Cargo Trailer Shopping

[sethpo]

In the spirit of driving less and biking more, I’m looking to add a cargo trailer to our bike stable (in lieu of an actual cargo bike…for now.)

I’m thinking of something basic like this Aosom.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6335[/ATTACH]

I want to be able to haul simple stuff. Light grocery shopping. Maybe some picnic type items. Etc. I want to be able to easily attach / detach to my hybrid and store the trailer in the basement (this one seems to fold nicely for storage).

Does anyone have anything I should know about cargo trailers? Is the attachment process straightforward? Are there different types of things to avoid?

Basically, I’m looking for some experienced advice before doing what I normally do and just buy something and hope it works out OK.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I have the dog trailer version…same brand. It was like $100 on Amazon and works pretty well. Frankly, it hasn’t gotten a ton of use, so I can’t give you a good idea of how well it’ll hold up in the long-term, but it seems okay. It definitely doesn’t feel super premium, but it’s like a third the cost of the Burleys and such. Our dog hates riding in it, so its primary job is hauling groceries when my wife has the car.

The attachment process is super easy…you just thread your skewer through the hitch thing (which you can leave on permanently), and then attach the trailer to that. The joint of the attaching arm seems to have a pretty wide range of movement too…I can turn my bike around in relatively small spaces, and my bike has fallen over with the trailer attached without unsettling the trailer or screwing up the attachment pieces.

My main complaint is that it takes up a lot of room in the shed…it folds up, but you don’t want to deal with that if you’ll be using it regularly.

[rcannon100]

@TwoWheelsDC 91583 wrote:

Our dog hates riding in it,

My dog – an old dog – bit me when I tried to put her back in it. “NO WAY DAD!”

But it has been useful in hauling puppies who dont know better back and forth to adoption events. It is also useful for carrying beads during the Mardi Gras parade.

HoundaBout. One criticism, and you can see this in reviews, is the chemical smell that comes off these things when you first get them is a bit wicked.

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