Fuck Cars

They are expensive, but in Germany, every leftish person dreams of co-owning an electric cargo bike like this within their shared flat:

I even know two such groups who are living the dream (not in my city though).

As a scooter rider myself, this setup seems unwieldy. My back tire already has a mind of its own and turning can be an absolute pain sometimes, I can't imagine trying to also haul a bunch of shit behind me as well. IMO scooters just don't have what it takes to do this kind of hauling safely.

I use a large backpack and will tie smaller bags on either side when I do a big shop, or I just take the bus. Though I understand quick and reliable buses aren't really a thing in a lot of the US so, sorry for you.

Shout out to my downvote stalker.

It’s a lemmy.today user, so you may want to take it up your admins. They’re also reporting you for being a “DonaldJMusk astroturfing account.”

I got a downvote stalker too. I think mine’s just a regular old transphobe though.

I think the main problem is that scooters just aren't designed for this, at all. They're wholly dedicated to transporting one person with the smallest vehicle possible (while being easy to use, unlike onewheels or skateboards).

As soon as you go up to a normal bike you can start hauling a perfectly reasonable amount of stuff by just attaching a basket on the front and rear, though yeah bike trailers really should be half as expensive as they are..

Electric cargo bike? Like https://www.urbanarrow.com/

Had one of those, I really liked it. It was expensive, though.

After you build this, you're going to know why nobody sells them.

Please post a follow up with everything you've learned.

Just pondering, modify a bike trailer? Whether that be connecting down to the scooter that way, or adding an upright piece to the scooter so the connection sits higher, or even attach it to a belt you wear. I don't know about what other commenters are saying, but just wanted to throw some ideas out there

Most trailers are designed for bicycles or larger motorcycle-style scooters.

I think there's probably a good reason for that. Among other things, your trailer would have to connect so close to the ground that you'd probably high-center going up even shallow ramps. Balance (both your balance riding the scooter and the front-rear weight distribution on the scooter + trailer combo) might be an issue, too.

What's stopping you from getting a bike and attaching a trailer to that instead? (Or getting a cargo bike, for that matter?)

So whats wrong with a bike instead of scooter? In the US the electric conversion kits for normals bikes are probably more relaxed than here, i.e. easier to do.

For me is also thought about getting a bike trailer and then maybe buy an electric bike down the road.

Wouldn't it be easier to modify a bike trailer than start from scratch? I've no experience with this, but I'd presume one of the axle connector models might be fitted with some imaginary custom peg to account for the few inch height difference. Obviously trailers that connect up by a by seat would not work, but what about this sort of model?

or maybe just flip the post on a model like this?

I think you're going to find that your scooter isn't really up for pulling much more weight beyond yourself.

If you are unlucky enough to cross that first hurdle, I fear you will quickly discover that the brakes are not able to stop the inertia once you get going.

I wish you the best of luck. Please keep safety in mind.

for some reason the thumbnail made me think that was a portable grill and now i'm sad it isn't. put a grill on that thang

Depending on your capacity needs maybe it would be easier to attach a bag to the handlebars where there's more stability and control, something like this

Find out how to toktokify a scooter

I got my mountain bike that I stuck a mid drive motor on, and some hefty saddle bags. Was my main grocery hauler for a while. Moved recently and I’m only a few blocks from a grocery store now.

My contraption gets a bit top heavy when the saddle bags are fully loaded because the battery is fairly large and back rack mounted. At some point I’d like to get a battery that mounts low inside the frame to lower the center of gravity, and just only put the big back battery on when I want to make a long trip.

I don’t think scooters are at all standardized? With bicycles there’s a reasonable assumption that it’ll have things built certain ways that the manufacturer can hitch their trailer to.

downvote stalker

Check the # of comments made by the people who reply to you. If they're from certain instances, & are in the thousands with no posts, well... I won't spoil the mystery.

I'd suggest a backpack for carrying stuff. It can be a bit awkward when you carry more than 10kg or when buying toilet paper. For bulky light stuff some sort of straps might work though.

If you want to increase the capacity permanently to dishwasher level then a cargobike with strapping becomes the only option. These are usually about a 10% of a price of a car with no running costs so if it prevents you from getting one it's actually a very cheap option.

When I was carless living in a food desert I found the easiest way to go grocery shopping was with a backpack.

For a while I had a bike trailer with a broken hitch, so I just lashed it to the seat post with two rather tight clove hitches and called it a day. Worked well enough, including on 10+ mile rides, that I failed to fix that for months. My point being, don't overthink it too much, just build something and be prepared to modify it or go back to the drawing board.

Just wear a big backpack.

A 3D printer is your best friend for projects like this imo. You can get a used one that is still decent for like ~200$ usually. Maybe dont use for heavily loaded parts but for everything else its great.

Why not get a good 70L backpack with an aluminum frame?

bruh ready for his cross country journey.

Could you maybe attach one of these to the scooter? I have no idea how scooter trailers connect.