| All
Terrain Pushchairs
Introduction to All Terrain Pushchairs
An All Terrain Pushchair is what you pay for, but what you're buying
is freedom to pursue a much valued lifestyle which previously may have been taken almost
for granted.
For some people walking the dog, a trip to the woods, strolling
along the beach, enjoying the view from the top of a hill - none of which are easy with an
ordinary pushchair (and for new parents tempted by the cheap kiddy backpack be advised,
that 6.5 lb new-born baby will grow very quickly and soon becomes bored looking at the
back of your head).
For city dwellers it's about negotiating (and surviving) the urban assault course of
steps and underground escalators, bouncing up kerbs to avoid the traffic and maintaining a
course along pavements packed with pedestrians. As one mum put it "I need a
pushchair with ‘attitude’, something which says I’m a mother with a
small baby, I’m coming through there and I’m coming through now".
For other people it's very much about style - not looking like an harassed mum around
town - Debenhams china and glass department is a terrain, and these are all
terrain pushchairs.
For many a proud father it feels good to be striding out with something which
isn’t frilly and covered in teddy bear motifs.
For your child it may be countryside adventures, woodland
picnics....blackberry picking on summer evenings....the things which fill childhood
memories.
All
of which can be achieved effortlessly with the right bit of kit, an All Terrain Pushchair.
For
ourselves an all terrain pushchair has allowed us to continue the off-road dog walk,
woodland 'adventures', expeditions up Northumbrian river beds, long days on beaches -back
and forth relentlessly to the ice cream hut/water's edge & dunes, rain drenched
country fairs, Steaming steam rallies, adventure park, school sports days, not to mention
the everyday town bumps up pavements, down steps on and off tubes trains - basically
anywhere you want to go your child can come too !
Our customers have told tales of French hill climbing, ski trips in
Switzerland, beach holidays in the Azures, Cross Country Horse Trials in hoof trodden
fields, and mountain bike courses - where all the family can follow...
..... and at the end of these trips everyone has had a good
day, the pushchair is easily cleaned and folded away in preparation for the next
challenge.
How
does an All Terrain pushchairs make possible what a normal pushchair finds so difficult ?
- essentially because it has three large wheels:
- on
uneven ground three is the maximum number of points which can be in contact with the
ground at any one time (unless each wheel has independent suspension), and
- the
large wheel has a shallower 'angle of attack' against any obstacle - bumps, undergrowth
etc..
Beautifully
simple and stunningly effective !
So
if a pushchair has three large wheels is it a good All Terrain Pushchair ?.....well that's
perhaps something a little different.
To
begin with there are essentially three types of three wheeled pushchairs
- All
Terrain
- Joggers
- Strollers
Joggers
are primarily designed for moving at speed over smooth ground, roads or pavements. Because
they have three large wheels they will also cope well at the lower speeds over
uneven/rough ground.
But
they can have some disadvantages - front wheel caliper brakes which clog up with mud and
larger wheels which make them more difficult to transport and cumbersome around town.
To
be fair joggers got there first, but the All Terrain Pushchair is a refinement of the
jogger for off road use.
Unless
you intend to use the pushchair solely for running then you will probably be better off
with an All Terrain Pushchair. Some of the joggers with smaller wheels can also be
used around town and off road but they won't do the job as well as a Mountain Buggy All
Terrain pushchair.
The
Stroller is designed for walking/running on pavements but once imported into the UK (and
without design modification) they are marketed as ‘all terrain pushchairs’. They
are cheap but it depends how many you have to buy for your children whether ultimately you
save money.
As
always you only get what you pay for - quality design, materials and construction costs
money - and of course you also want to look good so there's style as well.
Swivel
Wheel versus Fixed Wheel
There may be some confusion over the different types of front wheel
available on three wheeled pushchairs, these notes are intended to help you decide which
is best for you.
A pushchair with a swivel wheel makes a pushchair supremely
manoeuvrable it feels an absolute dream to turn effortlessly...on the smooooth carpeted
floor of the showroom.
They are good, and when Mountain Buggy do it with the Urban there's
no doubt about it, it really is excellent for someone who walks in town on paved surfaces
with perhaps the occasional foray onto a hard dirt path at the local park.
To begin with when shopping in town you rarely go very far in one
direction you are constantly manoeuvring around obstacles, pedestrians etc. or turning at
right angles between shop displays. You are constantly having to steer the pushchair and a
swivel wheel is ideal for the job.
BUT...take
a swivel wheel pushchair off road and it may not be ideal.
Away from the bustle of the town for most of the time you are
walking in broadly the same direction you rarely need to make sharp turns, not only don't
you need to steer all of the time but you don't want to have to steer - just push.
A swivel wheel pushchair has to be constantly steered whereas a
fixed wheel pushchair can just be pushed with the occasional minor adjustment with light
pressure to one side on the handle. To have to steer a pushchair constantly is hard work,
seriously hard work, not something you want to do all the time you are walking.
Then there's the supermarket shopping trolley effect - just as you
struggle to take it where you want it to go rather than where the cracks in the pavement
take it, so will a swivel wheel pushchair be directed by uneven ground against your
wishes. Faced with a slope across its path a swivel wheel pushchair will want to go down
the hill not across it !
Ah-ha
! I hear you cry...but you can lock
the swivel wheel on an Mountain Buggy Urban.
Of course you can, the problem is that a locked swivel wheel is not
the same as a fixed wheel for two reasons:
- A
fixed wheel pushchair is designed with minimal weight distribution over the front wheel
because otherwise it would be difficult to steer. For a swivel wheel pushchair weight
distribution is irrelevant and therefore...higher (see weight test
below). When you lock a swivel wheel you don't get a fixed wheel you get something which
is difficult to steer.
-
One fault you can get on a fixed wheel pushchair is if the front
wheel is not pointing precisely straight because the pushchair veers and requires constant
correction (Mountain Buggy have very helpfully built in an adjustment mechanism on their
fixed wheel models so that you don't have to suffer this). When you lock a swivel wheel it
does not lock it precisely straight, there is sufficient 'play' for the pushchair to veer,
to wander, requiring constant adjustment - this isn't just Mountain Buggy it's true of all
makes.
So before you buy your pushchair and to avoid disappointment we
strongly recommend that you seriously think through what your walking patterns will be and
where you are less willing to compromise performance.
For guidance we suggest:
Buy a Mountain Buggy Urban with its swivel wheel if your trips are almost exclusively on
paved surfaces with the occasion undemanding hard dirt path or toe path.
Buy a Mountain Buggy Terrain if your paved surface trips (however frequent) are of short
duration - you may have driven to town rather than walked there - BUT you do need it to
work properly on rough ground
Weight Test
We did some tests to find out how the weight distributions differed
between the Urban & Terrain front wheels.
The Urban passed 35% of its weight to the front wheel, the Terrain only 25%.
When we added a 10kg load to each pushchair the increase in front wheel weight was 25%
greater on the Urban than the Terrain.
The
Urban weighs 1.7kg more than the Terrain Zip Hammock to start with.
Frequently Asked Questions
The types are pneumatic so will I get punctures ?
It is unrealistic to think that
you will never get a puncture - sooner or later, but unless you're unlucky not very many.
In the Autumn farmers cut hedgerows and in the Summer gardeners trim hedges - so it
depends where you walk. To minimise inconvenience keep a spare inner tube, it can be
installed in minutes and you can fix the puncture when its convenient to do so.
Punctures are most common on the rear wheels (highest loading).
Mountain
Buggy fit good quality tyres and inner tubes to their pushchairs so punctures aren't
normally a serious problem for most users - although it is a possibility and is very
inconvenient when you do get one. For the serious countryside walker or in areas with lots
of hawthorn hedges it may be worth upgrading the puncture protection. We offer a several
puncture protection options:
When you re-inflate the tyres
do not exceed the 20Ibs maximum pressure recommended by Mountain Buggy, even though the
tyre may state a maximum pressure of say 30lbs as this can deform the wheel. The softness
of the tyre is part of the pushchair 'suspension' giving a soft ride and we only inflate
them to 10-15lbs.
NOTE. If you get repeated
punctures its possibly because you haven't located the cause of the original puncture and
removed it, e.g. a thorn point.
Can
I fit a Car Seat to a Mountain Buggy Pushchair
Yes
leading brands of car seat can be fitted using the Car
Seat
Adaptor
but the latest evidence is that although a car seat is the ideal position for a baby in
the event of a car accident, it isn't good for a baby's development if used for prolonged
periods.
Most
health professionals would recommend that parents minimise the length of time a baby
spends in a car seat - so fitting one to a pushchair isn't a good idea.
I have a small car will a Mountain Buggy All Terrain Pushchair fit in the boot
?
Generally yes, although the
exact model and year of the smallest of cars and even which stereo system is fitted can
make a difference.
You can remove the wheels on a
Mountain Buggy to make it a better size and shape for transportation but you might not
want to do it every trip so please check the dimensions of the Mountain Buggy you are
interested in to make sure that it will fit your car before purchasing one:
As a general rule people tend
to have smaller cars before they have children, 'buy yourself a bigger car' doesn't appear
on the list of kit produced for expectant mums...but it possibly should.
Can
I use a Mountain Buggy All Terrain Pushchair from Birth ?
Yes and there are a variety of ways of doing it.
With the optional
Carrycot fitted your All Terrain
Pushchair converts to a 'pram' allowing your baby to lay flat - which is what health
professional recommend for new borns. There is even a
Twin Carrycot for the Mountain Buggy double
pushchairs !
Alternatively you could chose
to have your Mountain Buggy with the Recline
Seat which will recline to within
15 degrees of horizontal, or use the Car
Seat
Adaptor to mount a car seat (most
leading brands fit, e.g. Britax) - but neither of these is as ideal as the Carrycot.
The Carrycot is normally
expensive but we try to help out by supplying it at a
reduced price if bought with your
Mountain Buggy !
Can I fit a Buggy Board or Kiddy Board to a Mountain Buggy Pushchair
?
Yes you can fit a Kiddy
Board
and Mountain Buggy are probably unique among pushchair manufacturers in actually
recommending them - although it will compromise the pushchair's 'All Terrain' capabilities
(the small wheels don't work well on soft ground). The Buggy Board brand will fit but it
interferes with your operation of the brake.
Please be aware though that a Kiddy Board will not work if the pushchair seat is
reclined. It works with the Carrycot or a Car Seat and with the standard seat when
upright. Mountain Buggy have recently changed the pushchairs to make them Kiddy Board
compatible, a Kiddy Board cannot be fitted to any old model.
When can I have one ?
We can normally dispatch a
pushchair to you the same day that you order although the fitting of enhanced puncture
protection can sometimes cause a 24 hr delay. |
