Foresight Forecaddy Unboxing

Kball10 · December 2, 2022

On 11/30/2022 at 8:54 AM, dcdavis25 said:

@barrichelly I also purchased from Motogolf and have a similar serial number to yours (V1 2021).

Before I purchased the FC I had a long conversation with my Foresight rep. For background, I have a long-standing good relationship with him and have bought a fully loaded GC Quad Quad and quite a bit of software. He never tried to sell me anything and provided me with hours of great advice on other products (outside of the launch monitor) with my simulator build well before I ever spent a dime with him. He also was unable to sell the Forecaddy to me directly, since he is technically a reseller and therefore had no skin in the game.

He told me that the FC is a pet project for one of the executives at Foresight and is his baby. That executive really wants it to be a successful product and is the internal advocate for it. He also said that they took it to market too soon and the initial batch had issues (which we all know and have been discussed at length on this thread). At one point the sales team were told not to sell them. Then the issues were supposedly resolved and they sold them again. Again this is just what he told me so take it for what you want.

Maybe I am being optimistic about the FC but I don’t see how selling off defective stock would be a good business strategy based on all of the negative reviews out there. My opinion is they went on sale because they either want more people to have good experiences and write positive reviews to confirm to the market that the initial issues were fixed or there is a Forecaddy 2 in the works. Again, totally just ny opinion and do not have any material information to back that up.

So I got a similar story about a year ago when I was considering purchasing a FC - although my guy advised me to wait on the purchase as improvements were in the works. I ended up getting a Zip Navigator and love it. My biggest issue is a company that sells something that they know has issues and then is not willing to stand behind it. You will see my post in this thread where they mentioned - “we don’t make it we have it made for us”…. That is the lamest excuse in the world. It is your product and your brand - I don’t give two %$#@! who makes it. The below is directly form their website - this to me tells the story.

NOTE: ALL SALES FOR THIS ITEM ARE FINAL. WE ARE UNABLE TO ACCEPT RETURNS OR EXCHANGES FOR THIS ITEM, AND NO REFUNDS WILL BE PROVIDED. THIS POLICY IS IN ADDITION TO YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.

ajlacombe · December 2, 2022

8 hours ago, Kball10 said:

NOTE: ALL SALES FOR THIS ITEM ARE FINAL. WE ARE UNABLE TO ACCEPT RETURNS OR EXCHANGES FOR THIS ITEM, AND NO REFUNDS WILL BE PROVIDED. THIS POLICY IS IN ADDITION TO YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.

This really does say it all - and I did read everything and bought one anyway 🙂

How they can have this business model is beyond me - no one cares who makes it when it comes time to stand behind the product.

Foresight has been pretty good with support for my GC Quad, but the UI of their software is lacking with simple things that they could change to make it way easier to use

It's funny that they have loyal customers that they do not stand behind and they either think this is OK or they are rolling the dice. If you roll the dice with your customer base, then IMO you are a poorly run company.

They also do not proactively reach out to customers to ask if things are going OK. That is a technique to make your customers to feel good and a great time to potentially sell them something else.

The deal is that their products are really good (in the case of the quad) or have great potential like the FC. As soon as there is an alternative though you are toast if the alternative has better support.

ajlacombe · December 8, 2022

After using my FC again last night and watching it get stuck on a tee due to those stupid fixed front wheels while trying to turn, I have decided to try and retrofit swivel casters on the front of the FC. Has anyone done this?

There are two types - a flat mount and a vertical post. Neither will go directly into the cart. It will take some type of mount to be created to mount the casters into - like a piece of wood or plastic (maybe something like Trex decking.)

Should be a fun project. Too bad the FC was not designed this way from the start 🙂

Edited December 8, 2022 by ajlacombe

ajlacombe · December 8, 2022

After a good research session and measuring things - the wheels on the FC are 5" in diameter and 2" wide. The MGI Zip Navigator AT has 6" wheels that are 2.5" wide.

Here is the FC - you can see the front wheels under the LED indicator light.

The plan is to remove the wheels and axle, and not really touch any of the stock mounting so it can be reset to factory. I ordered a large ½" thick cutting board to cut into pieces approximately 6"x 6" to mount this wheel to mount this wheel under the LED indicator light

This will have the wheels about 3-4" further outboard of the current wheels for better stability and the swivel should make the cart way more responsive. The only issue I see right now is the zerk fitting on the wheel swivel bearing meaning that someone will have to periodically lube them 🙂

I will have to figure out how to mount the cutting board blocks to the cart and then go to the Depot to buy the hardware, but I should have the thing set up by next week. The tires are solid so lazy people do not have to inflate them 🙂

ajlacombe · January 1, 2023

Well - long time and no update on my project to add swivel wheels to my Foresight Forecaddy. It has been in my kitchen for some time as I bought pieces and tried to put this thing together. There are many challenges because the indicator lights and the plastic from make it a challenge to attach wheels, but I got it done.

The wheels I showed above were non-starter despite being near perfect. They are over 6 pounds apiece. So I had to get new lighter wheels and ended up with some 3" hard plasticish wheels - that sounded like a rambling wreck on the cart paths and sent a ton of vibration into the frame of the cart.

This is where I ended up. Took off the fixed wheels and cut up a cutting board to mount things too, then attached the wheels to the frame. So how'd it do?

Well I think I know why the front wheels on the production model are fixed - the navigation on this things is horrendous. There was a lot of heavy dew today and you could see the path of the cart while following me looked like a wave - as in it corrects 45º to one side and then back gain - repeat. It is incredible .

All they have to do is cut their correction by probably 2/3's and slow down the update time, or lower the correction amount and keep the update time the same. I was amazed. Since the cart can easily swing side to side, boy did it ever.

I may be done with this project, not sure. It appears the Stewart golf also uses fixed wheels with their follow cart. Maybe they can not improve the accuracy of the follow direction and the non-swivel wheels are there it prevent the cart from overcorrecting - that seems really stupid though-unless it is a huge cost to modify the parameters of the error correction circuitry.

doctorgriffo · July 19, 2023

Reviving this thread - forecaddy is now on sale for $1275. By far the best price for something with follow mode. Reading this thread has all but convinced me not to buy and spend the extra $$ on a powakaddy (just got back from a golf trip to Ireland and saw quite a few of these) or motocaddy, but nothing below $2k has follow mode which seems like a really attractive feature. Is the forecaddy worth the risk? I find it unbelievable that Foresight make you pay the shipping for returning something if it breaks down while under warranty, but that seems to be a consistent theme in all reviews.

dcdavis25 · July 19, 2023

@doctorgriffo FWIW, I love mine. Bought it in Nov on sale for $1500 and it has been great. Have around 40 rounds on it. The cart fees at my club are $28 so I figure I am getting close to the break even point. From my research all electric carts have their quirks and the ForeCaddy is no different but it has functioned well for me.

The only time I had issues was when I took it to a VERY hilly course and was using a stand bag. It fell over a couple of times on steep hills. It was annoying but no damage done. Using a cart bag, (like I usually do)I think I would have been fine.

ajlacombe · July 19, 2023

I would say that Foresight Sports is frustrating to deal with. I have a GC Quad that is part of a full on Sim in a box simulator from them and I bought the Forecaddy for $2,250.

When you keep dropping the price of your product it does not make your existing customers feel like they bought value, it also makes you wonder why they keep dropping the price.

The Forecaddy is a mixed bag IMO. At this price it is well worth it, but the Zip Navigator would be a good alternative. I own both and the Zip Navigator is well behaved while the Forcaddy is unruly (does not do what it is told - flaky).

Foresight in general does not care about their existing customers at all - I have never been asked how my simulator installation went or is going. I would always stay in touch with my customers. The GC Quad is an awesome product, but their FSX software has UI quirks. Again, why wouldn't you ask your customers for suggestions?

Adipure392 · July 19, 2023

$1275 is still too pricey for something so unreliable and when it breaks down if you don’t live in San Diego you’ll be out of pocket to ship it to them. Please read my thread experience, highly do not recommend to purchase this cart. Even the techs that worked there told me it was a bad design. The credit they gave me for all the problems my cart had, I purchased a MotoCaddy Remote. It doesn’t have follow but it’s built like a tank and has had no problems. I still haven’t seen one Forecaddy at the courses I’ve played that should tell you something.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Adipure392

Fairways_and_Greens · July 21, 2023

On 7/19/2023 at 4:41 PM, Adipure392 said:

$1275 is still too pricey for something so unreliable and when it breaks down I’d you don’t live in San Diego you’ll be out of pocket to ship it to them. Please read my thread experience, highly do not recommend to purchase this cart. Even the techs that worked there told me it was a bad design. The credit they gave me for all the problems my cart had, I purchased a MotoCaddy Remote. It doesn’t have follow but it’s built like a tank and has had no problems. I still haven’t seen one Forecaddy at the courses I’ve played that should tell you something.

I saw one parked at my club last weekend, and almost immediately jumped at the price. It took a long time to get my GC3 fixed, and the "buyer beware" thread looks like this thing is an abomination. It's too bad. It looks great.