need a little advice on trailers if anyone has any... going to iceland and was wondering if a 1 or a 2 wheeled trailer is best? also, is it neccesary to spend £250-300 on one?
I used a Bob for a week camping tour last year, mostly off road on the SDW.
Stability with a Bob is an issue, downhill is really scary as it fishtails. Also you'll need to get a strong rear wheel, think tandem or downhill. Don't worry about the weight, the trailer means that you'll not be beating any xc whippets up the hills anyway.
From the other reviews I saw, generally for on road then a Burley 2 wheel is more stable, for off road the narrow Bob works better. Whichever you choose, make sure you plan some trial runs with increasing weight before you set off in earnest.
well a 1 wheeled trailer, is really no good, has the trailer will fall to the side,lol maybe u mean a 2 wheel trailer, i would go for a 4 wheel trailer, so all the wieght is on the trailer and not the car rear axle.
Chris, I think you'll find he does mean a one wheeled trailer, the BOB Yak, or the suspension version the Ibex for example. These track the rear wheel much better than a 2 wheeled trailer and so are better off road through narrow and uneven ground.
A 4 wheel trailer would be disasterous off road as it would jam on rocks far too much.
I've got a bob ibex and use it with a fs. It's great. The only problem is with starting on hills, the rig feels unstable until you've got momentum. I got 47 mph downhill last year and it was stable. Packing heaviest items at bottom might have helped. The single wheel also tracks exactly where the other 2 wheels have gone. I imagine a 2 wheeled trailer might snag on obstacles.
Blarn - the suspension may make all the difference.
I found the yak would start bouncing from side to side on fast descents, including on roads. As the trailer isn't braked, and the bounce effectively transferred through the trailer frame to the rear axle then this meant that the only consistent braking was from the front wheel, and this was real brown trouser time with an artic on my shoulder.
cheers people! i think a 1 wheeled one will do then. actually, i've been thinking, cos i've put together my bike and built a bike trailer for the car, i figured me and my dad could build a trailer. (it will prob work out cheape than buying, and fun to do!) at the moment it is going to be made out of alu box section, bolted together. this is because welding would be hard (we have access to a welder though) and cos it would be easier to repare a snapped bolt than a broke weld. we'll use alu cos its lighter than steel. for the mount, i am hoping to be able to find a spare one from companies such as BOB, and retrofit it to the trailer. we think it will be hard to make a decent one. my dad is an engineer, so i'm confident we can get a reasonable one made (and we can have more than one go) but if anyone has any tips or thoughts, please make then here! cheers
I was using a Bob Ibex on a recent tour in north India. Others I were with were using Yaks and Monoporters.
The Ibex is very stable on rough descents and it seemed quite tough. But its a lot of extra weight to carry over the Yak, I'm not sure there is any clear advantage.
The Monoporter is in a different league than the Bobs in build quality. Everything, from tyre and wheel to the hub connection is of a higher quality of design and build. The folding mechanism is very clever. Its also significantly lighter and the Ortlieb bag is much better than the standard bag with the bobs (I used a North Face 90l bag). The only disadvantage is that its alu, so is less 'repairable' if anything goes wrong, and the plastic clips that hold it 'open' are a bit lightweight. One broke near the end of the tour, but it was easy enough to make a temporary repair. I'm not sure the Monoporter would be robust enough for a really tough expedition trip, but otherwise I'd say its a better buy than the Bob.
