Love your longtail? Tell me alllll about it. We recently acquired a second child and are very shortly going to outgrow our Tern Short Haul. Alas, form factors longer than longtails are unlikely to be practical given immutable characteristics of the storage location. Otherwise I’d already own a Bullitt. 
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So…. my Yuba Fastrack is my most ridden bike. I take a 6 year old and a 9 year old to school on it year round, then ride the rest of the way to my work. We see friends daily, we have our favorite dogs who are always out for walks in the morning, we “race” the other bike families up the last hill to school, we watch sunsets together while riding, we’ve seen deer at dusk in the park, they both still laugh out loud when I let it rip down the fast hill….My life is definitely better with my dad minivan of a bike. Highly recommend.
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r&m multicharger, 2 kids. I’m all for bigger wheels. been car-free for several years now…
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I’m testing a Tern Quick Haul Long right now. Been pleased with it so far, though I think if I was buying I might go with bigger wheels. Storage space is not an issue for us - I have a big garage. The smaller wheels are definitely less comfortable.
Otherwise, the bike is well thought out. I really like the internal storage boxes you can get for it, we leave basics in there (we still have one kid in diapers, so a few diapers/wipes, some snacks, stuff like that so you always have it). Stability is good even with two kids on the back. Spec is fine, decent brakes, simple mechanical shifting, though we’ve only got 6 weeks on it so no thoughts on durability yet.
We also have an Urban Arrow with nearly 10,000 miles on it. All we’ve had to do is swap brake pads, though I’m about to do a full chainring/chain/cog/discs/etc. swap. That’s still the go-to, but is far more expensive and takes a ton of storage space.
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That review will be read carefully. The quick haul long is one of the upgrade paths we are seriously considering! Basically a scaled-up, electrified version of my short haul. I put a sprung saddle on to combat the harshness that I attributed to small, stiff wheels X stiff frame X awful roads (Chicago) — and it still jars. I’m shorter than you (5’8”) and my wife is shorter than me (5’4”). You think something with at least one larger wheel would be impractical to handle in city traffic?
Our only practical storage requires a 90 degree turn into a narrow alleyway (and a 90 degree turn down a narrow stairway for indoor access), so ~70-75” length and ~75lbs weight are pretty hard caps for us.
How do the kiddos feel about the amount of room they have back there?
Did you ride something with smaller wheels (and dislike it) first?
We got an Xtracycle Swoop in 2022, we have about 2k miles on it. We have twins, still plenty of space on the back for them at 10. This was an upgrade from squishing them into a Burley trailer until they literally couldn’t fit, with ensuing fighting over elbow and knee incursion every morning to not: if we’d gotten it sooner it would have saved hundreds of arguments.
We chose a step though to accommodate my wife who soon after didn’t feel confident riding with both kids on it for fear of tipping. She’ll still take it to get groceries. The quick adjustment is seatpost and that’s it, so accommodating big reach differences would have to be aftermarket. The cockpit is all standard aluminum, no proprietary bits anywhere.
We’re in SF, the roads are often rough, it handles them fine. I was ready to immediately replace the Truvative brakes but they are their TRP line and while they’re no Maguras they’re functionally fine.
The accessories are great: the hoop for coralling the kids has an inner and outer rim so kids can hold on without endangering their knuckles, the folding bags are seriously well thought out so you can switch to cargo mode instantly, the cargo frame is already pannier accepting even with the aftermarket fold up bag on and probably a coincidence but the largest container store box fits perfectly in the hoop if you need to carry stuff that has to stay dry.
Motor tech has already advanced a generation, ours was 3-assist level, as someone who likes riding bikes I ride in 2 and then switch to 3 for hills. It handles SF hills with cargo, you will just need to be comfortable with slow speed riding and the corresponding lessened stability.
Parking is less tricky than I imagine with a cargo bike, I can lock to city hoops with a u-lock, it is easier to wrangle in the tiny office parking spaces, but the little Terns for sure have it beat here.
In love the idea of a box bike, but I think for us a longtail has been the right call.
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we had a bike43 before, made here in Belgium. big front wheel, smaller rear wheel, nice compromise, low center of gravity. unfortunately got stolen. I’ve tested terns but didn’t like the small wheels and the whole cockpit. and since we have easy access to a garage it didn’t matter to us that you can fit that into an elevator or fold the cockpit… I also like the belt drive and hub internal gears the multicharger has
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Elbow and knee incursion. 
The upright storage thing has been pretty gimmicky in my experience anyway. Surely there are exceptions. The footprint of the thing is so large, even vertically — especially with a child seat attached — that it is not (to me) worth the risk of instability smushing a kid or a cat. The elevator thing is real, though.
We have a Tern HSD since four years and that thing has been amazing with 1 kid. The headlights have failed and would be worth upgrading we rode more in the dark.
The small wheels mean a low center of gravity and easy handling even with a kid on the back. With the front basket it can do medium sized shopping runs and take the kid to after kindergarten activities.
And it’s small enough to fit in many lifts, is more maneuverable than those wheelbarrow style cargo bikes, and just a delight to ride.
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We have the Surly Big Dummy and it has been great. Had it for 2 years now and like others said made the upgrade when my 2 oldest kids couldn’t fit in the trailer without fighting anymore! I did the frameset so I could customize it. Went with 26 inch wheels with Alfine 8 speed IGH at the back for lower center of gravity and 27.5 inch at the front and upgraded the brakes to nicer shimano with 203mm rotors instead of the stock ones. I have nice big tires on it and it handles great even with kids swaying on it. Have a 2 year old in the Yepp seat at the back and a 5 year old also sitting on the back. Then the 6 year old either bikes herself or I can tow the Thule trailer with one of the kids in so I take that setup for all 3 kids. No motor, but I see the Big Easy is on sale now, though no direct experience with that.
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It’s a great bike. We’ve borrowed a friend’s. If we’d stuck to just the one kid, we’d probably own one already.
And they’re steel! Super cool. TIL Surly makes cargo frames. We’re probably going electric this time around. I appreciate they specced a CUES drivetrain on theirs. We will definitely check one of these out. There are a few local Surly dealers.
It’s an opportunity for them to develop sibling togetherness! We’ve had it for two and a half years- they sit together inside the monkey bars that wrap all the way around. I don’t think they would fit if one was in a child seat.
we got the compact long tail bike for storage space reasons, but this year especially it’s getting tight back there. If you have the space, a full long tail would last longer as the kids get bigger. I might need to consider something different next year- we’ll see.
re: wheel size, I prefer smaller wheels to keep the center of gravity lower.
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Thanks for expanding the consideration set. This form factor makes a lot of sense for my family’s needs too, and it’s priced well compared to a roughly-same-size Tern GSD. Good reminder for me that these categories are all pretty new, so mid- or long- tail or whatever are just brands making educated guesses about what to call things, rather than established conventions.
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I had a Kona Ute and it had either 700c or 650b wheels. With the 2 inch tyres the centre of gravity was too high. I think maybe 24” wheels would be an ideal compromise. If you have a proper kid seat on then they sit quite high
Also, definitely go for the motor if you want to be using it for years to come. With a 4 and 6 year old on the back and the extra weight of the enormous bike I think I had about 60kg extra in addition to my body weight - a 5% hill turns into a max heart rate effort.
The kids loved it and it was generally pretty safe, arsehole drivers tended to give a lot more room.
Make sure it has a steering damper and a front basket.
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We’ve had a Tern GSD for 2.5 years and done ~5000km on it in that time. I love it and it’s by far my favourite bike I’ve ever owned.
Tons of room on the back for a 4 and 7 year old and I suspect we have a few years of use left. We have the clubhouse fort on the back over the winter - getting the eldest in and out is a bit tight but he has plenty of space in there. In the summer we leave the lower part on (the storm box) as it just makes for such a great giant pannier. The handling of the bike is pretty good unless the kids decide to have a bit of a rave in the back.
The main drawback I’ve found is that if you like to do your own spannering on it there cab be a bit of a learning curve. Jobs that are fairly straightforward on a standard bike can become epic battles. I suspect you have a bit of a flavour of this from your existing tern.
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If I could do it again, we’d buy a Tern GSD for sure! They are just made for this stuff and everything is thought through. The kickstand, the integrated lock, the bullet proof specs..the way they ride! We rented one for a while and loved it! I’d go so far to spend big money on one and get one with belt drive and gear hub. They are just so good and I’d wish we rode one before buying our Surly Big Dummy. We electrified ours and it’s great fun but with a kid on the back and the normal geo of the frame, it’s just cumbersome to get on and off, to park it, to lock it etc. We enjoy the bike and won’t let it go but once again, if we could do it again, we’d buy a Tern and be happy ever after.
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