I’ve recently bought a Trailgator second hand on ebay.

For the life of me I can’t get it to fit my bikes which have 30.9 seat posts. The instructions (online) say it wil go up to 31.8 seat post size, but there is no way it will fit. I’ve even take the bracket apart and bent it open a bit more!

All I can now think is that older versions were made for smaller seat post, and the more modern ones are made for wider seat posts?

I can’t really help other than to say I’ve got mine on a 31.6 post, it went on easily…

I’m pretty sure spare brackets are pretty cheap.

Have you got the correct plastic shim fitted? They used to come with a few sizes.

GB

has the previous owner fitted it to a smaller post without using shims and bent it?

mine would definitely go on a 31.6. How old is it? maybe older versions were smaller?

pics?

It should have come with a few different size plastic shims. If even without these it still doesn’t fit then I would suggest the pervious owner has bent the clamp in too far and it needs quite a lot more bending to open it up. I’ve come across this before I just had to bend it open.

I’ve taken all the shims out, and as above tried to bend the clamp open further..no joy.

To be honest it was a bad purchase. It’s rusty, so I assume quite old, and the stabiliser arm that goes from the handlebar to the arm is missing.

Telco are doing complete new ones for £40 at the minute, so half tempted to buy the whole thing brand new. Obviously no point though if it won’t fit my bike..

I think the stabiliser arm is essential. I tried to quickly test ours without the arm and my little girl couldn’t stay upright. With the arm it’s a doodle

Halfords = 40 quid too

My son unhooked the arm without me noticing last time out and it still seemed ok

I never worked out where the stabiliser arm went so haven’t used it. No problems so far. sounds like you need to open the clamp up carefully, and clean it out inside.

Rickt. Thanks for that, reserved one at my local Halfords to pick up this aft. Will take the seat post to see if it fits.

FunkyDunc – Member
Rickt. Thanks for that, reserved one at my local Halfords to pick up this aft. Will take the seat post to see if it fits

No worries, I have been looking at them too but can’t decide if my lad is too small yet, he’s between bike seat and gator but I can see him wanting to get off or me having to go slow……….

Go for it I would say. Bought and installed today! Then spent about 2 hrs having to ride up and down the street, he wouldn’t get off it!!

Jnr FD has been in a Weeride (which he loved) but has grown too big for it at 3 and a bit.

He’s had a balance bike for about a year, and zooms around on that. He got the bike in the pic about 2 months ago, but won’t pedal it, I think this will encourage him when I get the pedals back on.

does yours lean marginally to the left from vertical?

Dunc, cool, is that a 12 inch wheeled bike ? If so, that’s the same as my lad has.

Can you leave the stabilisers on the bike ?? If not, I can see it been bit of a pain……

Does anyone have any issues with slop in their trailgator? Mine is so bad that the left pedal is striking the floor at times!!

Rickt yes its the 12″. Never had the stabilizers on it so couldn’t comment.

I’d strongly recommend taking stabilisers off with a trail gator because when you lean over slightly whilst turning they suddenly touch ground and limit how for you can lean and hence mess your turning up.

You can buy special stabilisers for use with a Trail Gator that flip up when not needed. Saves alot of messing about.