Touring - Bob trailer experience

Does anyone have experience with a Bob trailer towed behind a Trail-a-Bike? We will be riding the C&O & Allegheny Passage from DC to Pittsburgh.

Thanks!

Keep the rubber side down!

Don

I saw quite e few people with a trailer, and they seemed to be happy.

I was just working on a similar question. I attached our Chariot Cougar 2 (http://www.chariotcarriers.com/english/html/cougar.php) to the back of my boy's trail-a-bike (http://www.rei.com/product/774425). We are planning a 175 mile father-son bike ride and we intend to use the Charriot to haul our camping gear.

I have logged many miles towing 1-2 kids in the Chariot and I am amazed at how well it tracks. It hardly effects stability at all since it attaches to the rear axle. It's very smooth on the flats, but you do feel the extra weight on the hills.

My concern startswhen we build a train consisting of my bike, the trail-a-bike and then the trailer. At first I was worried that my son would not be heavy enough and the trailer might push him around in a hard breaking situation. But the trail-a-bike itself weighs a ton and after experimenting, I don't think it's an issue. There are a lot more force vectors at play when you are starting off, expecially on a hill, but it is managable. The only remaining concern is braking. Can my little roadbike brakes handle all the extra weight?

After a couple test rides, we think it's doable. Hopefully I can give you all an update at the end of June after we pull it off.

NOTE: You may not be able to attach the BOB to a trail-a-bike because the trail-a-bikes that I have seen do not have quick release skewers. This was a very easy workaround with the Chariot connector, but I have no idea what the BOB connector looks like.

I've never done that, but Joe Kurmaski hauled a trail-a-bike and a kiddie trailer all the way across the US. You can read aboaut that journey in Momentum is Your Friend (available at Amazon or bookstores).

I have both but haven't ever hooked it all up together. I could probably give it a try for you. The C&O is pretty rough and that kind of rig might be tough to handle.


monkd

NOTE: You may not be able to attach the BOB to a trail-a-bike because the trail-a-bikes that I have seen do not have quick release skewers. This was a very easy workaround with the Chariot connector, but I have no idea what the BOB connector looks like.

Bob sells axle nuts for non-quick-release axles . . . at a gouging $25/pair (http://www.bobgear.com/accessories/accessory.php?accessories_id=14), though.

Does anyone have experience with a Bob trailer towed behind a Trail-a-Bike? We will be riding the C&O & Allegheny Passage from DC to Pittsburgh.

No. But thinking it through I'm waffling between thinking that's a lot of additional torque on the attachment point between the trail-a-bike & front bike; vs. no-big-deal.

Conclusion: If that's the equipment I had, I'd probably use it.

First tour with my BOB I thought it felt like I was riding a tandem with a 10yo stoker who just couldn't hold still. I'd expect that adding a trail-a-bike in between would magnify that effect.

I went back to panniers after a tour with my Bob because I felt like it was harder to pull up hills. Adding it to a Trail-a-bike sounds much worse, unless your stoker is a hard pedaler. (A lot of the kids I've seen on one seem to spend a significant amount of time loafing and letting the captain do the work.)

However, in the interest of family unity, I'd try it myself if my kids were young again, though I'd try to find a route that was as flat as possible.

We just got back from a 63 mile, 2 night, round trip. We got a late start and only did about 20mi each day. We spent most of the second day fishing at the lake 30mi from home.

I think that I can definitely say that I would not pull the rig this way again. I still can't tell if it is that much more unstable than pulling the trail-a-bike or the wagon by themselves, or if I am just not accustomed to pulling up hills at 5mph. It was smoother on the 30 mi back than on the first 30mi, but still suboptimal.

It was only after putting this all together with my new-to-me Cannondale T800 (which is AWESOME) did I realize that I still have room for my rack with the trail-a-bike. Therefore, we will be trying panniers on the next trip. Whatever can't fit in the panniers can stay home!

The wagon weighs 28lbs unloaded. The over engineered trail-a-bike weighs 25lbs. That's as much as my Cdale.

Between the extra rolling resistance of the 2-wheeled trailer, the fact that we would occassionally drop a wheel off the road when hugging the curb (the wheel jumped back up easy enough), and the weight of the trailer itself, I think it's a no brainer to go with the panniers.

I would have to pack the panniers low so that they do not interfere with turning. I also realized that if I take the shifter guard off the trail-a-bike I could probably fit it with a small rack. That means the boy can carry the tent and bed rolls if they won't fit into the panniers.

The good news is that the boy is a great stoker. His trail-a-bike is a 7-spd, and that makes a big difference when you are only going 5mph uphill. Otherwise you can expect to be dragging a lot of dead weight.

We stealth camped, cooked dinner and breakfast, ate tons of junk food in between, and had a great time. We'd definitely do it again with a slightly smarter rig.

This looks like a much more reasonable rig:
http://www.pbase.com/canyonlands/image/72563966