This remote-controlled wagon is silly but so useful

Confession: When BougeRV told me about its animated lighting remote control wagon, I called it for a laugh, hoping to eviscerate it in a review. This is ridiculous, of course. But the DuneRover also proved very capable, with enough torque to flatten hills even while carrying more than 200 pounds of gear. It can also pass through soft sand which beats conventional wagons.

As someone who regularly uses a variety of wagons to haul all kinds of gear, the DuneRover is a revelation. But what BougeRV sent me was a Kickstarter prototype – and it shows.

Production units won’t ship until February 2027, so what follows is less of a review and more of a risk assessment for those considering backing the Kickstarter. This way, you can decide if it makes sense to set the pre-registration price at $467, a 48% discount from the eventual list price of $899. (Though I bet it will still be sold at a discounted price.)

Frankly, $500 is not exorbitant for a wagon. Prices start at around $40 for a rickety model that will only last a few months, $300 for a durable model from a reputable brand, and closer to $800 for the high end. And none of these wagons offer motorized assistance.

Let’s start with the stupid stuff. The wagon is equipped with LED light bars in the rear which are on by default and could come in handy when camping after dark. You can deactivate them through the app, but you must do so every time you restart the wagon. The default for a battery-powered device used primarily during the day should obviously be off.

Then there’s the remote control. I think I know what happened here. The product designers had a choice: run a cable through all the folding mechanisms that separate the motor from the handle or make it wireless. Wireless won, then someone from marketing said, “Hey, I have an idea!’

I mean, a remote-controlled wagon is so absurd that it’s kind of fun, and it sparked a lot of joy among spectators during my testing. Maybe that’s enough?

The DuneRover is no joke for hauling gear. It is equipped with two brushless gear motors, each producing up to 400 W of power and up to 33 Nm of torque. The cart is activated by a trigger built into the handle that you naturally press when pulling the cart. Walk faster and the cart will roll faster. Sometimes the cart will lurch during this initial pull before adjusting to your walking pace. It’s not dangerous, it’s just unexpected. Release the handle trigger and the cart stops, even on an incline.

Pulling an oversized load weighing more than 200 pounds up a 10 percent grade required minimal effort, but only a tenth of what it would have taken without motor assistance. Even on this steep slope, the cart stops (with an inch or two of rollback) as soon as I let go of the trigger. Repeated stopping and starting on slopes seemed to confuse the DuneRover, however, sometimes causing the motors to jerk as soon as I started walking again. A simple on/off allows you to resume normal operation.

The motors also regulate speed when descending with a heavy load. With the trigger held down, the controller did a good job monitoring changes in acceleration and countering the cart’s speed to maintain my walking pace. When I stopped, so did the wagon, even on that 10 percent grade with a load of over 200 pounds.

However, the motors are not powerful enough to carry the same load on soft sand. The oversized beach wheels worked much better in sand with loads weighing about half that weight and should be great for families hauling a cooler, snacks, umbrella, toddler, and toys for a day at the beach.

I like that the DuneRover easily transformed depending on what I needed to carry. The sides can be opened and folded flat to convert the cart into a cart for transporting oversized items or an elderly dog. You can also unzip the sides but leave the straps connected to create more volume inside the wagon. I used this setup a lot. Just know that you’ll want to bring a few bungees or cargo nets to keep everything secure.

My prototype suffered from intermittent rolling resistance with the engine off. The cart would roll fine for five or six feet, but then the wheels attached to the motors would brake, drag on the ground, then let go after a second or two. BougeRV assures me that this is not something that would be presented by its production wagons. I ended up leaving the engine on throughout my testing, even when I didn’t need it. The 82.14 Wh battery was more than up to the challenge.

I used the DuneRover to move equipment out of a beach house along the same route where I tested BougeRV’s original electric wagon. Six times I pulled the DuneRover down a path with a 5 percent slope at one end and a 10 percent slope at the other. After six kilometers (3.73 miles) of soft sand, hard asphalt, wooden ramps and gravel, the battery still showed a 74% charge. Not bad.

The removable battery has a 100W bi-directional USB-C port, making it a pretty capable power bank. It can also be recharged from a 100 W solar panel plugged into its XT-60 socket, thanks to an integrated MPPT solar controller. My prototype’s battery isn’t rain-protected, so I tested it in dry conditions, although BougeRV promises “whole-vehicle IPX6 protection” in the production wagon.

The DuneRover is a beast weighing 59.5 pounds (27 kg) with the battery and wheels installed. It is also quite bulky when folded. Quick release front wheels can be removed if a flatter pack is required.

Overall, I’m impressed with the DuneRover prototype I tested: it’s capable, versatile, and has proven to be a huge help over the past few weeks moving things between a vacation home, a house, and an adventure van. Like most BougeRV products, it meets the basics, but not without some annoyances and drawbacks. I would expect the same from anything sent to Kickstarter backers at the start of the next stage. year.

All photographs by Thomas Ricker / The Verge.