The Best Garden Carts for Hauling Heavy Loads So You Don’t Have To

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If you’ve ever struggled to push an overloaded wheelbarrow across your yard, you’ll understand the appeal of a garden cart. They serve a similar role, allowing you to easily move dirt, debris, and other materials around outside, but they’re mounted on four wheels and more stable. Additionally, many garden carts have high weight capacities than wheelbarrows, so you can move more material in less time.

There are several types of garden carts available today, including both manual pull options and models that you tow behind a lawn tractor or ATV. No matter how big your yard may be or what you plan to haul, the right garden cart makes your job significantly easier. Read on for recommendations on the best garden carts the market has to offer, plus advice on what to consider before you shop.

Looking for more ways to tackle yard work? Check out our stories on the best self-propelled lawn mowers, the best lawn dethatchers, and the best gardening tools.

The Best Garden Carts

• Best Overall: Gorilla Carts Heavy-Duty Poly Yard Garden Cart

• Best Budget: Gorilla Carts GCR-4 Poly Yard Cart

• Best Metal: YARDSAM Heavy Duty Steel Garden Cart

• Best Heavy-Duty: Agri-Fab Tow-Behind Garden Cart

• Best for Garden: Gorilla Carts Poly Garden Garden Cart

What to Consider

There are a few things to consider when selecting a garden cart. First, you’ll need to decide between a manual model, which you have to pull yourself, or a tow-behind model, which hooks up to a lawn tractor. While less common, there are also convertible models, which can be used in either capacity, and self-propelled models that are battery-powered.

Another important consideration is the garden cart’s maximum weight capacity. This can range anywhere from 100 pounds to 1,200 pounds or more, but make sure to take your own abilities into account, especially if opting for a manual design. The cart may be able to hold 800 pounds, but that won’t do you much good if you can’t move it across your lawn.

Finally, it’s beneficial to look at the cart's materials. The beds of garden carts are commonly made from either steel or polyethylene, often called poly. The former may be more durable in the long-run, but polyethylene won’t rust if it’s left outside in inclement weather.

How We Selected

To find the best garden carts for every yard, we researched top-rated models from popular brands like Gorilla Carts, Agri-Fab, Polar, and more. We evaluated products based on their size, weight capacity, materials, and cost, and we read dozens of user reviews to get an idea how each product performs in different settings. We aimed to select the best products for a variety of users, including garden carts of different styles, sizes, and prices. Also, every garden cart we cover has an average customer rating of 4 stars or more.

Heavy-Duty Poly Yard Garden Cart

Gorilla Carts is arguably the best-known garden cart brand, and its products have a reputation for being durable and easy to use. This midsize garden cart is ideal for a wide variety of applications—it has a 1,200 pound capacity in its 7-cubic-foot poly bed, and its convertible design can be pulled by hand or hooked up to most lawn tractors or ATVs.

This garden cart is supported by four 13-inch pneumatic tires, and it offers superior maneuverability and ground clearance. It also has the brand’s patented dumping feature for quick emptying, and its tubular metal frame can stand up to years of use.

GCR-4 Poly Yard Cart

Larger garden carts can be fairly pricey, but this small 4-cubic-foot model from Gorilla Carts won’t put a dent in your wallet. It has a more compact design than many garden carts, featuring a low profile and just two wheels, but it can still hold up to 300 pounds of materials.

You have the option to push or pull it, and its 10-inch pneumatic tires and low center of gravity make it easy to move over rough terrain. The poly bed has an impact-resistant design that holds up to rocks and other heavy materials, and the cart’s handle even folds down for easy storage.

Heavy Duty Steel Garden Cart

If you’re looking for a garden cart that’s made of metal, the Yardsam Garden Cart has a metal construction. There are steel mesh panels on all four sides, as well as on the bottom, plus it comes with a wagon liner and plastic mat that give you more versatility during use.

There are side handles for easy lifting, and the sides of the cart can be removed, transforming it into a flatbed. This garden cart is mounted on 10-inch pneumatic tires. It has a 400-pound capacity, but it can be somewhat challenging to dump if you load too much into it.

Tow-Behind Garden Cart

For your most challenging tasks, you’ll want a garden cart like this tow-behind option from Agri-Fab. The cart has a universal hitch that attaches to any brand of lawn tractor, and its steel bed has a 12-cubic-foot capacity that can hold up to 750 pounds at a time.

The durable garden cart is mounted on large 16-inch pneumatic tires for excellent ground clearance, and it has a fantastic foot-operated dumping lever. The bed and frame feature a scratch-resistant powder-coated finish, and the wheel bearings have grease zerks for easy maintenance and long life.

Poly Garden Cart

The Craftsman Poly Garden Cart is a popular tow-behind model with a universal hitch that attaches to any brand of lawn tractor or ATV. It has a 10-cubic-foot poly bed that can hold up to 350 pounds at a time, and it’s mounted on 14-inch pneumatic tires that easily roll over any terrain.

When you need to empty this cart, simply press the easy-release dump lever with your foot, and the cart takes care of the rest. It has a steel frame with scratch-resistant paint, and the poly bed resists rusting and requires very little maintenance to keep it in top shape.

Poly Garden Garden Cart

You can easily transport potted plants, mulch, and soil with this garden cart from Gorilla Carts. It’s not quite as large or heavy-duty as other options from the brand, but it can still hold up to 600 pounds in its 36 by 20–inch poly bed.

Additionally, the cart only weighs 32 pounds and is easy to maneuver, plus it has Gorilla’s patented dump feature. The cart comes in both green and black finishes, and it’s an affordable option for smaller applications.

8-Cubic-Foot Poly Garden Cart

This garden cart from John Deere has a convertible design, meaning it can either be pulled by hand or hooked up to a lawn tractor, and switching between the two configurations doesn't require tools.

Highlights include a universal hitch that attaches to any brand of tractor, and its 8-cubic-foot bed can hold up to 350 pounds. There's also a durable poly bed and scratch-resistant powder-coated steel frame, and its knobby tread tires easily roll over uneven ground. When it’s time to empty your load, the cart has a single lever dump mechanism for one-handed operation.

10-Cubic-Foot Poly Garden Cart

You’ll never have to worry about inflating the tires on the Polar garden cart, as they’re made from solid rubber. This model has a design that’s somewhat of a hybrid between a wheelbarrow and a garden cart—it has two large 20-inch spoked wheels and a 10-cubic-foot bed made from impact-resistant polyethylene.

It can hold up to 400 pounds, and it’s durable enough to haul dirt, mulch, rocks, firewood, and more. Plus, the bed is lower to the ground than many carts or wheelbarrows, giving it superior balance and ensuring you don’t have to worry about tipping it over. Another big plus is that it comes with a 5-year warranty.

Tilt Garden Truck

The Rubbermaid tilt garden truck can hold up to a ½ cubic yard of debris, making it a top choice for commercial applications. (It’s also available in 1- and ¾-cubic-yard models.)

The large cart is made from recycled resin, and it can hold up to 450 pounds at a time. It's designed to fit through commercial doorways and onto elevators, with large handles that make them easy to maneuver. However, because of the small wheels and low clearance, these kind of garden carts aren't ideal for yard work—they’re mostly intended to be used to collect trash or recycling inside large commercial buildings.

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