Makita launched a new 18V X2 cordless wheelbarrow overseas, and it’s been given a major upgrade – a lifting function.
The new Makita cordless wheelbarrow features a brushless motor, 4 wheels, electronic lift, retractable guards, and a neutral mode for manual pushing.
It has a max load capacity at 300 kg (~661 lbs) on relatively flat ground, and 180 kg (~397 lbs) on inclines from 3 to 12°.
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There are 3 speed settings from 1.5 to 5 km/hr (~3.1 mph). It has a max range of 7.2 km (~4.5 miles) when traveling on flat ground with the lights off and carrying a max load at its max speed. Reverse speed is 1 km/hr (~0.62 mph)
There are headlights in the front, for lighting up your path.
The side rails are retractable for easier loading.
The cart requires 2x 18V Li-ion batteries to operate, but you can load it with 4x to achieve the max travel distance without having to change out batteries.
Makita says the lifting mechanism can be raised from 475 mm (~18.7 inches) to 1020mm (~40.2 inches).
Its rear axle can tilt, helping to “keep front wheels on the ground for reliable traction.”
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The wheelbarrow comes with black all-terrain tires that are suited for use on lawns and pavement. Optional grey tires are also available, for use on industrial floors where black tires might leave more marks.
Makita’s sales flyer shows the cordless wheelbarrow equipped with a plastic tub, and suggests the lifting mechanism can be used for auto-dumping its contents.
The 18V X2 brushless wheelbarrow is now available overseas. USA pricing and availability details are not yet available.
Discussion
Makita has a cordless wheelbarrow – model XUC01X1 in the USA, currently $1199.
They added a fourth wheel and lifting mechanism, and a quite bit of polish from the looks of it.
I am unsure about whether to consider the new brushless wheelbarrow an upgrade, or if it’s a completely new product.
One thing that’s for certain – it looks fantastic.
As an aside, would you consider this a wheelbarrow, or a utility cart?
Nate
I’ve certainly never heard of a wheelbarrow with two front wheels, that’s a cart to me.
It’s also pretty sweet. I just made a range extender for my mom’s mobility scooter that takes 18v packs since I have so many of them around. And of course Ego recently released a dirtbike and stuff. It’s remarkable how much energy is in these things, I love that we’re seeing more mobility applications drawing on commodity lithium packs.
Bonnie
I’ve used a lot of wheelbarrows with two tires in the front. They’re great for heavy loads over more even terrain where you don’t need the extra maneuverability of a single wheel. Of course, those didn’t have two more wheels in the back.
If it’s got a tub I’d call this a wheelbarrow, if it’s just the flat deck I’d call it a cart.
Lance
The main issue for most people is, how much does it cost? Their existing wheelbarrow isn’t cheap and not overly attractive to me. This thing looks much more useful, but also more expensive.
Jared
That looks significantly more versatile that the old one. More sophisticated too. It wouldn’t surprise me if the retail price just doubled.
If there was ever a product where the ability to run compact batteries didn’t matter it’s this one – which begs the question of why it isn’t an XGT product.
ITCD
Perhaps an XGT might pop up in the future? It probably also helps that LXT is well ingrained in the NA market, they’ve got a lot more of those batteries already out and about than XGT just by virtue of length of availability, to say nothing of cost.
I’ve seen a bunch of LXT people banging that drum of LXT is dead now, apparently not quite yet.
Lance
18×2 is the same voltage as XGT, but with more battery cells. An XGT version would be as simple as changing the battery mount.
Chris
Wonder if I could use this to haul my garbage cans down to the road(1/2 mile each way)?
Saulac
Getting garbage can onto the platform would be an issue most people. Note the usage in the demo. It is to move and lift multiple lighter things that you can manually put on the platform, which is not that low to the ground. This is not what most people need to do at home. Most often people struggle with one or few things that they unable to lift manually of the ground. And for those, this won’t help.
Jon C Evans
Get a Vevor garage electric lift to raise the garbage can up and down. I like the idea of a gizmo (robot) to take them to the street automatically, and on a pre-set schedule.
Wayne R.
I don’t know why someone hasn’t yet created a gizmo that’ll do that itself, take ’em down to the street, then go back and get them again. All on schedule too.
ITCD
A device that could put them out on schedule and bring them back to storage right after they’re emptied would sell like hotcakes in some HOA communities.
Munklepunk
Children, that’s called children.
KMR
Current cost estimates to a raise a single child to the age of 18 in the USA, in a middle class family, is $325-$375k.
That’s quite an expense to take the trash out and bring the cans back in.
Koko The Talking Ape
@KMR, yeah, but if you have some already….
OldDominionDIYer
Products like these are why Makita is losing revenue in the USA
Bremon
Is it? A lot of Makita stuff makes more sense in a Japanese context than an American or Canadian one. Developing a product there and offering it here seems smarter than impact driver #43 or drill driver #28 I’d argue branching into niches the others don’t compete in is a better plan than making the same thing but teal. Look at the M18 vacuum pump; it’s a reason we have M18 at work.
Munklepunk
Makita has a huge and very good outdoor power tool selection, this is part of it, and a great addition.
Saulac
Nice. But as an old fart who frequently buy heavy junks from people homes, I like something that I can take with me in my pickup. Hope Makita makes a simplier/lighter/cheaper hand truck based on this, with or without the lift table.
MM
I think these sorts of tools are a brilliant idea and will find a lot of applications. Right now I want one for unloading my truck and doing yard work. Add a work top to it and it becomes an easily portable workbench with height adjustment. But there is just so much more this could be used for: Thinking back to my old machining business this would have been great for moving materials and tooling around–sure we had a forklift for the really big stuff but this would be even more convenient for small jobs.
The price is going to be the big question though. They’ve had the “dump cart” XUC04Z listed for a little while now and if I remember right it’s something like $7k, and that’s mighty expensive.
Mike McFalls
Great ideas! A number of other uses come to mind but without a doubt I could’ve used this last summer for offloading 40 arborvitae’s that were offloaded from pickup trucks (easy to load at the nursery with the forklift) and then moved on a dolly about 300-400 feet from the street where they were planted.
Garrett
Wow. Products like these are why men from 1st world countries are losing testosterone and obesity rates are climbing. Ugh.
Stuart
That’s such a toxic perspective.
Blue collar workers are more likely to be forced into early retirement, due to physically demanding work taking a toll on their bodies over the years.
If products like this help work get done easier and with less strain, what’s the problem?
PW
Dumb attitudes are why men from flyover country are losing lifespan at an ever increasing rate.
As a pajama job holder, I don’t have to worry about my knees giving out and ruining my career. But hey, you go and whine and complain about anything that helps people do more with less effort. Because GRrrrrRrR TESTOSTERONE.
This is the same attitude that has people dying decades early of preventable disease because you’re too burr-hurr manly to work smart. People who think it’s preferrable to have COPD and tap out 2 decades early because PPE is wussy. Or be disabled at 55 with blown out joints, ears, eyes and everything else.
Never heard someone wheezing their life out on oxygen saying “at least my testosterone is intact!!! I’m glad I did everything the hard way!!”
potato
Cant feel big and manly pushing a motorized cart around, gotta drive a F350 super duty to the grocery store a mile away to pickup a gallon of milk and a 6pack. When you’re passing the cyclist on the way home and you yell them for getting in your way and slowing you down, that’s when you know for certain, your testosterone is in fact at its peak. A man surely cannot be any more manly than this, you are truly the envy of men(and most assuredly women) worldwide.
Munklepunk
I strut from my Ranger.
Garrett
I don’t think so. We all talk about and get excited about tools that improve our efficiency and productivity. But this product would be an embarrasment to use. It’s in this weird zone between heavier equipment (forklifts) that are absolutely necessary for larger material handling requirements and smaller equipment lile hand-trucks, furniture dollies and wheelbarrows on the other side. I’d like to think we could keep some muscle in the game. I might be convinced if this was marketed to people with physical impairments, older people, etc. It could be that I’m missing some underlying marketing subtext? Ill be quiet now…
Bremon
Look at the corporate material for a lot of products from a Japanese perspective: a lot of Makita’s investor relations material highlights emergency preparedness and assisting an aging workforce.
MT
It’s only an embarrassment if you’re insecure enough to care what other people think. I value the health of my back over other people’s opinions of me.
Jim Felt
I think this is usually thought of as “working smarter” not harder. Leverage over brute strength. Design over “whatever” seems to work?
And if memory serves isn’t Makita’s home base of Japan where they’ve nearly reached zero population growth? AKA an ever aging population? A worldwide phenomenon that we’ll all be facing in real time?
Even ol’ John Henry hasn’t drilled rock by hand in a hundred years. ;-)~
(I’ll quit with the analogies now)…
Rog
It would be more cooler/more useful if this cart could be loaded from the ground level. This may not be a big hit for Joe Consumer but Makita obviously has a market for it somewhere
Joe H
If only someone could make a cart like a mini drop deck trailer with electric motors in front the wheels and steer wheels in the back behind the deck and a steering wheel or handle bar to control it. Then things could be pulled on the deck by a winch, pushed, rolled or dumped onto the deck without needing to be lifted, then the deck could raise and the whole contraption can haul it away.
MM
I have seen machines like outside Lowe’s. They use them for loading appliances, etc, into pickup trucks. It’s like a portable loading dock.
Saulac
And the handle can be hooked to a hitch on tractors or vehicle. Drop deck trailers exist. But yes, we need “lawn mower” version.
Joe H
And yeah if it could attach to a trailer hitch then it could serve double duty as a small utility trailer for an atv or other things and even move the load into place when you get there. That is if the tires could be rated for speed, and the trailer could handle the miles on the road with all the bumps. Otherwise if even just pulled around a property by a side by side, atv, or tractor that would be great.
Joe H
If a line from the truck can attach and charge batteries while it is being pulled then even better.
Joe Hanson
Could be interesting if a brand like Ego pushed something like I suggested. And with a dump feature.
Eliot Truelove
This is definitely the kind of thing right up Makitas alley.
It’s similar to how Hilti has the Exoskeleton and their new Boom Arm: allow heavy lifting and movement without sacrificing your body.
This is the mobile cart version of it.
I personally don’t do things at volume, but I would definitely use something like this if I could.
Stuart
Yes, but will Makita USA bring it to the USA?
And where’s the XGT version??
With this being an 18V X2 tool, equipping it for XGT batteries should be cheap and easy.
Hon Cho
Makita has lots of interesting stuff outside the USA. Would it sell here–maybe. Would it sell and be profitable–that’s even less certain.
Of course, back in the dark ages as a child I was paid 3 cents a wheelbarrow load to move dirt for my father. If I didn’t put enough dirt in the wheelbarrow, that load didn’t count.
Al
I see a product like this as a replacement for gas-powered versions used in demolition in small spaces (watch ‘Escape to Rural France’ on YouTube). There are also gas-engine mules used in trail renovation for carrying rocks.
I don’t understand the besring of chests for keeping ‘muscle’ in the game. Dropping a 200# boulder down the side of a trail could lead to injury or death. And, I don’t imagine that carrying a 200# boulder for a mile or more on steep trails is ‘muscle’, but rather stupidity.
As a small person, I always had problems controlling a one-wheeled wheelbarrow. It wasn’t the weight to be lifted. It was my body being too low to the ground to properly balance the handles. And my light weight could not act as a counterbalance.
I rented an electric hammer to help dig out my sewer trench. Dug half of it with pick and shovel. At some point, getting the job done safely, and having the energy for the next phase, is more important than yawping ‘Muscle!’
Ray
I’ve used hydraulic scissor carts for lifting heavy batteries into industrial UPS systems and servers into racks. Seems like this might be a good tool in server farms, or for on-call technicians who visit datacenters. Installing those items without a scissor cart would violate procedures designed to prevent damage.
This cart would also make it easier for techs to keep working as they age, and might expand opportunities for people with physical disabilities too, though the geometry may be a little off.
Curtis Cox
We have two of the USA models, we use them as utility carts, as the wheelbarrow attachment is awfully small.
We have used it to move a 900 lb diesel motor up a 12% incline at a boat ramp. They are very useful at the warehouse.
At a construction site not so much Makita used pneumatic tire on the front drive wheel it’s highly susceptible to screws and nails and coming off the rim needing constant repair on the job site.
I can only Hope they use solid or foam-filled tires on this new unit.
MM
Even if Makita didn’t supply them directly it would be trivial to have the existing tires foam-filled or swapped out for something more puncture resistant. If someone really wanted to go nuts they could fit solid tires and run chains.
Jaycob P.
Interestingly Princess Auto in Canada offers something similar with a higher capacity.
https://www.princessauto.com/en/1100-lb-24v-lift-truck/product/PA0009032244
MM
Looks like a knockoff with some inferior features, but I have to say the $2000CAD price is a lot more appealing than the ~$7500 USD I’m seeing for the Makita. More competition is exactly what this needs, in my opinion.
Stuart
It seems too quick to be a knock-off. I wonder if the Princess Auto version came out first.
There are enough subtle design differences where Makita’s doesn’t look to be a teal version of the same thing at nearly 4X the price.
The Princess Auto version has a higher load capacity – 1100 lbs vs ~660 lbs for the Makita.
MM
The Makita seems to have been around for a few months now, though perhaps not in the USA. I also happened across this one just now which has lower rated weight capacity but goes much higher:
https://www.boltontool.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=86910
…More variations on the same. Perhaps there is a common ancestor to these? I can’t see brands like “Power Fist” being the real innovator here.
Jared
Like you said, the Princess Auto “Powerfist” house brand isn’t really an innovator. That brand is mostly used to relabel Chinese tool products for sale in Princess Auto stores – though sometimes “customized” for PA.
However, the first review for the Powerfist Lift Truck is from 10 months ago. A little more searching revealed a product announcement dating back to June 28th, 2019.
I briefly searched assuming I would find something similar on Aliexpress or from Vevor – but didn’t find anything (maybe it’s there and I didn’t look hard enough).
Maybe this was a Princess Auto requested item or something one of their manufacturing partners developed for someone else and then offered to them?
Their other house brand “ProPoint” is usually reserved for the higher-end items and is more likely to be applied to something innovative.
TonyT
I love this from the Bolton tool model’s manual:
“Product patent number: CN2016120939051.5, CN201610725896.9, CN201620943217.0. Patented product, counterfeiting not allowed. ”
Note that it uses 24V lead acid battery, not LiOn. At a glance, I couldn’t find if the Princess Auto model was lead acide or replaceable LiOn.
Jaycob P.
Princess Auto version is in their 2023 catalog. I don’t know exactly when it came out, but it was at least early last year.
Eliot Truelove
Both the Princess Auto and the Bolton one seem to be similar products, but with less features, like the headlights, dual back tires, ability to swap out for a dump bucket, etc.
Makita may have certain aspects of the supply chain similar for certain parts, and get those parts from a Tier 1 supplier, but there’s likely other robust developments as well. Whether they are worth the increase price tag is another matter.
Robbie Stanford
Dewalt has a few patents for some carts like these