Advice on bad truck and trailer turning radius

[corey9212]

I recently bought a 97' F-350 dually for hauling trailers (all of them ball type) with and although I love driving the truck I have a problem when it comes to backing up trailers.

The truck is a flat deck and when I back up and have to turn the trailer to park in a stall the turning radius is so small that unless I can back up straight or at very very slight angles the trailer will hit the deck of the truck.

Is there anything I can do to make it so I can make tighter turns with the truck and trailer?

I use the Reese straight line dual cam sway control and weight distribution on all my trailers, I have tried a 24" receiver extension and although it solves the problem it puts way too much weight on the back of the truck and affects handling drastically.

 

[Willl]

Longer trailer tongue or hitch length from bumper.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Get a piece of 2 X 2 X 1/4 steel tube about 4-5' long and make a hitch extension . Use it just for parking. The longer the tounge the easier it is to back both from a clearance point and smooth out the turning abruptness.

Ron

 

[corey9212]

Longer trailer tongue or hitch length from bumper.

How do you lengthen the trailer tongue? I have a 16' Flat deck trailer, 10' utility trailer, 16' horse trailer and a 29' travel trailer that I would have to do that to. The 24" receiver extension is for increasing the hitch length from the bumper.

Get a piece of 2 X 2 X 1/4 steel tube about 4-5' long and make a hitch extension . Use it just for parking. The longer the tounge the easier it is to back both from a clearance point and smooth out the turning abruptness.

Ron

That would work at home but when I'm out getting loaded or unloaded and have to back in it would take too long.

Having to stop unhook the sway control and weight distribution then unhook the trailer, pull ahead, put the extension on then the hitch onto that then rehook up. Some of the places don't have patience to wait for you to do all that then do the opposite to drive out.

Also the deck on the truck is square and not tapered on the edges and the receiver is attached directly to the deck.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Problem is the trailer. Do you have any pics? Axle placement and tongue lengths can vary and affect the way things back up. As a rule a trailer that tows good back a up bad. I pull about 75 different trailers, mainly boat, during the year with the same two trucks, a Nissan Titan and PowerStroke F350, and it can be night and day.

Chris

 

[corey9212]

Problem is the trailer. Do you have any pics? Axle placement and tongue lengths can vary and affect the way things back up. As a rule a trailer that tows good back a up bad. I pull about 75 different trailers, mainly boat, during the year with the same two trucks, a Nissan Titan and PowerStroke F350, and it can be night and day.

Chris

I will take pics of trick and trailers when I get home today I used to pull with an 05' Dodge Ram 2500 with the Hemi and it is an awesome truck (besides the dreaded gas mileage) full of luxuries but it has 210,000 kms and is already on its third transmission (that's another story) so I got the F350 and like I said I love it except for the trailer hauling problem.

 

[RobertN]

Sounds more like the flatbed is wide, and he can not turn much before the trailer hits the corner of the flatbed.

A buddy of mine had a '01 F450 with a big flatbed on it. Similar issue.

Have to really plan your turns and wherre you park.

- plan you turns and where you park
- make an extension as mentioned earlier
- Whack the corners off the flatbed to give you more room before you make contact...

FWIW, my frinds F450 had the reciever mounted to the frame; he had to have an extended hitch in order tow anything due to rear overhang of the flatbed(with dump).

Problem is the trailer. Do you have any pics? Axle placement and tongue lengths can vary and affect the way things back up. As a rule a trailer that tows good back a up bad. I pull about 75 different trailers, mainly boat, during the year with the same two trucks, a Nissan Titan and PowerStroke F350, and it can be night and day.

Chris

 

[corey9212]

Sounds more like the flatbed is wide, and he can not turn much before the trailer hits the corner of the flatbed.

A buddy of mine had a '01 F450 with a big flatbed on it. Similar issue.

Have to really plan your turns and wherre you park.

- plan you turns and where you park
- make an extension as mentioned earlier
- Whack the corners off the flatbed to give you more room before you make contact...

FWIW, my frinds F450 had the reciever mounted to the frame; he had to have an extended hitch in order tow anything due to rear overhang of the flatbed(with dump).

The flatbed is a little wider than the duallies, I have been tempted to cut the corners off of the flatbed so they are at an angle, but the lights are on the corner so it would be difficult.

 

[downslope]

...
Also the deck on the truck is square and not tapered on the edges and the receiver is attached directly to the deck.

I was just wondering, is this a usual thing to do, attaching the receiver to the truck body and not directly to the truck frame? Most F-350 type flatbeds and stakes I have seen have the receiver bolted and/or welded to the truck frame not to the body.

Is the receiver flush with the end of the truck body? At first, when I was thinking the receiver was attached to the truck frame my thought was that you had too long of a body with too much overhang. If the extension is causing weight distribution problems maybe in fact you do have too long of a body for the wheelbase of your truck. What is the wheelbase of the truck and how many inches does the flat deck extend beyond the end of the chassis?

If someone just took a regular cab F-350 dually with an 8' pickup box and slapped a longer, like 9 or 10 ft deck in its place, then that could be at the root of the problems.

 

[Egon]

Patience and a little more back and forth may do wonders.:thumbsup: