UPSTAGING LUGGAGE CARTS: The folding wheeled luggage cart made porters of all of us, while putting legions of real porters out of business. Why pay for schleppers at airports and hotels when we could pile on multiple bags and then roll, roll, roll our totes everywhere we went? Until we came to stairs or curbs or uneven surfaces. Oh the weight, the strain, the cart tipping over, the bags sliding apart and then off the cart into anarchy. Help! Porter! Unless you’re armed with the new UpCart. Equipped with an ingeniously designed three-wheel chassis on each side, the cart mounts stairs with two wheels on each side always in surface contact, balancing out the weight and more stably maneuvering upward from one step to the next, or over curbs and cracked pavements. Descending, two wheels on each side hug the edge of each step as the chassis rotates, providing a kind of gripping effect. The UpCart’s design makes it bulkier than many smaller two-wheeled folding luggage carts. But its six wheels, sturdy platform and extendable-height handle collapse and fold into a surprisingly manageable 21-inch by 24-inch by 4-inch-deep bundle that weighs fewer than 10 pounds and stashes easily in a car trunk, checked luggage or large tote bag. Made of an aluminum alloy, the UpCart can haul up to 100 pounds. A beefier Deluxe UpCart model can hold up to 125 pounds but weighs nearly a pound more than the original.
UpCart Original 6-Wheel Folding Luggage Cart is $89.95; Deluxe UpCart, $99.95; at www.upcart.com.
