I help a lot of people move, and I take a lot of deliveries. In fact, over the years, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with these rigid steel pack mules. After you have dealt with the bulk and unwieldiness of a hand truck for years, you start to think that you’re simply stuck with the general design. Fortunately, that’s no longer true. The Bosch XL Cart is a highly configurable and flexible hand truck. The official name for this is the Bosch Heavy-Duty Folding Jobsite Mobility Cart—but that’s a mouthful, so Bosch XL Cart it is.
When I reach for a hand truck or cart to help me move my materials around the shop or at a job site, I’m often left with an inconveniently large apparatus with a stiff lip plate and wheels that don’t quite cut it over sand (I’m in Florida where the entire state is essentially a large sand bar). Where the Bosch XL Cart excelled was its unique folding design. And even though it folds, the build quality doesn’t appear to suffer in the slightest. I’ll try to give you a good enough picture of that descriptively—but I also recommend you go check it out in person and see what you think.
Bosch XL Cart Features
I tend to move a lot of things around in the shop, so I want a big cart that’s tough. The Bosch XL Cart meets that need with steel construction and a tubular design that holds up to a lot of aggressive use. Indeed, I’ve tossed it around for a few months now and have yet to do much more than scratch it up a bit. It uses an oversized cargo platform or tongue that’s much deeper than your typical 2-wheel hand truck or cart.
That would normally be a detriment for the portability of the cart to and from the jobsite—except that it flips up and out of the way when you don’t need it. What’s more, it’s tied to a mechanism that simultaneously folds the wheels and handles inside of the frame, laying them flat. You can quite literally slide the Bosch XL Cart into the bed of your truck and stack anything you want on top of it (I’d avoid cinderblocks or brick—but you get the idea). The standard hand truck has been around for years, so the thought of a “fold-flat” design appeals to those of us who load these things on and off the jobsite on a weekly or even daily basis.
Fold-Flat Convenience
So imagine my surprise when, the first time I used the Bosch XL Cart, that—instead of having to continuously move it from place to place to get it out of the way—I just folded the cart completely flat and shoved it between a couple of pallets. Even the wheels fold sideways to flatten the Bosch XL Cart fully.
The Bosch XL Cart weighs 25 pounds and can carry up to 300 pounds. It’s made out of tubular steel and features a fold-flat steel base and oversized rubber wheels that don’t require air pressure. The top, mid, and side handles have a nice foam covering that’s more durable than it looks and the XL Cart collapses vertically to reduce its footprint even further when not in use.
Bosch included a compression strap with the XL-Cart but it feels like an afterthought. It’s not a permanent part of the Cart, and it doesn’t strike us as anywhere near as robust as a high-quality ratchet strap. For such a great product this seems like an obvious, but minor, deficiency.
Bosch XL Cart Specifications
- Load capacity: 300 lbs
- Steel construction
- Oversized rubber wheels
- Compression strap
- Large steel base
- Fold-flat storage
- Compatible with the Bosch L-BOXX storage system
- Weight: 25 lbs
Bosch XL Cart in Use
At 25 lbs, the Bosch XL cart was easy to transport, set up, and use at a moment’s notice. The first thing I did with it was break it down and unfold it back and forth several times until I was comfortable with all the features. That included adjusting the height of the top handle, which involved pressing the red release button underneath the center support plate and lowering or raising the handle assembly until it was fully extended or fully lowered.
We towed boxes of paper, battery powered lawnmowers, and saws with the Bosch XL Cart hand truck. The wheels present the biggest weak point. They fold in as you collapse the bottom plate. This also makes them susceptible to collapsing a bit under heavier loads. I experienced this at times when loading the XL Cart to capacity.
If any of the moving components stiffen up, add a little WD-40 EZ-Reach to keep it lubricated and corrosion-free. About the only weakness in the design is that the rotating side handles can be turned in the opposite direction if you apply too much force. This permanently stresses the plastic and can cause it to eventually become loose. It’s just important to remember that these are for light use and not to be used for forward leverage.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the Bosch XL-Cart is a great tool that stores easily, has plenty of carry capacity, and should deliver years worth of use. It’s going to be especially handy if you’re toting around Bosch L-Boxx containers or other similar tool and accessory storage boxes to and from a job site. The days of tossing a bulky and unwieldy hand truck cart into the back of the pickup truck may be over. The new Bosch XL Cart is a fresh take on a much-used and much-needed job site tool.
