Is there a way to add something a little stronger like 26″ rims or 700c, to a child bicycle trailer? Picture is example, not all have guards.
by NavilusWeyfinder
Is there a way to add something a little stronger like 26″ rims or 700c, to a child bicycle trailer? Picture is example, not all have guards.
by NavilusWeyfinder
13 Comments
All other things being equal, smaller wheels are inherently stronger than big ones. That is why shopping carts don’t have massive wheels and why cargo bikes like the Tern GSD are 20″ front and back.
I’m not quite sure what you are looking for, but all other things being equal a bigger wheel is less strong than a smaller one.
If there is room I don’t see why you can just build a 20 inch wheel using the hub from the original wheel. I don’t know if it’s a proprietary system(doesn’t look like it) so you might be able to get another hub aswell.
You’ll also need a stand for the hub to build the wheel on.
It’s a lot of work though.
If you have a 20 inch wheel and a 26 inch wheel manufactured and built identically, the 20 inch rim will be stronger. Why do you need a bigger wheel? A bigger wheel has some advantages, but brute strength isn’t one of them.
The axles on those things are usually weaker than the wheels.
Depends on what you mean by stronger I find the wheels on those buggies are plenty strong enough and the frame / canvas seating area would give way before the wheels do.
I doubt they would fit. Look at the trailer frame. The wheel that is on there now is pretty close at the rear. A larger wheel might rub the frame. The seat would also be higher off the ground. I don’t know how this attaches to your bike, but raising everything several inches may make that attachment more difficult.
If it’s a good brand, IE Burly or Chariot, then its as strong as it’s going to be and leave it alone unless something is broken. If it’s a walmart quality trailer, IE schwinn or instep or basically anything other than a Burly or Chariot, then no amount of wheel upgrades will make it anything other than disposable and weak. As others have pointed out, 20″ wheels are inherently stronger due to their size relative to 26 or 700. If you are asking these sorts of questions, I’m not sure you should be attempting to modify anything as you’re likely to create more problems than you’re going to solve…
No. They’re designed around specific safety standards, and larger wheels would change all of the dynamics involved in handling and in a crash. A larger wheel would overload the torque on the axles used, likely breaking them or flexing the wheel into the side of the carrier and causing unpredictable handling (to avoid this you’d need to reinforce and replace the entire chassis with essentially the bottom half of a wheelchair).
In addition, larger wheels would raise the center of gravity high enough that even fairly moderate turns at speed could overturn the trailer, and with greater angular momentum due to the higher center of gravity and narrower stance relative to height.
Smaller wheels are technically “stronger” than larger wheels, in the sense that there is less flex from the spoke to rim interface. You can get more durable tires and likely go up a tire size slightly if more resilience is needed. There are likely heavier duty aftermarket wheels in the same size as well.
That said, if the carrier were not being used to carry anything living, and being used on a vehicle for parades or as a mobile repair stand or something which doesn’t go more than 8 mph and doesn’t make sharp turns, you could re-lace the hubs to a larger rim, just like any other wheel, but you’d run into the above issues, the weight capacity would go way down due to the additional torque the larger wheels put on the axles, and it would be one of those “if you do it then you need to destroy it/permanently modify it to very clearly not be a child carrier when you are done with it so that no one acquires it later thinking it’s something safe to put a child or pet in.”
It’s probably less dramatic than I’m making out, but I have a pretty low threshold for “nope not safe” when it comes to safety items/vehicles where the rider is responsible for more than just themselves. While the rider is free to put themselves in danger/make informed decisions regarding risk, and do goofy things with their bike which maybe aren’t the smartest, they are not free to do the same for others, especially those who can’t make their own sufficiently informed decisions about safety yet.
I went through something similar with my Thule Chariot.
The short answer is no.
The Chariot uses a special axle and hub which are very difficult to find at a reasonable price. You would then need custom drilled rims because they tend to use a non-standard spoke count. I spoke to a wheel builder and he was reluctant to lace up larger rims because a trailer will undergo significantly more side loading than a bike. He didn’t want to be liable for a wheel collapsing causing an injury to kids. It’s just a very big unknown and at some point someone has to assume the liability.
The second issue we ran into was pinch points. A lot of the larger tires would get dangerously close to parts of the frame. We were concerned that something like a kid holding a stuffed animal out of the trailer would cause it to bind up. Fingers were obviously the number one concern, but it was unlikely their hands would ever get to a place where they could get injured.
My discussion with the wheel builder came down to “what is the intended outcome?” I was looking for larger tires that would increase ride comfort. What we ultimately settled on was putting a plus size tire on the regular rim. I can now run it at lower pressures which makes the ride way more enjoyable. I went from the original 20×1.75 tires to a 20×2.8 Specialized Big Roller tire and it’s a huge difference. The rolling resistance is higher, but it’s not like anyone is setting a KOM with kids in a trailer (although that sounds like a fun new idea). The 2.8s eat up roots and other bumps, and provide way more flotation on loose gravel.
The nice thing about e-bikes is that many of them have 20×2.5 or wider tires. I think Schwalbe makes some good pavement biased tires in that size.
You could buy wheels for a hinterher trailer. 20 inch but plenty skookum
All things being equal, a largerwhel wil be weaker.
The strongest bike wheel I own is:
* 20 inch
* double wall
* 36 spokes
* BMX axle (14mm?)
Smaller wheels are way stronger. Perhaps tension and true the wheels. Realistically those wheels are perfect for that purpose