The PowaKaddy Freeway II electric golf trolley is an updated version of the excellent Freeway model and it contains a few small but useful improvements.
The most noticeable is the handle and LCD screen which replaces the 'dial' control with 3 buttons that control a menu. The aeroplane wing style handle is more easily used both left and right handed and one of the big improvements is a battery charge indicator so you know how much juice you have left, rather than having to guess and cross your fingers.
The speed is easily controlled by two buttons using a scales of 1-10. Some testers found that if your walking speed is not exactly equal to say 4 or 5 then it is not possible to go at 4.5 speed, which you could do with a 'dial' based power control.
However the excellent distance function allows the Freeway II to go a fixed distance of 10, 20 or 30 yards and that really helps to speed up play if you can send it to the next tee as you approach the green.
There is also a distance measuring function tells you how far you have walked which is a bit of fun. PowaKaddy claim this can also be used to measure shots, but as it uses the wheels to measure the distance, it only really gives an accurate figure if you go directly from where you played to the ball in a straight line and if the ground is relatively flat.
You can't of course take your PowaKaddy Freeway II onto the greens so you can only really measure drives and therefore this function is a bit of a gimmick.
The new bag grip does a better job of holding the top of the bag and is less likely to create wear marks on the bag. The bag lock system on the base works well with PowaKaddy bags and will accomodate other bags in the normal way.
The other change we really like is the new front wheel adjustment fastner, which is much easier to adjust on the course to keep your PowaKaddy going straight than the previous model, which required a spanner to adjust. As well as the traditional black there is a new white version too, which looks great and the same frame style continues, meaning that the Freeway 2 is one of the few electric trolleys that can fit a tour bag in the upright position rather than side on.
With 18 and 36 hole batteries available in lead/acid or lithium batteries. The latter means you can fold the trolley with the lithium battery in place, which saves a lot of hassle.
Overall Rating - 4 stars: