Would it be possible to haul my 184 pound Irish Wolfhound behind my Cannondale Jekyl mountain bike, or my BLT steel touring bike? Both are geared very low, and I am interested in using it on nearly level paved bike paths. Could the Surly Bill Bike Cargo Trailer be adaped to such use? The dog needs nearly 5 feet of length to lie down. The trailer would have to be very stable to be tolerated by him. He is very tall as well, and would need high sides, but no top on his wagon. I am a strong cyclist, but didn’t know if this idea was a feasable one or not. Looking forward to your suggestions or advice!
Hi Judy! The Surly Bill would be a great solution for your dog transporting needs given that you would like this big boy to be able to lie down. The Surly Bill is about the stoutest trailer we’ve ever seen and designed for this kind of thing.
I am imagining that you’ll have some kind of box built for him. I bet a plywood bed with carpeting and some kind of clear plastic sides would offer a really nice setup where he can still look around.
A nice thing about the Surly Bill is all of the attachment points that it offers up making bolting on custom setups a breeze.
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Hello,
I’m looking for a travel solution for our 3 dogs. My husband and I travel everywhere by bicycle, and I’d like to bring the dogs with. We have a 90 lb lab, 60 lb border collie, and a 25 lb cattle dog mix.
The border collie and cattle dog can rider together, and the lab can have his own trailer. It will be no problem for my husband and I to each haul a trailer. The problem comes in when I want to transport all 3 dogs by myself.
Do you have a trailer hitch option that allows multiple trailers to be connected together, one behind the other? Or do you have another idea for my dilemma?
Thanks~
Birdie
For hauling 175 pounds worth of dog, you are definitely going to need a hybrid/custom solution and not a product right off the shelf. But I would not recommend a two-trailer solution. With two trailers, you not only have extra weight in trailer frames, axles, wheels, etc. You also have the added rolling resistance of one or two more wheels. So you’ll want to get those dogs in a system without adding more than two wheels.
Some dogs have been trained to ride on rear racks, unrestrained. Since I don’t know your dogs, I have to assume that they need to be contained.
I’m looking at my two dogs on the floor of the office right now, Howard and Skully, who are probably comparable in size and weight to your Lab and your Border Collie. And I’m imagining a third 25-pound dog.
I’ve got to go with recommending a big flatbed bike trailer, such as the Wandertec Tuba, the Surly Bill, or perhaps the smaller Surly Ted. Either of these trailers would need to be customized with some kind of crate, or rails and a load bed.
You could mount a couple of dog kennels (a.k.a. dog crates) to the trailer, or create some side rails like a pickup truck, and use harnesses to keep them from jumping out. I’ve seen at least one guy with a carpet-lined bike trailer and a dog lounging comfortably in the bed. The beauty of the trailers I’ve mentioned is that you can customize to fit your needs upon a well-designed trailer frame.
The trailers I’ve mentioned can carry the weight of your dogs and more, so you certainly would have a great utility trailer for non-dog hauling as well.
One final idea that might be part of your solution, is a bicycle jogger that attaches a leash to your bike in such a way that it does not interfere with your ability to steer, but has enough spring to it that the dog isn’t having it’s collar jerked constantly. (If that Lab of yours is really 90 pounds, maybe it could use the exercise.)
I posed Birdie’s problem to our Facebook page and on our Twitter account. We got some good responses, including this one.
That isn’t a Surly Bill, but it looks similar. The Bill can carry up to 800 lbs. You might be able to do the same with a Wandertec Tuba (which can “only” carry about 200 lbs.). I suggest you measure the footprint you’ll need, and pick the trailer based on that.
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Hi
I have 3 schnauzers one weighs 8.3 kilos she is a miniature and the other two are extra small being toy/teacup size maturing at between 2 to 4 kilos each .Would the small Croozer dog trailer fit them all in comfortably?
I don’t want them squished but I don’t want a trailer bigger than I need.
I also like the idea of it converting to a stroller as well so I don’t want a big thing.Thanks for your time
If you could say with certainty that your small dogs will mature to a maximum weight of 4 kg (8.8 lbs), then maybe you could fit the three Guinea-Pig-sized dogs into a Croozer Mini Bike Dog Trailer. But you can’t be certain of the final adult size of your dogs, and you’d be pushing your luck even if you were certain they’d have to be three very mellow dogs to all get along back there and not get stressed out by dog-on-dog jostling.
There are too many uncertainties, so I can’t recommend any small dog bike trailers for what you propose.
I’m going to assume you are talking about a Miniature Schnauzer, because I can’t find any credible information about “toy” or “teacup” Schnauzers other than this page where people adamantly assert that “Teacup Schnauzers” don’t exist. (A pretty hilarious page, if you have the time to read all the comments. Sometimes my job is really fun.)
One of our customers gave us this positive review of the Croozer Mini:
I have two miniature Schnauzers and they both love riding in it. One at a time of course. The trailer rides very smoothly and is a very stable platform, even over bumps in the road. I ride a mountain bike and normally I average about 15 MPH when Im riding without the trailer. And with the trailer I have averaged about 12 MPH. Each of my dogs weighs about 20 lbs.
My Recommendation:
Get a Burley Tail Wagon Bike Dog Trailer: There will be plenty of room for your three dogs if they grow to the size typical of miniature Schnauzers: 12 to 20 lb (5.4 to 9.1 kg). And they’ll
be happy and comfortable back there.
If the dogs truly don’t get any larger than you expect, then your little dogs will feel like they’re in an RV. You’ll have room for a portable DVD player for them back there so they can watch “DVD For Dogs” (starring Deer, ducks, geese, wolfs, prairie dogs, birds, horses, fish, butterflies, and more).