[Closed] Chariot vs Croozer trailers

I plumped for a croozer over the chariot for reasons of price and componentry that came as standard.

The croozer has been fantastic and done many miles with Jr in as a trailer, a jogger/off road buggy and around town with the dolly-wheel on the front.

All the attachments come with as standard - with the chariot you need to dip your pocket again. Although the croozer isnt suspended there is enough suspension in the canvas seat to iron out a lot of the bumps. Croozer weight is a few Kg more than the chariot but that can be trimed if you mod it by removing the metal bumpers (at your own risk).

Id make the same choice again.

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We've got a Croozer 737 single trailer, and a Burley d'Lite double trailer; and although the Burley feels "better" made - there's nothing wrong with the Croozer at all - and as Stoner said - it's complete; whereby we had to buy a separate stroller wheel for our Burley

We've got a Chariot Cougar 2 bought secondhand- it's got leaf springs which imo makes a difference, but as Stoner says, the extras for a Chariot will add dramatically to the cost if you want them.

If I hadn't found the Chariot secondhand then we would have bought a new Croozer, the Cougar's about £300 more than the equivalent Croozer, and it's almost certainly not worth it.

There's quite often secondhand ones nearly unused up for sale- people tend to either use them a lot, or not at all. Our nearly unused Cougar was £250 fwiw.

I have a croozer 737 like in the pics above, excellent buy.

Smug Chariot CX 2 user here. Extra smugness brought about by purchasing it in Canada and it costing half as much as getting one in the UK. Can't comment on the Croozer but the Chariot is an awesome piece of kit.

For reference, a new Croozer 2 went for £330 on ebay recently (sold by a shop). A second hand Croozer 2 went for £320 I think, also on ebay.

Can vinnyeh let me kwow when he/she spots a 2nd hand Chariot for sale - I'm in the market. Based on my research, and that of others, chariots are a little better than the others and the price premium can be reduced by buying one from biker-boarder.de or in the US or canada (I have friends and relatives in both, so I'm looking into buying one there as well).

smurf

I've got a Chariot, and happy I made that choice - given my taste in expensive bikes it seemed silly to scrimp on the trailer I was going to pull behind them. Given current prices though, I think I might save my pennies with the Croozer - good thing from that perspective is that I suspect I won't have lost much in depreciation!

My brother in law is bike-mechanic and cycle freak (Munich-Hamburg in a day) and he recommended the croozer for the better value for money. I have tried both and I think it really is a question of extra convenience - the croozer is a safe and sound option. They are co-operating with Chariot after all. It is however slightly on the large and chunky side. This makes it less suitable for us, because we live in a small flat. If you have a garage to put it away in, the Croozer should be fine in that respect.

Personally we opted for the Chariot CX in the end for the following reasons:
a) smaller and lighter design
b) hand brakes (which I love as a runner)
c) much higher re-sale value - three year old sets go for 800+ Euros in Germany, so in the end the price difference for a 3-year lease is much less than 400£, if that makes sense

I have also done some market research back home and found either trailer to be a lot cheaper on the continent than in the UK. If you are interested, you can send me a message. I am not going to post any web page here which might be regarded as a sneaky way of advertising.

Cheers

Btw, if anyone is still interested in this post, Chariot Carriers Inc and Croozer Designs are both at:
#105 - 5760 9th Street SE
Calgary, AB, Canada
T2H 1Z9
T: 403.640.0822
F: 403.640.0759

Yes, the telephone number is even the same.

They are the same people - probably trying to capture the top end and the middle of the market. Interestingly, Mountain Equipment Coop of Canada also do an identical Croozer model under their own name, and its made in China - and much cheaper than the equivalent Croozer. This means that Chariot have either bought in a very good Chinese model that they have rebranded or they are licencing out their Chinese manufactured but Canadian designed model to the odd friendly company that won't distribute outside of Canada. Either way, since Chariot Carriers inc are serious about bike carriers, the Croozer and its ilk are good products, if not actually made in the Calgary factory.

What stoner said, we've been really happy with our croozer (the 2010 light blue version). The canvas seat offers a bit of give for the little one when doing light off roading. The ability to take the bike hitch off and then use it as a stroller has been excellent, something we've used a lot. The storage is good also for baby bag and enough other crap for a half day out!

Holy old thread!

Anyway, the suspension on a Chariot Cougar and above is well worth the extra money I reckon. If you want to take small kids in it.

has anyone got a chariot for sale???

I have a croozer for sale the single seat one, with both front wheel adaptors, a baby seat adaptor, toddler head support. mail me, I can do pics when I get home tomorrow.

We have a Burley d'Lite which we bought the jogger kit for to save karting pushchairs on hols too. If we'd have know how much we would shell out on pushchairs and trailers we would have bought the Chariot from the off.

Toys19, have you still got the Croozer for sale? if so, PM me with whatever you can ref pics, price, condition etc.

Cheers

fugu, would be interested in your market research but apparently newer members aren't allowed to pm. Would you mind sending the info to ric dot davey at gmail dot com?
Cheers