Lawn Tractor Yard Cart Review

For a homeowner, having a lawn tractor cart is useful for hauling items around your property, such as dirt, mulch, debris, fertilizer, fire wood, etc. Some may find that a cart with a dump-body is even more useful.

Types Of Yard Carts

There are four basic kinds of pull-behind yard carts - dump carts, utility wagons, foldable carts, and flatbeds. The beds can be made of either poly, metal, wood, or plastic.

Poly Tub

Made of high-impact polyethylene, yard carts with poly tubs are strong and durable, and will last almost indefinitely, provided they are not severely overloaded.

Photo: Amazon

Poly tub carts hold water, which can be good or bad. It's helpful when hauling a load of potted plants or wet mulch across a clean driveway. But when left outside in the rain, they'll fill up the water, and need to be dumped out before use.

Poly vs Plastic

Just like poly tub carts, plastic carts are lightweight, watertight, and strong. But the material is less durable and susceptible to cracking over time, especially if left to sit in direct sunlight.

Steel Bed

Yard carts with steel beds are heavy, susceptible to dents, and they can rust, but hold more weight than other types. If you have a classic or vintage lawn tractor, they'll give you that old school look.

Photo: Amazon

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The Cart We Chose

Being left outside all year round, we chose a poly-bed cart. Ours has a hinged dump body.

When the dump feature needs to be put into use, there is a spring-loaded lift handle on the tub. Lifting the handle releases the catch, letting the tub tilt back for easy loading and unloading.

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Maximum Load

The maximum load weight for dump carts will range from about 300 pounds to more than 1,500 pounds. Adhering to the maximum load weight will prevent damage to the wheels, axles, and bed mounts.

Yard Cart Wheels and Tires

Generally speaking, larger tires roll more easily than smaller tires, and allow you to carry more weight easily.

Our cart has a 300-pound load capacity and hash tubed 15" turf-tread tires on metal rims. Pneumatic tires provide a cushion across the lawn and through bumpy wooded trail.

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Yard cart hookup is easy; pull the cart up to the back of the lawn tractor and attach with a drop pin.

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Sometimes I just use the cart without the lawn tractor. If filled up with just leaves and twigs, it's light enough to move by hand.

While spring leaf cleaning, this was particularly helpful, as I was only going a short distance (25 yards) to dump the leaves.

After-Storm Cleanup

A recent summer storm left branches and leaves all over the front yard. The next day was spent putting the debris into the yard cart, then pulling it around to the wooded area behind the house.