Trailers! Trailers! Trailers!

[SouthernBelle]

Last year a couple of people were talking about building a trailer. Maybe Kit was one??

did anybody ever build?

[KnottedYet]

I got the Croozer Dog trailer, which Trek had just sent me a PM about.

I played hooky from church and went to my LBS. Meandered over to the trailer section, and there was a woman with a Croozer and a Burley comparing the two.

Turned out their Croozer was too big for their dog, so they wanted to sell/trade for a Burley Tail Wagon. So I bought it! She trusted me (not even knowing my last name or phone or anything) to take it home and just "send her what i thought it was worth." Well, gawd, I couldn't do that! So we asked the LBS guys what they thought a fair price was, and we agreed.

She still let me take it home without knowing anything about me. I'm sending her a check tomorrow.

the Croozer is big enough for my dog AND big enough to be used for a serious Costco run. It will also easily hold enough stuff for a good long camping trip. It folds flat, and could be used as a flat-bed trailer for awkward shaped things.

I'm so excited!

[Beane]

but the critical question... will your dog voluntarily go into the trailer?

p.s. pictures of said dog in said trailer would be appreciated

[KnottedYet]

he knows the command "in the crate", so I'm guessing we can expand on that behaviour a little. The trailer is just a little smaller than his crate. He's a 70lb dog.

Honestly, I want the trailer more for shopping trips than anything.

And for camping.

The dog trailer has a nice cover that zips shut so it won't lose my toothpaste, and it looks like it will hold a case of toilet paper from Costco.

[Xrayted]

Jeez Knot, what are you doing with that much toilet paper? What exactly are you eating? Back away from the lentils...

Good score with the trailer! Congrats. I can't believe she trusted you to just send a check. I mean, you are a bit shifty looking. I'm just sayin'

[Kitsune06]

Huh. Back in the day, when we bought a case of TP, we just did our green duty and pitched it back to the trees where it belonged. *sigh* Ah, nostalgia and raking paper mache after homecoming...

[KnottedYet]

Jeez Knot, what are you doing with that much toilet paper? What exactly are you eating? Back away from the lentils...

Good score with the trailer! Congrats. I can't believe she trusted you to just send a check. I mean, you are a bit shifty looking. I'm just sayin'

All the LBS guys were greeting me by name, so I think she figured I must be ok. Little did she know...

Lemme tell ya, tp from Costco is a beautiful thing. A year's worth for $14. The problem is finding places to store it. I'm on my last roll now, but I'd better buy some more before Trek gets here for the weekend, which means using the car. (otherwise I'm riding in the dark; no thanks!)

My cholesterol (to quote my doc, exclamation point and all) is "very high!" So maybe I'd better be eating more lentils. If she wants to put me on statins, I'll tell her how much better it is when I really get some exercise. I'd rather spend $$ on riding than on meds. The best it's ever been was 205, and my good chol was high which made it ok. I was riding a lot then.

Must. Ride. Bike.

[KathiCville]

Hi........A few months ago I bought one of the kids' "Trans-It" trailers for my 45-lb border collie, for what I thought at the time was a good price: $200. Ack! (Impulse purchase at local Performance shop....) I discovered too late that I could have gotten the darned thing for less than half that price at Nashbar, sigh..........Now that I've seen the Croozer and other models on this thread, I wish I'd dug around more before kicking out the cash!

I tuck Sam's comfy dog bed in the bottom of the trailer, both to provide a "floor" for her and to give her a sense of safety and security when we're out on the road. (See my avatar for an on-the-move shot.....) She hates the screen and plastic cover that pull down, so I just leave 'em up. Fortunately, once she settles in and lays down, she doesn't seem to be tempted to move around much, and definitely has no interest in jumping out while we're moving. One of the first times I took her out in it, we were rolling down (actually UP) a pretty (and quiet) paved road at a slow pace when a deer popped up right next to the road, not 10 feet away. I held my breath, thinking Sam would be itchy to get out; instead, she just gazed at it contentedly as we rolled slowly by. (In fact, I could envision her doing the 'parade wave' with her paw.....) It *helps* that she's 9 and has a touch of arthritis. She loves to hike, but seems to know that her jaunts in the trailer are all about sitting back and enjoying the ride!

[xeney]

I am jealous. I am really looking forward to the day when Penelope can ride in the trailer (she's pretty strong and we managed to find a teeny helmet, so hopefully around her first birthday), but I am also regretting a bit that we bought the ultra-slick Chariot single trailer instead of a double Burley. We were thinking we'd mostly be doing family picnic rides every weekend on the bike trail, and at the time we were choosing the trailer there were a bunch of stupid barriers up on the trail that my husband thought would be difficult if not impossible to navigate with a double Burley.

But I am all about utility and being able to haul what I need to haul. Right now I am a pedestrian -- I've got a stroller with a huge shopping basket, and Penny and I run all the errands on foot, which I love. (While I was pregnant I was getting gas often enough that the guys at the gas station knew my due date. Now I'm back to filling the tank every three months -- have only filled it once since she was born!) This stroller will only fit her for about nine months, though, and the big kid strollers just don't have the storage space. I hope that we can do the shopping with the Chariot plus the baskets on my bike, but I might have to reconsider the whole single-speed situation!

I told my husband I was eventually going to get an Xtracycle and he said, "Not with my baby on board, you aren't." Apparently Mr. Let's Take The Baby Rock Climbing! thinks that the little surfboard seating arrangement is totally unsafe. And I have to admit that it looks a bit precarious. The one person I know who rides one with kids has dumped her seven-year-old at least once, too.

[Tuckervill]

Can't the baby car seat fit in the trailer? Think how safe she'd be if you could attach it to the trailer (cargo strap?) and put her in the 5 point harness of the car seat.

My baby trailer has a soft bottom (I use it for my dog), and I undid some screws and disconnected the little sling seats so I could put something stiff in the bottom for the dog (used pillows, but I want something else). If your trailer's like that, then the car seat might not work. But if it's a hard bottom trailer, I'll bet you can work something out.

Karen

[xeney]

Oh, it can definitely fit and that is how many people go riding the first year. But it's against the law in my state -- or at least, it is against the law to do it safely (go figure). It is not safe for a baby under a year old to wear a helmet, because they don't have the neck strength, and it is very unsafe to wear a helmet in a carseat. (The seat isn't meant for a helmet so it pushes the neck forward.) California law doesn't prohibit babies under one year in bike trailers, but does require bike helmets for any kid riding in a trailer. So we'd either have to break the law or be unsafe.

My personal feeling: a baby in a carseat secured into a trailer, without a helmet, is just as safe as an older kid wearing a helmet in a trailer. And I am not really above scofflawing if there is a good reason. But she's not ready to ride in the trailer for reasons unrelated to safety, anyway. (She doesn't even like to face forward in a stroller -- she is still young enough that she really needs to be able to see Mom or Dad when the world is too overwhelming.)

[SadieKate]

Xeney - the Chariot is a cool design with all the (expensive) attachments. I have friends who have been riding with their baby (just turned 1 yr a month ago) in one for sometime now and they even took him on some dirt roads in August. Jason was careful not to highside the trailer on a rut, but Ryder would get fussy if we stopped. Since he can see Jason in front of him he doesn't get worried, and he'll zonk out cold the minute the trailer starts moving. They also use it as their stroller so it's plenty big for baby (and Ryder is huge) and a few groceries. Aren't there bags even on the back that could be used for a few groceries?

The helmet even in a bike trailer seems odd. A well-built (maybe that's the problem) with a strapped-in child rolls onto a frame like a roll bar and the kid is hanging upside down, not dumped on it's head. Maybe the law should govern safety design of a bicycle trailer instead. They're definitely more stable that a child seat on a bike.

I think an Extracycle and Chariot combo would haul all the groceries and baby you'd care to power along.

I'm hoping they'll get the sled conversion so we can all go snowshoeing this winter. If not, I need to find a used Kifaru/Mountainsmith kiddie adaptor (anyone have one? )

PS - Jason was hauling Ryder uphill on dirt roads using a singlespeed mtb. Oh, to be so fit.

[Tuckervill]

Who would have thought any state would have enough time to regulate such a thing? Oh, right, California! In Arkansas, our legislature only meets every other year!

Karen

Oh, it can definitely fit and that is how many people go riding the first year. But it's against the law in my state -- or at least, it is against the law to do it safely (go figure). It is not safe for a baby under a year old to wear a helmet, because they don't have the neck strength, and it is very unsafe to wear a helmet in a carseat. (The seat isn't meant for a helmet so it pushes the neck forward.) California law doesn't prohibit babies under one year in bike trailers, but does require bike helmets for any kid riding in a trailer. So we'd either have to break the law or be unsafe.

My personal feeling: a baby in a carseat secured into a trailer, without a helmet, is just as safe as an older kid wearing a helmet in a trailer. And I am not really above scofflawing if there is a good reason. But she's not ready to ride in the trailer for reasons unrelated to safety, anyway. (She doesn't even like to face forward in a stroller -- she is still young enough that she really needs to be able to see Mom or Dad when the world is too overwhelming.)

[sgtiger]

Why is that bad? I would think it would be better?

And the Doggeeeeee Tote is made in USA!

My $0.02 for what it's worth:

I'm not sure if the same problem would exist with the trailer as we have with our tag-along bike that is seat post mounted but having the attachment there seems to affect Dh's center of gravity enough that he has to compensate for it and he really feels it when DS is wiggling around. Friends who have tried both the seat post mounted and rear-rack mounted tag-along bikes prefer the rear-rack mounted ones because the additional weight is then distributed over the rear wheel which they have reported feels more stable. I know with our Chariot, which is mounted on a rear wheel skewer attachment, I do not have any issues with DD's movement affecting my balance. Then again, the problem might not be as bad with the trailer because the weight of the load is lower and distributed between two wheels and the seat-post mount, as opposed to the load being only on top of one wheel and it's attachment point.

Perhaps someone who understands the mechanics of it better can chime in and explain it better.

[KnottedYet]

The Summer 2007 issue of The Practical Pedal had a nifty article about trailers, trailer physics, etc., and had a big influence on my trailer preferences.

I'm sure there's an online version, too. (I have the paper one)
www.practicalpedal.com