Child Trailers and Quick Release Back Wheel

I’m considering getting a fairly inexpensive single seat child trailer for our 18 month old for occasional bridal way use.

Having a quick look around the single seat Halfords version looks like it might fit the bill, but its not clear if the hitch will work with a quick release back wheel.

Halfords Trailer

I was thinking of hooking it up to my 5 Spot which has square stays to boot.

Does anyone have any experience of this trailer or recommendations of ones at around £100 price point which are Q/R compatible?

The lock nut on the QR sits in a recess on the hitch plate and so bears forces around the lock nut circumference, not on the QR skewer shaft itself.

The hitch plate should work with most dropouts, but cowled ones can be a problem. You need a flat faced drop out with maybe an extra 5mm radius face around it greater than a QR locknut face.

Stoner, thanks for the swift reply that’s a useful bit of information.

It sounds like the 5 Spot would be ok then as from memory the dropout face is flat and fairly substantial.

Funny you mentioned the cowled dropout as I was thinking if I couldn’t hook one up to the Turner I could hitch one to my Cotic!

I had to grind loads of material away to run one with a Soul some years ago, to fit inside the dropout. It ended up snapping. (This wasnt a halfords trailer though).
Take the your Turner down to a halfords, I’m sure they would let you try it.

Not had a great experience with my trailer, running it with a full-sus.

And it won’t fit my Solaris because of cowled dropouts 🙁

Not a Halfruads but QR fitting all the same – the greatest success I have had is with a bolt on the rear like on hope SS hub and bolts on my Day 1 but an allen key skewer would work well too I think ~ otherwise a bit of a faff to get everything jacked up tight to minimise paint rub!

takisawa2, good thinking about taking my bike to try it out, obvious really but I still hadn’t thought of it!

Oxymoron, I do also own a bolt up QR in my box of spare but what problems did you find towing with a full-sus?

I have that trailer. As above, you’ll need a bike with a dropout that’s flat behind the QR nut so that the attachment can fit. Full cowled dropouts wouldn’t work.

Other than that though, it’s a decent trailer and it worked fine with a standard QR skewer for me.

I bought one of these…..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Blue-Grey-Double-Kids-Child-Children-Bike-Bicycle-Trailer-Stroller-Buggy-Carrier-/200906389799?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item2ec6f43927

its bloomin brilliant for the price! very sturdy and the kids absolutely love it….taken them round green and blue routes in swinley and it rides very well. It weights quite a bit but still easy to pull and rolls well.

the QR can be a bit of a pain to mount as people have suggested in cowled dropouts (i have these on my camber) so I need to rotate the mount a bit to fit….You can also find some nice snug washers to fit between plate and dropout. The mount hole is 10mm (well about 10.2mm to be precise) so you can run a 10mm bolt through it and secure with a nut (this works really well and you can do up nice and tight).

pretty sure you can get it to work with a bit of tinkering! trailer does come with a strong strap which you wrap round the chainstay should the worst happen!

Oh forgot to say …you can actually just buy the mount below:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATTACHMENT-CLIP-KIDS-PET-LUGGAGE-BIKE-BICYCLE-TRAILER/200524418976?rt=nc

its the same as the halfords one and many others that mount through the QR.

I had a halfords double and it worked fine with my fs as the dropout was flat, the problem I had was the security tether wasn’t quite long enough and ran dangerously close to the disk. It was much better on a HT due to the less complicated dropout area. FWIW my FS is Horst link so there was a lot of extra metal thanks to the pivot.

I’ve got a Burley trailer that won’t fit on my hardtail (Cotic, again) because they’re cowled. I’m wondering if a shim would do the trick…

I did fit the plate on the inside of a cowled drop out once. I wouldn’t recommend it, and I think it would be hub specific. Spacers on the outside as mentioned also work, there’s usually enough slack on the QR skewer to do it.

I’ve towed with my old Superlight which I can guarantee is not warrantied or recommended without issue so a Five Spot shouldn’t have a problem other than locking it when you get there – this I was why I built a general purpose bike for such things.

Clubber and I Ache thanks for the additional input its appreciated.

doncorleoni thanks for the recommendation and review that does look like a lot of trailer for the money!

My chariot hitch fits on my Cotic X with cowled dropouts no problems, it’s also been mounted on the full suss without incident too.

I’ve got a double seat Trailer with the very same means of attachment, I’ve hauled a 3.5 and 1.5 year old plus kit and picnic bits all attached to a 456 via the rear QR…

I do also make sure I put that tether strap is around the stay just in case the hitch were to fail, I do have to loop it round the stay once just to be sure there isn’t too much slack looking to get into the disc…

Not tried mounting it on an FS bike, but I can’t see it being too much of an issue. the hitch plate can rotate a little if needs be, and the sprung connector arrangement in the arm acts like a sort of UJ to account for plenty of jiggling and joggling (as my eldest calls it)…

rossburton – to get a Burley to fit any frame, you just need one of these

They’re just like a standard QR but with the hitch added externally. So you can run them with disc brakes, or to any dropout

Mr Hoppy – snap! 😉
I run a Chariot Cougar with my Cotic X, and Cotic Soul, no issues. Did have probs with the Roberts bike due to the Rohloff Gear changer but this was solved with the use of Wandertec spacers (did need two!) to space it out.
Our 8 month old seems to really enjoy the trailer and it means the missu and I can ride together again. With her on the mtb and me on the cross bike we both get a workout.

Ditto, my Chariot runs perfectly fine on the cowled drop-outs on my fortitude.

I hear Chariot are even working on a system for 142 x 12mm back ends, talk about every base covered.

I’ve got the Halfords double buggy and use it on forest trails where it works really well. The halfords one unhitches really easily which is handy for getting it through gates etc (as compared to my mates Burley trailer which is a PITA to unhitch). A rear mudguard reduces the amount of muck that gets flung at the trailer.

Oxymoron, I do also own a bolt up QR in my box of spare but what problems did you find towing with a full-sus?

It was with a double trailer on a yeti asr, but got bobbing and felt like it was putting extra load and year on the pivots, if that makes any sense?

And the Mrs has run one on her Nexus hub bolts.

binners – thanks, didn’t know that existed. Now to find a source that isn’t forty quid!

I just bought a Chariot Cougar, and it fits fine on my day-to-day bike, but I’ve got some trips planned where I want to be able to put it on my road bike, which doesn’t have enough clearance around the drop out.

Burley do a spacer thing which looks like it’d do the job: it replaces the nut on the QR and has a stud on it onto which you screw the trailer hitch. I can find it for $10 in the US, but I can’t find stock in the UK.

So I’m now looking to get a simple spacer. clanton – where did you get the Wandertec spacers from?