring your own cart.

the main course i play at cost $12 thru the week and $15 for the green fee which is good for all day long. when u wanna ride though its like $13 extra and of course the cart isnt good for all day. if i had my own cart id be playing alot more golf and spending alot less too

Well, even though I haven't owned my cart long enough to help you on the maintenance thing, I can tell you that if you run the batteries down too far on an electric version, you will shorten their lifespan.   The battery meter on my cart tells me, this equates to about 27 holes on our course (which has several good hills to climb).   My Dad has a gas cart and golfs 6 days a week.   I have no idea how often he has to refill it but I do know he doesn't refill it after every round, so you could probably do 36 at least on a gas version..    That might be something you want to take into consideration if you are looking to buy one.

thanks. thats a good point. im still feeling around and trying to get a trade in the works so its not like im really choosing gas over electric. just gotta see who wants to deal

I can tell you its about $100 or so a month to charge. $1800 for new batteries. My club charges $1600 a year for trail fees. About $300-400 for miscellaneous fixes throughout the year. The new batteries are 2-3 years depending on what you get and how often you play. My wife plays 5-6 times a week and I play 4-5 so it was somewhat economical for us as cart fees are $18 per person at our club. The obvious benefit for us is no DUIs as we can drive home on the course. I would personally never want the hassle of hauling it to another club but it does fit well in our situation.

Yes. I agree. But most courses allow personal carts.

Your club charges you this? 100 clams to charge the cart seems a little steep if you're doing it at your house. I have seen batteries for around $600 a set.

Gonna disagree with those figures..   6V golf cart batteries are about $100 apiece, so I don't get the $1800 there.   Most will last 5-6 years if they are properly maintained (water kept to the proper level, not letting them run down to low before recharge and cleaned monthly).   The cost to charge is going to be dependent upon your electric rates (obviously) but we aren't spending anywhere near $100/month to charge ours.