SagaInColours

How to secure a car seat in a trailer?

I am about to buy a Chariot Carriers (Corsaire or Cougar 2). Both the sling/hammock and the weber bowl are recommended for babies up to 9 months and 9 kg (=20 lbs).
My son is already 8 kg (= 17,5 lbs) at 4 months old, so soon both to big and too long (app. 70 cm = 2,29 feet) for those (they're not made for scandivanians appearantly.....).

So the only option is a car seat, except from not biking or waiting until he sits steady. But that is not an option, I am sick and tired of buses, and the bike is (or used to be before my son was born) my main mean of transport...and the bicycle paths are not bumpy around here

It has to be a 0-18 kg (= 0 - 40 lbs) car seat, since its the same story with the 0-13 kg (= 0 - 28,6 lbs) infant carseats: To small and too short. Any ideas on how to secure it in the trailer?


(And yes, I know that Chariot Carriers don't recommend using car seats in their child carriers....)

DieselDan

I don't know about Burley's distribution in Denmark, but they have an optional seat system for 3 month old and up. From experience, the adapter only works with Burley's '08 and newer trailers.

xeney

There is no way you are getting a car seat into a Chariot Cougar. We have two infant carseats -- a Graco Snugride and a Maxi Cosi Mico -- and both are far too long and wide to fit into the Chariot. If you have a double Chariot you can probably manage the width, but that won't help you with the length.

Maybe they've redesigned. Try before you buy if you are insistent on this. I don't think it is going to work. We were told by friends that it was easy to do, but those friends had Burleys or other brands.

ETA: we do have Chariot's "Baby Supporter," which is just some extra padding to make the seat smaller for a younger kid. We used that until last week -- my daughter is 22 months but quite small, not much bigger than your little guy.

SagaInColours

I guess you're right, a Cougar might be too small for a car seat.
I should maybe add that I have seen trailer + car seat done many times, but never really took notice of it (I didn't have any children and didn't plan for any....).The ones I have seen with a car seat in must then be the likes of Chariot 'Corsaire', 'Captain' and the Winther 'Dolphin'.

(If you now wonder why I don't ask this question on a Danish forum, then it is because no such thing really exist. Forums for different bicycling sports, yes, but not forums for everyday bicycling - that is just something you do).

xeney

Oh, you might have totally different carseats where you are! So disregard what I said. US carseat standards are not the same as European standards, so even when we get European models here (like my Maxi Cosi) they are usually significantly different.

SagaInColours

Now I think of it, a friend of mine mentioned that European carseats are much more compact than American ones (she is an American living in Denmark). She said that she could fit 3 (European) carseats in the back of her car, which she hadn't been able to in USA. Same elbowspace for the children though.

Well, I will just have to buy the trailer and then find a car seat that fits.

xeney

The Chariot is wonderful other than the carseat issue, and the carseat thing is only a temporary problem. So I think that's a good choice.

keeponriding

We just bit the bullet and bought a Chariot Cougar 1 for the same reasons. Our son is 7 months old and just was not big enough for the two person trek trailer we used for our older son. (We did not get it until the older one was 1 1/2 and he is now 5 and riding a trail-a-bike). We originally tried putting the chariot baby supporter in the trek. It fit well, but he still looked uncomfortable and would slump at times.

Anyway, the Cougar was the only thing we found that fit him (the 7 month old) well. That along with their baby supporter (https://www.rei.com/product/783814) keeps him in nicely. He is able to sit up on his own though, hold his head up, etc. I am not sure if this would work at 4 months old, but it may be an option.

As far as the chariot cougar goes, I would have to agree with all the reviews I read. A wonderful trailer, but painful at the time of payment! We are happy we did it though, it has us pedaling again.

SagaInColours

Yay! I found a Fahrradanhängerfarungsthread (biketrailer-experience-thread) on a German forum.
And someone was so nice as to post pictures of car seat in trailer(post #91): https://www.bike-planet.de/forum/show...=204628&page=4 . It's a 0-13 kg, but there seem to be anough space that the 0-18 kg would also fit.

The text says something like (mind you my German is rather rusty):
"Before the seat was placed, a foam pad was placed in the bottom ('the foot space'), so the seat was placed as flat as possible. Here the seat is placed forward facing and with 4 straps fastened/secured through suitable openings in car seat. So the taking in and out will go easier, I have put on some eyelets for the straps on the MaxiCosi.
The Griffbügel (eh...the thing you hold, when you lift the car seat) makes double duty as extra safetybar.
Besides the seat stands more flat than in a car. The child lies flatter ('more reclined') so the childs back is better relieved."

Sorry, the translation might seem a slightly odd, but it is quite difficult for me to translate from one foreign language into another.

xeney

Wow, that trailer is HUGE. That is the same Maxi Cosi seat I have (well, I have the US version, but it turns out the dimensions are the same) and based on that photo, that trailer has to be a foot longer and wider than the Chariot Cougar I.

A thought: once your son can sit solidly on his own, you can just use the baby supporter in the Chariot. You might think about whether you want to buy a much bigger trailer for a couple of months of use, if the Chariot is what you really want long-term. It all depends on how important cycling is for you in the next couple of months, probably.

SagaInColours

It is? I thought it was slightly on the small side. But hey, we like our biketrailers big here since they are the SUV's of many people .

It ws really helpful that you write that the one on the picture is longer than the Cougar. Then I think that the Corsaire XL or the Captain XL is probably the best choice for us, because they are bigger than the one on the picture.
(And since my son already seem to be growing tall, I guess that I better go with the biggest trailer I can find anyway).

xeney

Good idea! My daughter is tiny -- under 25 pounds at nearly two -- and I would not want a trailer smaller than the Chariot for her.

jdmitch

OP, Have you looked at the fairly recent Baby Supporter? Note, this is not the same as the sling or the Baby Bivy. It's supposed to be 3-18 months and does not carry the "not for use while cycling" note that the Bivy does. Also, it specifically mentions removing the head supports when using a helmet.

Note, this may be what Xeney referenced in one of the posts, but I'm not sure.

xeney

Yes, the baby supporter is what we used until last week. We also had the sling, which we used only for jogging. We would have used it for cycling had she not completely hated being pulled by a bike then. But she did hate it until she could really hold herself sitting upright -- before that she bounced around too much.