[Closed] STW dadsnet- talk to me about child cycle trailers

I got one of those a2z ones off eBay. Purty basic but my daughter loves it! Only about 70 notes from memory and nicely finished.

Bikes are great 🙂

shoved both of mine in a £60 halfrauds one....they used to love it always fell asleep in it too so nice and comfy for them too.

We've got a chariott and it's great, expensive but hold their value well for selling on ebay on a few years time. There's a baby sling for it that works well, had our youngest in it at 6 months... he fell asleep all the time.

Phil

5mths sounds a little on the young side to be in a trailer, don't most of them start from around 12-18 months?

We have German one called 'Little Van'. We've used it with our nephews, but now have our own 8 week old. He will hopefully be going for a spin this weekend.

I have removed the standard seats, and made a mount to hold his infant car seat (Maxi Cosi Cabriofix) securely in it. I'm waiting for some vibration isolating mounts to arrive before I fix it in the base of the trailer. The car seat is designed to be rear facing, but I plan to have it facing the front as speeds will be low and there will be little risk of high impact.

When he's big enough to sit up unaided, I'll refit the seat. I'll post up some pictures when the set-up is finished.

I bought one SH on ebay that was brand new but the guy who bought it didn't think to measure his daughter and she was too tall (and to old TBH) for it.

Paid £45 quid and it's one of the german blue ones that has suspension. Fairly OK build quality. I took all the brakes off for when it can be used as a stroller and it's pretty good.

I recon you could fasten a car seat into it and get good results. Go for it, my Daughter hates the first 5 mins, settles into it, loves it and then fall's asleep. Mines all packed up in the car ready for the weekend in the new forest. Hope the weather stays dry!!

Chariot Cougar is the daddy. I did a lot of research and ended up with the Cougar. Suspension that works, great build quality and my daughter loves it. The third wheel option is perfect for Nursery runs and it's been great both off road and in the snow. Even had it up the summit of Craigower a few weeks ago. 😀 It folds up to a reasonably manageable size for loading into the car.

Expensive but absolutely worth every penny. We ditched the travel system after getting it.

At 5 months they might want a bit more neck support than they will get in a trailer?

But if your kid can hold it's head up already...

Trailers are great - wish we'd got one sooner. Seem much less effort than a seat and more comfy for the kid although don't think they can see as much.

And we are only child family - if you have 2+ sprogs would have thought trailer is essential.

We got the Halfords £70 one - lasted us a couple of years and was in good enough nick to give away to friends after sitting outside for 6 months

Sanny, I've been a bit quick off the mark here. I've been swithering for weeks, but this thread has just "made" me order a Cougar; however a look at a photo I just Googled shows the hitch attached to the rear quick release. I've got a Maxle rear axle, is there a workaround do you reckon?

5mths sounds a little on the young side to be in a trailer

Not if it's got suspension and a baby hammock/sling

At 5 months they might want a bit more neck support than they will get in a trailer

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I've got a Maxle rear axle, is there a workaround do you reckon?

I looked at this.

They also make a chainstay attachment.

If you have an Orange 5 or similar then you will need to do some clever machining unfortunately. Or just get a 456 frame.

we have one very happy 15 month old in a bumper explorer and her older brother 4 and a half still goes in on occaisopns and loved it. I have a weber baby shell seat that can be used up to about 16 months from very young for slae in the classifieds, we did not get much use bacuasse of the freezing weather from nov to feb so its pretty much as new, supposed to go in teh chariot or cougar ones but fitte outs fine and will fit any that u can get the straps around the frame.

We bought a Cougar 1 a couple of weeks ago from Holland, was over 100gbp cheaper than buying in the UK. Site was [url= http://www.veclo.com ]veclo[/url]

It is fantastic, daughter sleeps really well in it(she is 7months). I even managed to run a 10km run with it in 49min so super happy about that.

yes not suitable till they can support own kneck unless you ise a devoce like Molgrips. all much of a muchness in my experience you are only poing to pootle along gentle off roadish paths
FWIW with one I would much prefer using the seat behind you type version tbh. They do need to be much older for this though

They also make a chainstay attachment

Cheers Molgrip.

I've got a Blood so chainstay clamp will hopefully do the trick. An extra and not included I presume?

EDIT: That was all wrong.

chariot.eu is down atm...

Oh and there's an intermediate baby seat avaialable from 6mo to 18mo ish, but the US version is a totally different thing to the EU version and is much better. Look on REI.com for US stuff.

Cool, cheers. Failing that I'll get the fabricator at work to knock something up.

Nope. That's for the [url= http://www.chariotcarriers.com/english/html/sidecarrier.php ]SideCarrier[/url] which looks rather funky.

Back to the OP after hijacking the thread,
After doing the same research and seeing some lengthy threads on here, I eventually plumped for getting a 2nd hand Chariot Cougar. It is a great bit of kit.
The Cougar has leaf(?) suspension. Although it also has a very well designed seating area which provides a good level of comfort. Some of the cheaper ones have a less forgiving bench style of seat.
General opinion seemed to be that the more expensive trailers (cougar, burley, croozer) are worth the money if you are going to be going off road a lot with them.

Def use the forum search tool to find the trailer discussion threads that have been on over the last few months. They'll prob answer all of your questions.

I know, I really like those side carriers.. not available on the other side though for us folk 🙁

As tim - the reason for Chariot for us was solely the suspension aspect.

It is leaf sprung and isn't particularly sophisticated at low speeds but superb at high speeds.

I've been thinking about this for a long while and have decided on a Cougar 2 - if anyone has one for sale please drop me a mail!

[sorry for the blatant hijack]

For anyone who doesn't have a zillion pounds to spare, the croozer trailers are very good, and also have a baby sling so you can put small babies in them.

I've just come back from a quick twenty mile spin along the Cromford Canal, up the High Peak Trail to Middleton Top, picnic then back down and home, was brilliant, lovely warm weather, beautiful scenery and a massive climb / descent, combined with a good bit of play time at the top.

At least in our croozer by the way, you are still fine in bad weather, we've been out all winter, just wrap them up warm and make sure the wind cover is closed.

The only downside of trailers is when you slow down to go up a hill and the baby starts moaning at you to hurry up, our one hates going slow, it appears to be all about wind in her hair for her. It's kind of like having a little boss who cracks the whip when she wants to be taken somewhere faster. I'm dreading her learning to talk!

Lol.. when I am driving on the motorway Meg doesn't like it if other cars pass us. She tells me off!

It's worth remembering that you will more than likely have to stop every hour or so to let your kid out for a run about which will take a while. A 2 hour ride can take all day 🙂