Isaiahc72

Could someone help me understand how a single-wheel trailer puts stress on the bike's frame? The one I have right now is by Aosom and it mounts onto the axle with the mounts pictured. The bottom one replaces the current qr on my rear wheel. I'd think it would be putting stress on the axle way more than the frame. Any help understanding how it stresses the frame would be appreciated?

fotooutdoors

Think of you bike frame as a lever. Your loaded trailer sits on the rear axle and wheel, so when going in a straight line, it really makes no difference to your frame. Now, imagine you are standing by your upright bike when you lean your bike partway sideways quickly. Because of the trailer's inertia, it will want to stay upright, but your frame will be the lever that you use your body mass to exert that force through.

Personally, I would not worry about that stress (and I use stress here in place of "load"; it does not imply destructive stress) on a mountain bike or most road bikes. After all, the situation I described is near the edge of the forces you would apply to your frame. It may be an issue for a lightweight racing bike, though.

Hope that visual helps!

Tom Stormcrowe

It also depends on load distribution on the trailer. Ideally, it needs to be loaded just forward of the center of gravity front to rear, and the mass centered along the axis of direction of travel. Loaded correctly, it will never stress the bike sufficiently to damage it. I use a single wheel behind my tyrike and did so when I rode 2 wheeled bikes as well. Actually, the single wheel trailer is superior to the dual wheel for touring because the rear wheel offtrack is only inches off the track of the rear wheel of your bike, nd far less likely to snag a pole or obstruction as you ride. The dynamic is much like a single trailer has offtrack X and the second trailer on the converter dolly is y and y=(x+6") with a 24 foot trailer set like Roadway or Yellow Freight Systems hauls. Your mount + Bicycle is essentially the steerable converter dolly considered a a unit and with the length involvesm, the offtrack is actually less than 1 inch between the rear wheel of your bike and the trailer wheel, whereas the double wheel trailer is like a trailer on a bumper hitch and offtrack in turns is a much larger figure to allow for..

Offtracking explained: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/cdl_htm/sec6.htm

As to the stress on the rear stays, in motion, the stress is vertical at all times due to the same gyro effect that allows you to ride a 2 wheeled bicycle. It's through the center of the axle to the ground, assuming a balanced load, and unbalanced loads will quickly cause you to stop and reload in a more balanced way if you get it wrong the first time because your bike will handle like crap!.