tripdaddy

Hi, all. My wife and I have triplets and recently purchased two Pacific trailers. One was a Schwinn and the other an InStep.

The problem lies in putting two kids in one of them (the one I have to pull, of course ). When we put the two of them in the same trailer, they slide to the middle against each other... on angle.

Are there any tips to straightening out that seat in these cheapy trailers? Of course, the ideal thing would be to get nice name brand trailers, but I kinda figured that they would outgrow them before we could get $1000 worth of use out of two trailers. Also, yes, we decided against child seats. The logic was that if one of us goes down for any reason, something bad is very likely to happen to the child. At least in a trailer (it seems as though) there is less likelihood of the child coming in contact with pavement.

Any input is appreciated. THANKS!

teacherbill

Can you fashion a piece of Luan in the bottom of the trailer that carries the two children? I had a hard shelled (plastic) one many years ago. It carried my two younger children many of miles until the top finally rotten off, then it was used as the bike transport to the playground or when my little one's legs got tired.....

mamaC

How old are your triplets? I'm assuming they're old enough to be safe & out of infant car seats (when in the car), right? It seems odd that going toward the center would be such a problem. If you bought new, I'd probably contact the mnfcr. Do you have the same problem with both trailers? If not, I'd just switch to the other trailer for hauling two.

And, man, don't harp on your wife for not pulling two. If I can do this:


Surely, you can do this:

tripdaddy

MamaC: They are 15 months. Yes, out of infant car seats. I've tightened the "retainer strap" that goes under their knees as tight as possible, but when they are in there, they slide into each other. It's kinda like being on an old slippery couch next to someone that is larger than you (trying to explain how they slide together.

I may have a solution. These trailers are set up for one or two. I'll take the crotch strap from the middle (which is unesed when trailering two) and get a strap to go from there to the top retainer bar. That should do it. I'll let you know how it turns out!

If anyone else has had this problem, please let me know. Thanks!

P.S. I'm totally not a harper. I'm happy that this is something that we can do together as a family and volunteer to pull the heavier load.

Aleforge

Let me know how that works out, I noticed the same problem yesterday. First time we have pulled kids, have the Schwinn / pacific one as well.

enine

The center strap for when your only carrying one child on a burley connects to the front bar when your carrying two. This makes the center tighter and slightly higher.
Since you don't want to spend $1000, watch places like craigslist and buy a couple used decent trailers. I bought our $500 burley for $250. Figure I'll get $200 or so when I sell it in a couple years so I'm really only going to be out ~$50. If we bought the lower brand trailer say for $250 new and sold it for ~100 then were out $150 and the frustration of trying to make the cheaper one work.

kissTheApex

My kid used to slide all the way forward in his Schwinn too (even with the retainers tightened all the way). If another trailer is not an option, I recommend hacking the legs of two cheap kid size patio chairs (or like) and attaching them to the schwinn. When we had our problem, we thought about getting a kid sized Poang chair from IKEA and attaching it to the trailer. The IKEA chair has padding too.

enine

I read that as hacking the legs of the kids, eyes skipped a couple important words

tripdaddy

My solution is working well. I've got some velcro bundling straps worked quite nicely, plus they are adjustable!

I've already got these two trailers. They cost a total of $180 for two (new) so if we rag the crap out of them and get $30 to $50 a piece when we are done with them, PLUS all of the wonderful pictures and memories... it will have been worth it.

I got the same thing, E9. Why are we hacking the legs off of kids?

Joyfulmama

I have found that putting a fluffy pillow between the two kids really helps them be more comfortable and cuts down on fighting. Might help with the sliding too, although it sounds like you have solved that.

mamaC

Ooh! Glad your solution is working well! And, I hope you know I was only teasing you about hauling kids & cutting your wife slack!!!