Child Trailers

PrettyBoyTim

Does anyone here have any experience with child trailers?

I'd like to get one to pull my almost-3-year-old Son around in, just to do things like drop him off at nursery or go for a picnic or something like that.

Unfortunately a lot of them seem to be prohibitively expensive (£300-£500), and I'm not sure if the cheaper (£100ish) ones are any good, or if they're all heavy and uncomfortable.

Anybody have any advice for me?

Cheers,

Tim

jjojjas

Hi Tim
I have an edinburgh cycles one (£125) and it has its uses and limmits.
Its collapsible quick enough, it transports my 2 youngest kids ok (9 month & nearly 3 years) and its ok for carrying the odd load such as a dog or shopping etc...
Down sides - if its windy you have sail behind you...and you'll know about it. It's wide and will not fit through stiles/doors, or those annying barriers you see on cycle paths to stop motorbikes. and I find my two kids scrap when tied in there together. The three year old isn't far off the top of the hood now.
I'm thinking of getting a child seat for her.
I wouldn't personally spend that much on one, mines 3 year old and still fine after being used & put up & down most weeks. The quality is ok.
Look on ebay. Chapo ones fron £89, expensive ones about £350.

Mister Paul

I have a Phillips one (one of the Raleigh companies). I got it from St John Street Cycles about 4 years ago for around £60. It has been faultless.

The cheap ones are fine for your kind of use. The Spokey Joe ones at Halfords are also decent.

My sister recently bought one of the Ebay trailers from Germany and she says that she has had no problem with it.

zummerzet_lou

We have a cheap Raleigh one (think it was £70).

folds neatly, and wheels are removable to make it compleltly collapsable but is a bit of a faff to keep taking them on and off so whilst in the garage they tend to stay on.

I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old now (bought it when my eldest was 1) and have used it loads.

Kids love going in it, great to still be able to cycle with them AND both hubbies and my bike had frames that you can't fit a kiddy seat to so this was the only option.

Only downside i that with 2 lil uns in it, its hard work .. but I counter it with having burnt more calories so can have guilt free cakes ;-)

Lou

yr35

I have the adventure alloy trailer £149 from wiggle. Good quality, I don't think you need to worry about cheaper being less good. Like the others, Pro's and Cons.

Two kids argue when they're in it together. No room for helmets. 4 year old basically too old now. Have since bought a trailer bike, £100 ish from edinburgh bikes, he loves that.

Advantage is that two children carried on one bike.

Tony666

I got the Raleigh one from Argos http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... 363833.htm - easy to put up and down. The only slight problem is my daughter is now 3 and her head, with helmet on, touches the hood, but then that can be rolled back.

Gray Ghost

Hi I have had one for almost four years now bought a end of season one so got a better deal I would not have paid full price but I did still pay £200. My 1st child loved it sat on her own with teddy and a whole load of toys and the three ton of stuff my wife sneaked in to the back.

I have used it behind my Audax bike my slick shod mountain bile and my Stumpjumper and there is nothing to fault it. My now 5 year old has been up and down as well as along the South Downs Way dartmoor and the New forest, it has done a great job of getting everyone out.

I now have 18 month old twins who fill the trailer fight like cat and dog (or just 18 moth old twins) the load is getting more noticeable now :oops: seriously check the brakes every time we go out but as I said before I would not do with out it.

I did have a seat on the back but that got too much fairly soon as the little one keeps looking round your shoulders, and the bike handled like you would expect with a bag of spud on you shoulders.

Mine is a CTS Chariot I also have the buggy kit so when we go camping I do not need to take a push chair I just stick the wheels on the front and away we go, great for shopping trips with the little ones.

Rambled on a bit so that’s my Two euros worth.

Gray ghost

barbej

I have two trailer bikes and a trailer. All the trailer bikes I have used are pretty good. A couple of thing I would say are:
I have used the Dawes tag a long and earler models would not stretch over the rear wheel without hitting a rack if you have one fitted.
For seat post mounted ones its best just going for the basic 1 speed steel model (ideally with mudguards) as your chiild will not use the gears and you will not notice the extra 1kg weight what with the weight of the child.
It is best to have full mudgaiards on your bike unless you plan only to cycle on dry days.
If you do need to transport two children I would suggest looking at the German Rowland tag a long from Walton Street Cycles. They cost about £300 but as they attach to the rear of a rack which is supplied, you can also mount a childseat on the rack. We have had one for two years now and use it every day. The quality of this tag a long is also better. We got the three speed hub geared one which has quality alloy wheels and Schwalbe Marathon tyre.

PrettyBoyTim

Okay, so in the end I bought a trailer off eBay, like this one, from the same people. It ended up costing me about £60, including postage from Germany. It took about a week to arrive and appears to have passes the German safety standards for bike trailers. It appears to basically be the same trailer as http://www.is-us.co.uk/ is selling.

The trailer itself is steel framed, and quite heavy, and the quality of manufacture was satisfactory, if not great. Not that it doesn't feel solidly built, it's just the accuracy seems a bit off in places, which makes it harder than it should to fit the handlebars to it to convert it to a buggy, for instance. Also, the mechanism for connecting the trailer to the bike wouldn't tighten well enough at first; there is a plastic bit that stops the tightening bolt from slipping round, but it seemed shoddily made and wasn't working. In the end I devised my own solution to hold the bolt while tightening the grip on the bike. There is also a failsafe leash to prevent the trailer from separating from the bike should the grip fail, but with my modifications, I'm not worried. There is a visibility flag that attaches to the trailer, but unfortunately, being made for the German market, it attaches onto the wrong side. Shouldn't be difficult to fix.

The trailer does fold down, but taking the wheels off is tricky due to having to remove the wheel protecting bars on either side first, so I don't bother. The means that it can still take up a fair bit of space when folded up.

I used it for the first time 'in anger' today, to take my son to nursery - the ride is really short, probably only about a mile (or less), but a lot quicker than walking there. Gabriel seemed to enjoy the ride, but the drag of the extra weight of him and the trailer was noticeable, especially up the hill that makes up the last part of my journey! Also, to try and keep the ride smooth for him, I was trying to make sure the wheels of the trailer didn't go into potholes, which kind of meant I had to go through them myself, so that the trailer wheels would go either side of them. It's a very odd feeling heading for them rather than avoiding them!

I would say it's a great trailer for the price, but getting one so cheap does mean that you end up making some compromises in size, weight and build quality. I guess you could say it's probably the Skoda of the trailer world, compared the BMWs you can get for £300-£400 ;-)

PrettyBoyTim

Oh, I should mention that due to the problem with the grip, the guys I bought the trailer from on eBay offered to ship me a new one, no charge or offer me a complete refund. I didn't accept at the time, as it seemed wasteful to ship the whole thing to Germany and back over a 2 gram piece of plastic, so I asked them if they could supply me with just a replacement for the plastic bit.

I just got a mail from them apologising for the fact that they don't have any spare parts, but offering me a £5 refund if I don't wish for them to send me a new one.

pigman

got one of those cheap raleigh things.
GOOD - price
seems strong
folds up
decent weatherproofing
easy to hitch up to bike
BAD - hard work (ok for local trips, but wouldn't want to do over 10 miles with it) - had to put gears back onto my singlespeed MTB commuter to cope.
hitch based on spring rather universal joint - get an "elastic pull" feel when you accelerate
why does it need nobbly tyres?

In summary - ok for local commutes, nature trails etc. not so good if you want to do decent rides - get a burly or sommat better.

Noel PT

Hi there,

I realise this post is done but, just a quick question.

I've got a two month old and was wondering how old he needs to be before I can put in the trailer.

I can't seem to find specifics.

PrettyBoyTim

My trailer says 18 months and above, but that may vary between trailers. Certainly I'm sure you'd probably have to wait until your child can hold his head up easily.

Noel PT

I guessed that would be the case, I am obviously a little worried about taking him in the trailer to early. But at the same time I am really keen to get out with the fam.

PrettyBoyTim

I just had a look at the manual for the CTS Cheetah trailers ( http://www.chariotcarriers.com/pdf/owne ... ah_eng.pdf ) - it says children must be at least 1 year old, and able to sit upright unaided.

PrettyBoyTim

A quick word of warning...

My son had fiddled with the gripper part of the trailer, and lost the tightening knob. I replaced it with a wing nut, but today I evidently didn't tighten it enough, and the grip came loose and wrapped itself around the wheel spokes as I was halfway on my journey dropping my son off at nursery. Took me ages to get it out of the wheel, and it's put it a bit out of true, which is annoying as the bike is only a few weeks old!

Luckily when it happened I was going pretty slowly, but I think in future I may install a plastic sheet or something to prevent it from hitting the wheel if something similar happens again. I'll also tighten with some pliers until I can find the original tightening knob, (or a suitable replacement)...

Having said that, I have found that riding with a child trailer, other drivers are really, really nice to me, stopping to let me cross roads, turn right and the like - it's lovely!

zummerzet_lou

We have a trailer .. and I thnk James was about 14 months when we first took him out in it.

His sister was only 9 months ... took them both out on trails so not near traffic, and James was "looking" after her and she was fine.

up to you, spose a lot depends on how your little ones are with new experiences?

Lou

Noel PT

You know you are a little to inthusiastic about cycling, when you are already finding out about trailers and your child is only 2 months old.

I really have to find some other interests.

Thanks for the help guys

Mister Paul

The minimum age on a trailer is only to absolve responsibility, and based on neck muscle strength.

you can get a pretty young baby safely in a trailer by fixing their car seat in.

Noel PT

Yeh, I saw a few people that have done it. I will be looking into it in a few months. His neck is already looking more and more stable by the day.

Thanks for the info.

Mister Paul

We did it with bungee cords and the straps already in the trailer. If it passes the obsessively over-protective new mom test, as ours did, then it must be ok.

JJDLD

Re babies in trailers. We’ve inherited an old Chariot trailer – previous owners used it for their three children and now we’re using it with our six month old (although he first used it in off-road pram mode round Dalby and Grisedale forests at around two months).

It came with an old car seat which had been hacked around to make it fit in the “footwell” in front of the seat. With clever use of webbing straps the car seat can be anchored in pretty tightly, but at quite a reclined angle so his head isn’t flopping forward. Son loves it and is normally asleep within minutes (bonus!).

JJ.

mailmannz

Mister Paul wrote:

The minimum age on a trailer is only to absolve responsibility, and based on kneck muscle strength.

you can get a pretty young baby safely in a trailer by fixing their car seat in.

Are there any trailors that are designed for baby seats?

Regards

Mailman

baudman

Mister Paul wrote:

The minimum age on a trailer is only to absolve responsibility, and based on kneck muscle strength.

you can get a pretty young baby safely in a trailer by fixing their car seat in.

Sorry - a bit of cross posting here, as this was also discussed in the Commuting forum, but the paternal instinct in me is plonking it in here also, so everyone can stay informed.

Bent Mikey wrote:

Here's a safety article about trailers:
http://www.londonskaters.com/cycling/article-child-trailer-safety.htm

And here's another - This article mentions a few things about safety, but the key one that concerned me was about the possible 'shaken baby syndrome' aspect.
http://www.helmets.org/little1s.htm

We got a Croozer 737 trailer. We chose a trailer over a bike seat for a few reasons. Firstly, most of the research I read said that it is far safer. Secondly, it can be used for a variety of purposes (groceries etc). The Croozer also comes with a trolley-style wheel so you can use it as a stroller, and a better wheel so you can use it as a jogger, which we have on many occasions. I was impressed with this multi-use aspect, as well as the Croozer's method of attaching to the bike, which I use on my commuter heap, but I've also used on my disc-equipped dually.

There are a variety of children's helmets out there that will fit very small heads. We bought a Netti. However, when you have it adjusted down so that it fits 'bubba's head, the helmet is still very large on their head so there's a lot of leverage and strain on a little neck.

Most of the studies I read say that you shouldn't mix bikes and kids before they turn one, and from my observations with the helmet, I'd tend to agree. She loved it, but we only went out a few times before her first birthday. She's now 18 months old and adores it. Now that the weather is warming up again in Australia, we'll be using it more often.

One more thing - grab a mirror. I use a Zefal Spy - mainly coz I already had it.

Mister Paul

mailmannz wrote:

Mister Paul wrote:

The minimum age on a trailer is only to absolve responsibility, and based on kneck muscle strength.

you can get a pretty young baby safely in a trailer by fixing their car seat in.

Are there any trailors that are designed for baby seats?

Regards

Mailman

I think you can buy an attachment for a Chariot trailer to fit a baby in. Speak to Amba Marketing, who are the importers.

Mister Paul

Yup, it's right to be wary. At the end of the day you have to make your own decision based on what you know.

But I'd be very wary of that helmets.org page. When people start making completely uneducated comments about "shaken baby" injuries then you know there's an element of drama involved.

barbej

You can get a sling for the CTS Trailers for very young children. You are only supposed to use it whilst walking which seems to be for legal reasons as they will not be wearing a helmet. we used it from about 3-4months old with great success.

fatoldhippy

This sounds like a familiar story - before I go down the chop-down-an-old-carseat path, does anyone know if either the sling for the Chariot or the Weber baby seat (as sold for use in Chariot and Croozer) can be used in the Bumper Explorer Solo?

Sounds like I'm in good company, looking for a way to get a 4-6 month-old to nursery on the bike as well as get her safely out with us on the bikes.

We may eventually decide it's too risky and only trailer on days out, but I'd like her to have the option as soon as possible. Like many others, Bumper Explorer is labelled as 18 months.