Bike trailers

@spotter

Hey, I had a Large Carry Freedom trailer for a while, carrying similar things.
They come up for sale on eBay here and there at a good price.
I really rated it, super well built, easy to store in a compact way.

If you need bigge the Donkey Trailers seem to be the way to go.

I second @platypus - I have a carry freedeom Y Large

• load bed is 700x500 (max load is 800x600)
  
• The wheels easily detach for flat pack storage
  
• German build quality
  
• Its modular attachment; so you can swap the arm side, add an arm extender or even turn it into a handcart etc
  
• It comes with a flag pole holder
  

Really rate the Surly Bill due to the hitch which loads both sides of the dropouts and due to the low pivot point any side loads are applied close to the ground plane, reducing the force pushing the bike over. It is a great trailer to tow and doesn't introduce any handling anomalies unless you've loaded it somewhere over 40 or 50kg. It is probably more awkward to manouver by hand than the Donkey (which I haven't used) due to the hitch though. In my experience of the BOB I would avoid a single wheel trailer for any regular load over 20kg due to the handling.

I use the Burley and it's just fine. I've lugging heavy stuff no issue. Reckon at the price point it's real nice. Looks v similar to the carry freedom. The donkeys look super nice for a bigger budget.

I also have the tout terrain, but that for the dog on the MTB and having single wheel and high mount is shit for anything but riding pleasure. Low connection and two or mkre wheels are best for load liggung

Not sure if a heat press needs suspension to protect or just a cautious rider.

Phoarrrrrrr, these are all fantastic - thanks for the recommendations on the trailer type & handling with different tow points. Definitely, good point @skinny on maybe prepping a foam bed or inflated inner tubes below the press. They're robust enough, but London road surfaces are pretty grim.

Am now entertaining the idea of going ahead with a pop-up studio, that could fit in two waterproof packing crates, and these sit on a mid-size bed (80-120cm). Including an 12kg sewing machine and heatpress, I'd estimate weight total could be 50kg+, so definitely erring on the better build (£££) options, with the convenience of moving furniture and bulky loads locally.

...hahaha, I've just remembered the time years back, when I met a bloke pushing his bike up Horniman Hill/Forest Hill on the South Circular and gave him a hand. He had a big trailer on the back, with an enormous motorboat engine on it. Lord knows how much it weighed. Had come all the way from Richmond. No idea where he was headed....

Was quite into the larger Surly design, until I saw the additional ~50% for the hitch(!). Might be down to whatever turns up on ebay, wanted ad on here ...or a good motivator to make more stuff for the forum :)

good news; I employed cosmic ordering and exactly what I needed appeared. I thought the Surly Ted was a shade too short, so this modded version with an extra section turned up on ebay, with hitch. Aware the addition is structurally flawed, but will have a base-board, and doesn't make sense for heavy weight to be on that section, but v pleased.

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With those bolts it solid. The axles would shear before those bolts did.
Nice buy!

I'm sure it'll be fine, but any weight on the new section will be putting stress through the end welds - can see better in this pic. The original owner had a fabricated box on it, so not a problem to use like that. Definitely erring on caution; would take a lot of weight, and time to fatigue those welds!

I'm now thinking the base-board could have pop-up legs, become the desk/workbench area for the workshops ...with lightweight, inflatable canopy cover...

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First outing on Friday night, and really impressed with the Surly hitch - thanks to whoever recommended them. Had ~30kg on trailer and front rack, over 6km, with a few uphill drags. Bike handles exactly the same, completely free to move, pivot, just more work to get up to speed. Was really pleasantly surprised by how relatively straight-forward it was. Going to cut a proper baseboard in marine ply this afternoon, and figure out if clamp-one legs is an option….

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Getting on really well with trailer life, quite interesting what the flat-bed opens up to you, and opportunity for hauling stuff.

Probably would have been a van & two people to shift this. Instead could pickup and move front-door-to-front-door, including effortlessly rolling into a lift, on my own.

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^pitched back to rest up; weight did pitch forward just enough to hitch/ride.

Trailer by far easiest way to transport mobile studio around for last week's repairs sessions . Only problem is I'm now considering getting hold of the bigger Bill model...

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Love this! Hopefully getting keys to my first home early next year and think something like this will be perfect for collecting freebies from freecycle/gumtree

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Robert Axle Project?
https://robertaxleproject.com/
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/trailer-spares-hitches-fittings

I’m giving this thread a bump because I’m looking for a trailer to buy or if possible borrow for a few months.

I made a wanted thread here