advantages/disadvantages on travelling with a trailer

[Xanti Andia]

Thanks for the help with my breakes question. Now for a follow up. Any word on the relative advantages/disadvantages on travelling with a trailer instead of a full pannier load?. Seems to me there would be no difference in terms of breaking, but are trailers ever rigged with their own breaks? (I don't see it in catalogues, but truck have them in their trailers)

[masiman]

The only trailer I know of that has a brake is the Cycletote, http://www.cycletote.com/options.html.

Do a search in the touring forum. They have discussed this topic over there a number of times. I think the preferences were for panniers 1st and then single wheel trailers. Although, most respondents there are on singles. You will be able to carry more with a trailer than you can with panniers.

[merlinextraligh]

I have a Bob trailer. One advantage is it snaps on and off very easily. Don't have to have a rack on the bike when you're not using it. Another advantage is it works as a kickstand (minor but kind of cool).

[djembob02]

My wife, daughter, and I sometimes travel with a two-wheeled trailer behind our triplet. I have never ridden with panniers, but I can say that the trailer has not been a problem at all. Sure it makes for longer turns and slower hills, but otherwise things are the same. No balance issues, great tracking. I made the trailer extra long (if I remember right its about 4 feet), because we're carrying the stuff for three campers. I don't think it would all fit in panniers.

In case you're about to ask, the trailer is home made. It is actually primarily made of wood with 16" wheels from a garage sale child's bike (replaced with skinny, smooth tires), and a clearanced trailer hitch from a sporting goods store. Total cost close to $50.

Our trailer could also be used for tons of other things, though at this point, we still have our vehicles. Lots of room for groceries, supplies, etc. We could even transport one or two single bikes on the bike trailer if we needed to.

[bentbaggerlen]

I have both the Cycletote trailer (with brakes) a BOB and a few homemade trailers. We have used both behind tandems (upright and recumbent)for loaded touring and shopping.

The brakes on the Cycle-tote help quite a bit when the trailer is heavily loaded (75 lbs) They operate as serge brakes, the more weight in the trailer the more force applied to the brakes. The draw back (for touring) is that the trailer may not fit though some doorways, and the Cycle-tote dose not fold. The plus side is its huge! I have towed home well over 175 pounds with it and it holds up well. We use the Cycle-tote to bring home an X-mass tree every year.

The BOB I find better for touring, its smaller and follows the same track as your rear wheel. It's no wider then the bike towing it so you don't have to think about it when cornering. We find the lack of pockets in the both trailer a pain when touring, it always seems that what ever we need is at the bottom of the trailer. But again you can pack everything into a BOB that you could need, and then some.

But for loaded tours we use a pair of Arkel TT-84's and a pair of GT-35's. We find we have plenty of space. And we attached numbered tags to the zippers to make it easy to find things in all the pockets.