A trailer question (or idea) - and how to tow a canoe
 

I like the look of single wheel trailers which keep your cycling foot print low, but I don't like how they all seem to mount directly to your rear wheel axle. Does anyone make a single wheel trailer with a double wheel (BOB) type hitch, where the trailer could be easily detached or in a worse case scenario won't cause you to jack knife? Also, I've read about stability issues with single wheel trailers and the whole wavering thing when going downhill, but would this be solved by having two wheels back there? This is where the idea bit comes in, but I was thinking, how about a long, narrow single wheel type trailer with both a ball type hitch like on the larger BOB type trailers, but instead of having a single wheel at the back it has two wheels so it would be more stable and narrower than a BOB? I'm mainly thinking of all of this because at some point my wife and I would like to do some cycle touring and I'd like to have the ability to bring along a PakBoats PakCanoe which weighs about 50#. I'm not sure what the stowed dimensions of the boat are but I'm sure it's probably more oblong, since most folding kayaks and canoes tend to pack up into similar dimensions. I'm just thinking if the PakCanoe folds down to say 40" or so it might be too long to fit into a BOB trailer and so might be more suited to a longer single wheel trailer design, but then there's the whole attachment and stability issues. I'm all for making my own trailer too, in fact that'd be my preferred method rather than buying something and having to modify it or make it work for my needs. Suggestions, advice?

so how about putting an extra 2 wheels on the bob making it 3 wheel trailer.
would it be possible to fix wheels half way on the bob trailer , no idea how this would effect the performance but why not try.

If you can't find what you need,make it.You can make it like a Radio Flyer Wagon if you want.

Nobody said you can't make it long like a single wheel but put 2 wheels on it,so it isn't so tippy.

Do a Google or Yahoo search using the terms - bicycle kayak trailer - and get some ideas there.

I've seen some photos of what people have done to trailer a full-size kayak or canoe, but in the case of the PakCanoe I'd only be having to trailer the largish luggage-like carrying case for the boat versus a full-on 12-15' boat. Sheesh! I can't imagine having to cycle tour towing a full on kayak or canoe behind my bike!

I've got a Folbot single kayak (Aleut) which isn't all that different from a PakCanoe. I've towed it behind my bike both in its unassembled form (a big 48" x 12" x 14" dufflebag) and assembled (12' long and 30" wide). It's really no harder to tow it when assembled and if I were touring and needed to carry lots of other things then that would probably be the way to go since the other luggage would fit easily inside the boat. OTOH, I sometimes use the local subway system for part of the trip and their rules would prohibit the boat in assembled form.

Either way I use a two-wheel trailer - mine is a utility type with a flat sheet of plywood between the two wheels and I load the boat on top of that. I have not experienced any handling problems and one of the local lakes involves a climb and descent of over 1000' at about a 7% grade so I go over 40 mph on the way down (and very slow on the way up).

German Tout Terrain offers a single wheel, suspended, trailer, seat post hitch..

The best hitch I've ever seen comes with an Extrawheel trailer. This is made of sprung steel and clips to each side of a specially designed QR spindle. Absolute genius.

I've had really good success with where I've attached the BOB to my trike. I use a Scram Dual Drive that I really enjoy riding with. I've made my BOB into an E-BOB and the attachment still works fine in this position.

It's tough for me to tell from your photos but did you devise some type of quick release mounting option or did you just bypass using your rear wheel axle to attach the trailer?

The mount for the trailer is attached to the bottom of the rear rack just above the rack mount on the trike, I not using a quick release at all

so do you need an alan key or spanner to take it off .

??? you spring temper steel, I got that , been there, done that.

sprung isn't that a past tense from having previously springered?
spring, sprang, sprung.. :lol:

The hitch just lifts on or off the bolts with the BOB Nutz, the original locking pin is still used