# Mini Crown & Aero Crown comparison



## Becky Horat (Dec 8, 2011)

We have a Bell Crown (Mini Crown) and still trying to decide what to get for our second cart. Weren't really wanting to spend quite that much and not ready to do the hyper bike....yet. But, really like the Mini Crown and thinking might just go with another one of these. But want to know what the difference is between the Mini Crown and Aero Crown. I can see some noticable differences....but want opinions for those who have them or have tried them. It would sure be nice to be able to try all these carts before buying.


----------



## shorthorsemom (Dec 9, 2011)

Becky Horat said:


> We have a Bell Crown (Mini Crown) and still trying to decide what to get for our second cart. Weren't really wanting to spend quite that much and not ready to do the hyper bike....yet. But, really like the Mini Crown and thinking might just go with another one of these. But want to know what the difference is between the Mini Crown and Aero Crown. I can see some noticable differences....but want opinions for those who have them or have tried them. It would sure be nice to be able to try all these carts before buying.


I looked at both the mini crown and the aerocrown extensively. I bought the aerocrown. I love it. The main difference between the two is the seat. The mini crown is a bench type seat where an adult could take a child. The aerocrown is a nice tight one person seat with padded arms and there are two different types of single seats, I have the high back one in the photo. I love it, it is a very secure feel. On the aerocrown you can remove the floor and put on stirrups for CDE. I have the full floor in mine. I wanted a cart for riding around the farm here and am not interested in competition. In the future I would love to get a "pony ride" cart with a bench type seat to give pony rides to my kids on occasion. My reason for getting the aerocrown was that I wanted the lightest cart possible for my boy. He is too out of shape to take two driving and I am not experienced enough of a driver to do passengers so that was another reason for choosing the aerocrown. It rides like a dream, and I can enter and exit in about once second. I oogled the hyperbike and still do. It is an awesome design. It was a hard decision for me to buy the mega bucks aerocrown, but every time I drive it, I am very glad of my decision. If I were more limber and my horse had a more reliable stand and if he didn't buck on occasion, I would have a hyperbike, but after much reflecting on me, my horse and my experience and what I want to do with my horse, the aerocrown came out on top. I actually drove to Carriage machine to pick up a minicrown. I had weighed everything and came up with minicrown. . As I was sitting there checking out my minicrown, I looked over and there was this beautiful aerocrown sitting there with burgandy wheels and it was love at first sight.




It fits me to a T. I will say that the seat is a bit higher on the bellcrown and I am very short and my legs were dangling and I would have had to order a custom lower seat for myself if I got the minicrown... The aerocrown stock size fit me perfectly... (They do not charge extra for custom orders at Carriage.) You can also get one from driving essentials, they are the same price as Carriage.

I hope this overy long email helps, write back if you have any more questions or you want me to measure anything. I love my cart. Angie got one too, so maybe she will chime in. It rides like a dream, pulls well, is balanced and even on rough ground gives a terrific ride.



AdairPS... The max suggested weight of the driver for the aerocrown is about 160-170lbs. I think you can order heavier suspension though. Before I lost 37 lbs on weight watchers I filled out the seat pretty good, but did still fit and I was pretty close to the max weight of driver for the aerocrown when I first got it and the stock suspension was good for me.


----------



## Becky Horat (Dec 9, 2011)

Thanks so much for the info!!! That really helps us. We love our Mini Crown and although not wanting to spend quite that much for another cart....figured we didn't want to get something and not be happy with it. We are finding we either go with a low budget $500 cart or next step up is $1000-1200....which isn't too much under the BellCrown. This driving stuff is expensive.....haha. Have you noticed or heard if the Aerocrown rides better than the Mini Crown with that seat? My husband is a pretty small guy......but didn't realize the weight limit is179lbs. Will need to check into that. Thanks again for your help!!!!!


----------



## shorthorsemom (Dec 9, 2011)

Becky Horat said:


> Thanks so much for the info!!! That really helps us. We love our Mini Crown and although not wanting to spend quite that much for another cart....figured we didn't want to get something and not be happy with it. We are finding we either go with a low budget $500 cart or next step up is $1000-1200....which isn't too much under the BellCrown. This driving stuff is expensive.....haha. Have you noticed or heard if the Aerocrown rides better than the Mini Crown with that seat? My husband is a pretty small guy......but didn't realize the weight limit is179lbs. Will need to check into that. Thanks again for your help!!!!!


I do believe you can go over that weight limit, but you need to upgrade the suspension. You can double check that information at driving essentials but I am pretty sure I remember this from when I was shopping. The heavier suspension could fix that as long as your bottom fits in the seat.

The bellcrown minicrown and the aerocrown are the same price. I LOVE mine and very glad I saved longer and waited to get a better quality cart than to buy something for a bargain. I put a jug in my kitchen and put pocket money into it. Shopped when I had enough for a lower priced cart... then started putting money into the jug again... When I had enough to get my cart from bellcrown, I went shopping. I came home with a different cart than I went for, but when I am tooling around the farm in my aerocrown and my boy is happy and moving like a dream... I am totally happy with the decision to wait a bit longer and get my dream cart... The suspension, ride and balance are well worth the price.

I still have a hyperbike dream and would love to own one some day. I also might save my pennies to get a custom fitted mincrown as my second cart, but I would seriously have to do more driving to warrant the expense.

Maybe Leia will chime in about the feel difference between the aerocrown and minicrown. I only "rode" the mini crown at the shop while an amish guy held the shafts. LOL... Leia I think has experience with both carts.


----------



## hobbyhorse23 (Feb 6, 2012)

shorthorsemom said:


> Maybe Leia will chime in about the feel difference between the aerocrown and minicrown. I only "rode" the mini crown at the shop while an amish guy held the shafts. LOL... Leia I think has experience with both carts.


Yes, I do.



I own a Minicrown and had a prototype Aerocrown shipped out here when they were designing it to try out, get feedback from local VSE drivers, then we passed it down to California to be sold. The main difference between the two isn't so much the seat as the seat support structure. You can see on this picture of my Minicrown that the bench seat is supported by two main arches and there's room for the optional floorboard beneath where my basket is resting.






On the Aerocrown, he's cut out that whole assembly and bent the shaft sockets up in a sort of S-bend on each side so the seat rests on the ends of that same piece of metal. He also reduced the wheel callouts from four to two or three as I recall and otherwise cut spare metal everywhere he could to reduce weight without compromising integrity. It's a very slick, very visually pleasing design! I found the overall weight was actually still pretty comparable unless you took the floorboards off, but the turn radius for some reason was much improved over the already outstanding handling of the Minicrown.



Becky Horat said:


> Have you noticed or heard if the Aerocrown rides better than the Mini Crown with that seat?


They have the same torsion axle suspension system so the ride is exactly the same. The seat only makes a difference in whether you go sliding on a fast turn!



He can, however, customize the tension in the axles during building for a lighter person like me which improved the ride quite a bit over the stiffer torsion axles meant to support more weight.

I love my Minicrown but will be trading up for an Aerocrown in the next couple of years as it better suits my petite build and refined (read: not powerhouse) horses.

Leia


----------



## Jules (Feb 19, 2012)

Total forum newbie here





I am as happy as a..well..a crazy dancing banana emoticon to be here.

Sorry to hijack the thread with my own questions





Now, I have read and re-read over the minicrown and aerocrown threads here. I have decided on a minicrown as it will allow me to take one of my children occasionally when my horse is a little more seasoned and conditioned. So anyway, both of those things are a way off, but so is getting a minicrown.

I have been talking with Johnny from CMS on the phone (which means me getting up super early to call in US business hours) and he has been so wonderful. I have an importer who has shipped Mustangs from the states for us before who will take the cart in one of his shipping containers for VERY cheap. I have come to a stumbling block though; shipping within the US is SO much more expensive than getting it here to Australia. Seriously. More than double.

For those who have had a Minicrown shipped before, how stripped down is it for shipping? Could it be even more so? I asked Johnny the same question and he came up with a slightly cheaper quote, but still not 'do-able' for us and not significantly cheaper than shipping it whole. He mentioned just taking the wheels off?

I have a cart that is suitable for training/breaking so am not in a rush and if I really had to could possibly get to PA when I am in the US in November/December which after putting on a ship would get it here around this time next year...but still...it would be nicer to have it sooner


----------



## Becky Horat (Feb 20, 2012)

I was given a very high quote for shipping a few months ago for a Bell Crown. And this turned us off on buying another one. The shafts are removable/adjustable. So you would think by taking shafts/wheels off...it would be fairly easy to ship. Since we already have a Mini Crown....and LOVE it.....we decided to try something different for our second cart. We bought and a wooden Easy Entry Cart from Silver Penney Farm. Very pretty cart!!! The shipping was only $200 to California. Can NOT understand why shipping is SO much highter for the Mini Crown. Our wooden cart weighs about the same amount and arrived from Fed Ex. It was taken apart....but not too hard to put back together. Very nice cart....also very different from Mini Crown. Haven't had enough time to give a good critique to the new cart. Pam from Silver Penney was excellent to deal with. This cart seems to pull nicely and very balanced. The leg room is a little less. My husband notices it.....I don't really. The Mini Crown seat sits higher up from floor I think. Good luck on your shopping. We LOVE our Mini Crown!!!


----------



## Jules (Feb 20, 2012)

Becky Horat said:


> I was given a very high quote for shipping a few months ago for a Bell Crown. And this turned us off on buying another one. The shafts are removable/adjustable. So you would think by taking shafts/wheels off...it would be fairly easy to ship.


Thank you so much for your reply, I was seriously wondering if I was th only one who looked like this



when hearing about the shiping cost.

I also need to get the Minicrown tto th westcoast (Orange County, CA) for it to get on the ship and the freight across country is such a deal breaker at the moment



Otherwise, it is such a fab little cart for the money and I would be purchasing right now.

Glad to hear that you love yours, I think I will too...when I eventually get one.


----------



## Becky Horat (Feb 20, 2012)

We bought ours through Carriage Driving Essentials - very nice people out of California. Great to deal with. It just happened they had one in stock...so the shipping costs were less....although we had to do some driving to get it. But, they were able to ship it part way to us....wonderful to deal with. But, check out their website and they will often list carts available. They travel to a lot of CDE type events. If they have something....they may be able to get it shipped part way to you.


----------



## Jules (Feb 21, 2012)

Becky Horat said:


> We bought ours through Carriage Driving Essentials - very nice people out of California. Great to deal with. It just happened they had one in stock...so the shipping costs were less...


Well that would absolutely work



:BigGrin:BigGrin

I had asked about CDE but was told I would stil need to pay full shipping, didn't even think of 'in stocks' , Thanks a million Becky!!!!


----------



## hobbyhorse23 (Feb 21, 2012)

Becky, how did I never notice you were in northern California?? I've been down here in Ukiah for a week! Augh! LOL. And of course I go home tomorrow evening so even if you were next door I probably couldn't come see you.







Becky Horat said:


> We bought ours through Carriage Driving Essentials - very nice people out of California. Great to deal with. It just happened they had one in stock...so the shipping costs were less....although we had to do some driving to get it. But, they were able to ship it part way to us....wonderful to deal with.


Carriage Driving Essentials is who I gave that Aerocrown to when we got done testing it out at the Inavale CDE in Oregon. Celine is great to deal with!

Shipping is getting nutty on the Bellcrowns and I don't know why. My memory is my Minicrown came disassembled in one large wooden box with all the pieces wrapped crazy-well and nestled together like a puzzle and the shipping wasn't that bad, maybe $200-300 all the way to Washington State. When the Aerocrown arrived it was fully assembled on a pallet and cost somewhere on the order of $500-600 to ship according to the label! :shockedThank God the company paid the shipping since I wasn't keeping the cart. I plan to order an Aerocrown in the next year or two and I'll be talking to Stephen at Carriage Machine Shop to see what we can do about keeping shipping reasonable.

Leia


----------



## Jules (Feb 21, 2012)

hobbyhorse23 said:


> . When the Aerocrown arrived it was fully assembled on a pallet and cost somewhere on the order of $500-600 to ship according to the label! :shockedThank God the company paid the shipping since I wasn't keeping the cart. I plan to order an Aerocrown in the next year or two and I'll be talking to Stephen at Carriage Machine Shop to see what we can do about keeping shipping reasonable.
> 
> Leia


Yup, around he $500-600 mark initially then when I talked about breaking it down it was more in the $400+ range. Better, but stil double the cost of getting it from LA to Sydney





I would be interested to see how you go with your aerocrown. $200-300 seems so much better, particularly when i have looked at other carts of a smilar weight (nowhere near as nice though!) which offer much cheaper shipping.

I sound like a whinger, ooops. I really can't fault the business at all in terms of helpfulness , they have been _absolutely wonderful_.


----------



## Becky Horat (Feb 21, 2012)

Oh Leia how funny!!!! We are in Lake County and only about 30 min. away. We are actually driving to Willits with a friend to "look" at some Minis. I always love helping others Mini shop....hehe....much more fun than shopping for clothes or something



. Too bad.....would have loved to have met you and pick your brain....as you have LOTS of knowledge. Do you have family in Ukiah?


----------

