The Trouble With Trailers

[YellowTrek]

A friend of mine recently bought a Burley trailer. He took it out this weekend and said there is a constant banging with each pedal stroke as the momentum from the trailer bangs into the bike. I've never used one of these so I really don't know whats going on, but I told him I'd post a msg here to see if anyone knows how to resolve this (aside from buying panniers like I tried to tell him in the first place!) Is there a way to use rubber isolation mounts to dampen the tugging and banging, or is this just something that takes some getting used to?

[sunfisher]

The amount of surging you detect is inversely proportional to the
smoothness of your pedal stroke.  If I'm smooth and have less than 60
lbs in the trailer I don't notice it at all.  If I'm ungraceful and have the
trailer loaded up to something over 80lbs of stuff, I do notice it.

So fret not, it's just a gentle reminder to pedal smoothly.

[Peaks]

Our daughter used the Burley trailer for our Northern Tier trek last summer, and didn't have that problem with it.  Then again, we were trying to keep the weight down.  Check the connection to the bike frame.  It's sometimes hard to get snug.  

The problem that we did have was the rubber bands broke that secured the cover in the corners.

[pmspirito]

I like to keep touring simple.   To me a trailer is just more hardware to maintain, two more tires and wheels to flat or lose a spoke, one more thing to get stolen.  Its easy enough to roll a bike into an elevator or carry it up a flight of stairs, when checking into a hotel but add a trailer and you've got a hassle on your hands.  

best wishes from the back of the pack,  Peter & Judy Spirito

[Brian0]

At the end of the day there is no trouble with trailers
it all dependson the type journey you are going on,I have used both,my toureing is with full camping gear on the open road the trailer is great can be a bit of a pain in citys,if you use bags use four dont try to put all your gear on the rear of the bike.
    Happy Touring  Brian.
PS The trailer was the good old BoB-Yak