A cart is roughly six times the heaviest package any parcel network will accept and about the length of a small car, with tires that roll and a body that offers a forklift nothing to grab. That leaves two honest routes. Build it into a handling unit and send it through an LTL terminal, or roll it onto a trailer a driver brought for the job. This page works both, using manufacturer specification sheets and two carrier rules tariffs read on 2026-07-31, and it carries no prices — a cart is quoted by a person, not by a calculator.
A cart is mostly air with a seat on it. Everything downstream of that fact — class, tariff items, equipment at both ends — follows from the cube.
Length, width, height as the cart will actually travel, and weight on a scale — those four numbers run the whole shipment. Manufacturers publish two heights, one with the sun canopy and one without, and the gap between them is over twenty inches on every model below. Hold on to that gap; it comes back later as money.
| Cart | Envelope, canopy on | Curb weight | Cubic feet | Density | Density band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club Car Onward, 2-passenger, flooded lead-acid electric | 91.5 × 48.75 × 71 in | 975 lb | 183.3 | 5.3 lb per cu ft | Class 175 |
| Club Car Onward, 2-passenger, gas | 91.5 × 48.75 × 71 in | 675 lb | 183.3 | 3.7 lb per cu ft | Class 250 |
| Club Car Onward, 4-passenger, lifted, electric | 114 × 49.5 × 80.5 in | 1,125 lb | 262.9 | 4.3 lb per cu ft | Class 175 |
| E-Z-GO Freedom RXV, lithium | 94.5 × 47 × 69.5 in | 662 lb | 178.6 | 3.7 lb per cu ft | Class 250 |
The lightest cart in that table sits in the worst band. A lithium RXV weighs 662 lb against 975 lb for a flooded-battery Onward of almost identical size, and the lead under the seats is the only thing making a cart dense enough to look reasonable to an LTL carrier. Swapping to lithium takes three hundred pounds out of a shipment and makes the freight rating worse, which is not a mistake in the arithmetic — it is what rating by space rather than by weight means.
The published ceilings settle it without argument. Maximum package weight at UPS is 150 lbs, in wording the carrier prints as “UPS packages can weight up to a maximum 150 lbs.”, with maximum package length at 108 inches and maximum length and girth combined at 165 inches, all on its shipping dimensions and weight page read 2026-07-31. FedEx, on its page about oversized items read the same day, treats weight heavier than 150 lbs or a combined length and girth of more than 165 inches as freight instead of a package.
Run a two-passenger Onward against those numbers. Weight, 975 lb against 150. Length plus girth, 331 inches against 165. The only ceiling it clears is bare length, at 91.5 inches against 108, and that single pass buys nothing, because the other two are broken by a factor of six and a factor of two. A four-passenger lifted cart reaches 374 inches of length plus girth and clears nothing at all. Every question about services, packaging technique or box selection stops here.
All three ways move carts every week, and they fail in different places. What separates them is not the truck; it is what has to exist at the two ends of the lane and who is responsible for lifting nine hundred pounds off the ground.
A timber skid under the frame turns a vehicle into a handling unit a forklift can pick, and gets the tires off the deck so nothing rolls when the trailer brakes. Cheapest of the three to build, and it leaves the bodywork exposed to whatever else is riding in that trailer.
Lumber and sheet goods around the cart protect the windshield, the roof struts and the paint from freight loaded beside it. It also adds cube on all six sides and pushes the longest dimension toward tariff thresholds. Whatever the crate measures is what gets rated, not the cart inside it.
A vehicle transporter arrives with ramps or a winch, drives or pulls the cart aboard and straps it through the frame. Nothing is built, no forklift is needed at either end, and the cart travels with fewer neighbors. This is the route when both ends are driveways.
If the LTL route is the one chosen, read who supplies the muscle. Dayton Freight's Item 950, an exception to NMFC Item 568 in its Local and Joint Rules Tariff DYLT 110-AF effective July 27 2026 and read 2026-07-31, puts it on the shipper and the consignee: they furnish the hoists, cranes, winches, jacks, pulleys, blocks and tackle for loading or unloading heavy articles, along with the people to run that equipment, and they carry the responsibility for doing it safely. The same tariff limits what the driver may use to hand trucks, four-wheeled hand carts and pallet jacks supplied by the shipper or consignee. A cart sitting on its own tires in a driveway has nothing in that list that will move it.
Density is arithmetic anybody can do, and Old Dominion's density calculator, read 2026-07-31, publishes the method — length times width times height divided by 1,728 for cubic feet, then total shipment weight divided by cubic feet for density in pounds per cubic foot. That page also notes its calculator now runs the updated thirteen-tier density scale. Old Dominion's page on the classification change, read the same day, dates the shift: on July 19 2025 the classifications in Docket 2025-1 moved from commodity-based to density-based. FedEx Freight publishes the resulting bands on its class calculator, read 2026-07-31, and the three that matter for carts are 2 but less than 4 pounds per cubic foot at class 250, 4 but less than 6 at class 175, and 6 but less than 8 at class 125.
| Cart | Canopy on | Canopy off | Band moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onward 2-passenger, electric | 183.3 cu ft, 5.3 lb per cu ft height 71 in | 128.4 cu ft, 7.6 lb per cu ft height 49.75 in | Class 175 to class 125 |
| Onward 4-passenger, lifted, electric | 262.9 cu ft, 4.3 lb per cu ft height 80.5 in | 178.0 cu ft, 6.3 lb per cu ft height 54.5 in | Class 175 to class 125 |
| Freedom RXV, lithium | 178.6 cu ft, 3.7 lb per cu ft height 69.5 in | 119.5 cu ft, 5.5 lb per cu ft height 46.5 in | Class 250 to class 175 |
The table comes with a caution on either side of it. The roof and its struts still have to travel, laid flat on the deck or packed inside the crate, so the cube does not disappear — flat parts simply stack where a canopy on posts cannot. And the measurement that gets billed is the one taken at the terminal, on the load as it arrives, so send the dimensions of what will actually roll through the door rather than the dimensions of a cart you plan to strip later.
Class and mileage are the part everybody expects. The two provisions below are the part that surprises people, and both are triggered by the shape of a golf cart rather than by anything the shipper chose.
| Provision | What triggers it | What it does beyond the charge |
|---|---|---|
| Overlength articles, Dayton Freight Item 1485 | A shipment containing any article 8 feet or greater in length or width, with the charge stepping up again at 12 feet and at 20 feet | Applies per shipment, on top of everything else the bill of lading attracts |
| Excessive length, AAA Cooper Item 510 | One or more articles equal to or greater than 8 feet, where length is defined as the article's greatest dimension | Shipments containing an article that long are not subject to standard transit times, and the carrier's liability on such articles drops to a fixed rate per pound rather than the cart's value |
| Cubic capacity minimum, AAA Cooper Item 610-600 | 350 cubic feet or 8 linear feet with average density under 3 lb per cubic foot, or 750 cubic feet or 12 linear feet with average density under 6 | Actual weight is replaced by an adjusted weight of six pounds per cubic foot, rated at class 125 to set a minimum linehaul charge |
Measure your cart against the eight-foot line before anything else. A two-passenger Onward at 91.5 inches is seven feet seven and a half — inside by four and a half inches, and outside the moment a crate goes around it. The lifted four-passenger measures 114 inches, which is nine and a half feet before anyone touches it. Crating a short cart is therefore not a free decision: it can add an overlength item, push the shipment off the published transit standard at one of these two carriers, and reduce what the carrier will pay if the cart arrives damaged. That last point is the one to act on. Liability on a long article is settled by weight, not by what the cart is worth, so decide the declared value and the shipping protection question at booking rather than after a forklift meets a body panel.
Club Car's specification pages, read 2026-07-31, list the Onward's electric options as six 8-volt batteries, or lithium packs of 4.0 kWh and 7.0 kWh. E-Z-GO lists the Freedom RXV's lithium pack at 56.7 volts on its own specification page, read the same day. None of that is a consumer-electronics battery, and it is the first thing a freight desk needs to hear about.
Liquid electrolyte and vents, which is why the pack rides upright and why the flooded Onward in the table weighs 975 lb where the lithium RXV weighs 662. Charge it before it travels, clean and tighten the terminals, and isolate the drive system by the procedure in the maker's manual so nothing is live under the straps.
Lighter, sealed, and packaged as a single pack rather than six cases. It makes the cart rate worse, and it changes the questions the carrier asks, so name the chemistry when you book rather than letting a driver discover it on the bill of lading.
A battery traveling out of the vehicle is a separate shipment with its own rules, not a part of the cart. If a pack is coming out, say so up front — the answer for a pack in a crate is different from the answer for a pack bolted under a seat.
Whether any of that makes the movement a regulated one depends on the chemistry and on whether the pack is installed, and that determination belongs on the paperwork before pickup. It matters commercially as well as legally: Dayton Freight's Item 925 states that its published tariffs do not apply to shipments of hazardous materials, regulated materials or hazardous wastes at all, while AAA Cooper's Item 567 accepts hazardous materials under Department of Transportation requirements, refuses hazardous wastes and substances for disposal, and adds a handling charge per shipment. Two carriers, two different answers to the same cart, both read 2026-07-31. Gas carts have their own version of this conversation, since a fuel system that has held gasoline is treated differently from a dry one.
Most golf cart shipments that go wrong go wrong at an address, not in transit. Three published provisions explain why, and all three are worth checking against your two ends before a truck is assigned.
Dayton Freight's Item 1100 says liftgate service cannot be provided when a handling unit weighs 2,000 lb or more, or when the base of the handling unit exceeds 48 inches long by 60 inches wide. A cart's footprint is longer than that before the skid goes under it.
The residential section of the same tariff calls for liftgate service whenever a piece exceeds 50 pounds or the handling units are the kind moved by a lift or pallet jack. Put that next to the liftgate limits above and a driveway delivery of an LTL cart needs a plan that does not involve the truck.
Item 1625 names Country Clubs and Golf Courses in its limited-access list, and AAA Cooper's Item 747 names country clubs and resorts in its restricted access rule. Charges attach in addition to everything else on the bill.
The tariff also spells out what happens when the equipment does not turn up: freight that cannot be delivered sits at the delivering service center, the shipper gets 48 hours of free time to arrange something else, and storage charges start after that. All of those provisions were read on 2026-07-31, and the working answer is to secure a dock, a forklift or a set of ramps at each end before booking, or to pick the transporter route that brings its own. A terminal collection with your own trailer is the third way out, and it is often the quiet one nobody mentions.
We sell United States domestic parcel labels at a checkout, and no combination of settings prices a vehicle there. A cart goes through freight review instead, where somebody prices it against the carrier tariffs by hand and answers with a route as well as a number. Send these six things and the answer arrives in one pass instead of three: the dimensions as the cart will travel, crated or skidded, canopy on or off; the curb weight from the specification sheet or a scale; gas, flooded lead-acid or lithium; both ZIP Codes; what equipment exists at each end, whether that is a dock, a forklift, ramps or nothing; and whether the cart rolls and steers under its own control.
Parts are a different matter and belong in the parcel network. A charger, a controller, a set of wheels or a windshield goes through the calculator in a minute with live rates on screen.
A tariff apiece from two carriers is not the market. Each of them amends its own whenever it likes, and the carrier that ends up under your cart will have different numbers against the same provisions. The items above show how these rules get written, not what your bill will say.
No. UPS publishes a 150 lb package ceiling and a 165-inch length-plus-girth ceiling, and a two-passenger cart weighs 975 lb with a length plus girth of 331 inches. FedEx counts anything heavier than 150 lbs, or over 165 inches of combined length and girth, as freight rather than a package.
Density sets it. Worked from published dimensions and curb weights, the carts on this page land between 3.7 and 5.3 pounds per cubic foot, which falls in the class 250 and class 175 bands of the density scale FedEx Freight publishes. Dropping the canopy moves several of them up a band.
A crate buys protection inside a shared trailer and costs cube, length and a forklift at both ends. Rolling the cart onto a transporter's trailer skips the crate and the forklift and gives up the shared-trailer economics. Both get priced against the lane before a truck is booked, because the equipment at each end usually decides it.
For an ordinary vehicle move the pack stays installed, upright, charged and isolated from the drive system by the manufacturer's own procedure. What changes the booking is chemistry, and whether any battery travels loose. One of the two rules tariffs read for this page excludes hazardous materials from its published rates outright, and the other applies a handling charge and its own refusals.
Not off the back of an LTL trailer unaided. Dayton Freight withholds liftgate service when a handling unit's base exceeds 48 inches by 60 inches, and it lists country clubs and golf courses as limited-access sites. A dock, a forklift, ramps, or a transporter that carries its own is what actually puts the cart on the ground.