Utility Cycling - Maximum speed with trailer?

Does anyone know know how fast you can realistically and safely ride with a 2 child bike trailer attached to you bike, with say:
a) one or two kids
b) some non living cargo. ;)

I have gone in the upper 20mph range with my kids, but it was with ideal conditions. (i.e. straight, smooth, etc) Same with non living.

With my kids on board I rarely get over about 10mph. With cargo it's a function of how steep the downhill is.... I've sustained 30mph and have nudged 40mph with a small load on a flatbed trailer, and higher speeds with my single wheel trailer (no cargo on at the time). The parachute effect of using the kid trailer for cargo doesn't lend itself to high speeds, but its usual cargo is 50+ pounds of groceries and its not a real good idea to get too much speed up when towing that much, so 15-20mph.

With my trailer loaded down, I usually don't leave second gear. It a '68 Varsity, lowest gears are 37 gear inches. I can do like 11 in that gear and climb any hill, then I may use the next gear to get more speed on even ground. I have gotten a loaded trailer to do 25 on flat ground, but this was a different bike, with descent brakes. With kids, keep it around 12.

Oh yeah and check the Family and Recreational forum out too. Most of us use trailers to haul stuff around, not kids. Those guys will knowmore than us.

Usually it's the extra weight and wind drag of the trailers slowing me down rather than me trying to slow myself down. Without a trailer on my commuter road bike, I cruise in the 18-19 mph range, but the trailer usually means I top out at about 15 MPH. I've only used the trailer to haul my kids but I handle straight down hills as fast as I can go. The biggest issue is turns. I really have to slow down and take turns at low speed. I've flipped my kids twice taking turns too fast. They were fine, but it scared the hell out of me.

the other thing to keep in mind is that a lot of child trailers have recommended speed limits that are quite low. I've seen guys going 60 kph + downhill with trailers that have suggested limits of 20 or 25 kph.

Thanks everyone!

Does anyone know know how fast you can realistically and safely ride with a 2 child bike trailer attached to you bike, with say:
a) one or two kids
b) some non living cargo. ;)

The real question is here is not how fast but how safely can you stop when loaded!:innocent:

THAT SAID, NEVER RIDE FASTER THAN YOUR BRAKES WILL STOP YOU!!:eek::eek::eek:

I remember flipping an old kiddie trailer when I was like 10. It was the cheap kind that clamped to the frame. It was empty and I did a corner at like 18mph. I later converted it into a cargo trailer with my 11 year old mechanical skills, and managed to break it in two downhill at 20mph with aload of 6 bags of mulch. I then bought a Burley Flatbed when I was 15, and it serves me well

The real question is here is not how fast but how safely can you stop when loaded!:innocent:
Roger that. I sometimes ride like a jackass when solo, but with the kids in the Wike, I always keep the speed down, even if everything "seems OK" to go faster. I'd rather go slow and not be sorry, y'know?

Beware that using rim brakes to keep the speed way down on a steep hill can create enough heat to blow a tire off the rim and cause a crash. At higher speeds, aerodynamic drag helps dissipate the energy, and the faster air flow over the rims help keep them cool. To minimize this potential problem:

-Descend hills at the fastest safe speed.

-Allow speed to build up, and then apply brakes for a few seconds, rather than applying brakes continuously.

-Alternate between use of front and rear brakes.

Spend some time looking at 25mph auto crashes, my kiddie Trailer warns not to exceed 14mph,
People have been killed in 35MPH crashes in cars, damage is real bad, 25 I have seen radiators mashed into fans, at 15 I saw a truck get his bumper shoved into his crank pulley, Crash damage increases greatly as speed increases, what will happen if you do crash?