Bike Trailer - Best for Multiple uses? Kid, Dog, Chicken Feed

[djkenny]

Looking at a bike trailers.

I was originally looking for something our Boston could tag along in. The Burley Tail Wagon or other dog specific ones were of interest. I figured it would be great for picking up groceries or chicken feed too.

Then, I thought about big picture use. In time, we will likely breed. Have a child.
A Burley Bee or Honey Bee was looking good. I think the Honey model can become a stroller too?

My dog would likely be fine in a kid's trailer with a blanket. I could just take out the seat inside to I assume?

The D'Lite model seemed a little too Eddie Bauer.

Would love to get some ideas.

The flat bed trailers from Burley are interesting. I heard of folks putting dog crates on them. But, I would not be able to use it for a future kid hauler.

[Alan]

I bought an Instep trailer from a friend who had intended to convert it to carry her dog. I pulled out the child sling seats and added a floor of cabinet-grade 1/4" birch plywood. It sits under the nylon fabric but on top of the aluminum frame rails, and is laced in place with zip ties. The seats could go back in, I didn't cut anything, but it's a complicated set-up of straps. The trailer came with a third front wheel and a handle to make it a jogging stroller. It's rated for two 50-lb kids so it will carry 100 pounds of stuff, and the floor should hold it as long as it's distributed. My old 65-lb dog loved it (I put in a 3-4" soft foam pad) but my new one wants to rip his way out and he put a small tear in the nylon screen, so he doesn't get to ride in it. The trailer folds down flat quickly and with no tools, for transport or storage, but one of the plastic latch gizmos chipped. It still works OK so I haven't tried to replace or repair it.

Over in the "Who Rides What?" thread (Newbies forum) you can see my trailer and a few others:

http://bikeportland.org/forum/showpo...&postcount=125 (mine)
http://bikeportland.org/forum/showpo...&postcount=145
http://bikeportland.org/forum/showpo...&postcount=124

(might be some more, too)

[Spiffy]

why not get 2 trailers?

my first trailer was a hard plastic model... it was durable and held my 60 lb dog well...

I got married to somebody with 3 small dogs, so I bought a fabric InStep trailer to haul those as well... I pulled my dog and she pulled her dogs...

both trailers had all the kid seats and seat-belts in them... the seat-belts were great for latching the dogs in and adjusting their lead so they could only lay down and not jump out...

then we bred... I usually ended up pulling the kid in the hard shell trailer and she kept pulling her dogs... my dog didn't get to go on as many rides... sometimes we'd put one dog in a milk crate on the back rack and the kid would share the trailer with the little dogs...

so if you only have the one dog between you then just get another trailer for the kid if/when it comes... I bought both of mine off craigslist for like $20... start looking now... the InStep ones are only around $70 new...

then we made friends with a couple that were in our birthing class and I ended up giving them both their own bikes (from spares and one I traded for a 3rd trailer I had) and the hard shell trailer so they could ride with us... now they bike all the time and their kid has his own training wheel bike now to ride with everybody...