Living Car Free - How to haul child and a dog...?

My wife and I have been car free for 10 months now but there is one problem that we simply can't seem to work out. How on earth can we bring the family dog along with us?

We enjoy commuting on our Rans Screamer tandem while our daughter (2yrs) rides in a Burley Solo trailer behind. This setup serves us well but leaves our labrador retriever out of...well...everything we do. I'm looking for a creative way to tow both my daughter and our 70lb lab. Any suggestions?

I've seen one setup (I'll find the picture eventually) where a family who rides a recumbent tandem trike would haul thier dog in a Bob trailer and connect thier Burley to the axle on the Bob both behind the tandem...you still with me?...that would put our daughter almost 8 feet behind us and for commuting purposes is simply too far out.

I'm looking forward to hearing your suggestions. Thanks.

Michael

DISCLAIMER: I have never pulled a trailer behind a bike EVER... but here are some musings, which you could possibly use... possibly.

Well the ideal thing to do here if you want two trailers is to put your daugter first, and the dog farthest behind... or perhaps you could build a rig that is a double length trailer, with your daughter again in front.. Maybe even build something onto an existing good quality base like a BAW trailer? Of course, this would limit your route choices, and with such a long load, it would keep you to side roads for the most part- traffic + something like that would (probably) be difficult...

Of course, avoiding traffic when riding with your entire family is also probably a good idea.

http://www.bikesatwork.com/


Sure BAW trailers are for cargo, but they look like you could build them up.. Or build something similar yourself.


Of course you could always just figure out a way to put a trailer BEHIND your burley..

I own a bakfiets, I have taken my one year old and our two dogs along before. But, I will say our larger dog tends to circle a lot in the box which throws it off balance.

I second the Bikefiest idea. I saw a few of them when I toured through canada and people seem to really like them.

Another idea is (how old is your daughter?) to wait until your daughter can peddle too then get a triple tandem. There is a family right now who are touring on a triple tandem across north and south America and have their dog with them. Here is their web site so you can check out their setup. It is a mother, father, twin boys and a beagle i think. Might have some good ideas for you.

http://familyonbikes.org/

Is there anything wornbg with the more obvious solution of two bikes pulling two trailers rather than a single tandem train? Is money a major obstacle?

http://familyonbikes.org/

I see a guy pulling two trailers with two dogs all the time. He doesn't seem to have any problems with it. I'll ask him next time I see him.

A larger trailer might work too. A lot of trailers have room for two kids, so it seems like a kid and a pooch might fit too.

The options available to you with a recument tandem are pretty different from the options available on more typical bikes.

Can you get a child seat that fits your daughter and fits over the rear wheel of the bike? (leaving room for a trailer with the dog in it behind)

I would certainly think about ways of rigging up a trailer for the dog behind the child trailer too. Rans Screamer seems ill suited to pulling a "trail-a-bike".