Turning Radius

[foggy1111]

I'm in the middle of a new home build. Lots going on with driveway plan for spring. I want to be able to get my vehicle and a good sized trailer to make a turn around in my drive.....which has some trees to work around.

I look at turning raidus as the INSIDE TIRE TRACK of the vehicles. My question: what is a good turn raidus plan for an extended cab pick-up and an 18 foot car trailer? (This would likely be my worst-case scenario with boat and implement trailers and any service vehicles.)

Suggestions?

 

[HHR]

I would make it as wide as possible as some people don't plan their turns and may need to back up with the trailer.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I'm in the middle of a new home build. Lots going on with driveway plan for spring. I want to be able to get my vehicle and a good sized trailer to make a turn around in my drive.....which has some trees to work around.

I look at turning raidus as the INSIDE TIRE TRACK of the vehicles. My question: what is a good turn raidus plan for an extended cab pick-up and an 18 foot car trailer? (This would likely be my worst-case scenario with boat and implement trailers and any service vehicles.)

Suggestions?

I can tell you from experience, not only mine but family friends and customers, add 50% to the size of anything you are going to buy.

I never would have though in a million years I would end up with a tri axle 36' long boat or a 20' long tandem dually GN trailer. I also would have never imagined that I would own anything that would not fit into my 12' tall 52x44 pole barn but in 3 short years I bought that boat that is 13'6" tall on the trailer.

Always go bigger!

Chris

 

[Gary Fowler]

The best way to figure your turning is to hook up the largest, longest piece of equipment and drive the route, then make allowances for extra width and just use the tracks for a pavement guide. That is how I did the original layout for my shop/boat shed. I hooked on the boat, drove thru the gate, made the turn toward the house, straightened it up and backed it up. I gave my self extra room and roughed out the location. Turns out I had to back it up more due to some overhead power lines that I had to get out from under so now it is far enough that I could pull in with a 40 foot GN trailer and have room.
One thing I see lots of is people making their driveways aesthetically pleasing with lots of curves. This might look pretty but it is impossible to back a trailer down them and even drive forward around the bends sometimes cant be done due to the sharp bend and narrow width of the drive. Saving concrete is Ok but the drive needs to be wide enough to accomodate the vehicles and have some wiggle room or you will be driving on the grass all the time with at least some of your wheels.

 

[foggy1111]

The best way to figure your turning is to hook up the largest, longest piece of equipment and drive the route, then make allowances for extra width and just use the tracks for a pavement guide. That is how I did the original layout for my shop/boat shed. I hooked on the boat, drove thru the gate, made the turn toward the house, straightened it up and backed it up. I gave my self extra room and roughed out the location. Turns out I had to back it up more due to some overhead power lines that I had to get out from under so now it is far enough that I could pull in with a 40 foot GN trailer and have room.
One thing I see lots of is people making their driveways aesthetically pleasing with lots of curves. This might look pretty but it is impossible to back a trailer down them and even drive forward around the bends sometimes cant be done due to the sharp bend and narrow width of the drive. Saving concrete is Ok but the drive needs to be wide enough to accomodate the vehicles and have some wiggle room or you will be driving on the grass all the time with at least some of your wheels.

^ Yep....I'm on-board with all of what is said here. My new home is built on a 100 foot lakeside lot in the middle of a woods....and I have gradual curves leading thru the woods to the house / garage. I have a 26 foot long x 8.5' boat and dual axle trailer pulled by an SUV.....and that is the biggest I want to plan around. My use is infrequent. The boat will sit on a lift all summer....but I want to be able to pull it through the yard and back it into a garage....and therefore the turn radius in question. I will not be bringing larger equipment or trailers to the house.

I suppose I can hook my rig up and see what kind of path it carves in the dirt when I drive it in a circle somewhere....but I thought there may be some experience or data available. I need some minimum / maximum turn diameters. I gotta lay this out between a few big trees. Currently I cannot drive this route as its all full of home framing materials.

I've turned pretty short with my boat following.....but the trailer sure takes a different route than the tow vehicle - under near jack-knife conditons.

 

[RobertN]

I look at it a little differently. Worst case scenario is a heart attack or a stroke, at 3am on a snowy dark night.

Can you easily get a couple fire engines and a Medic unit in there? Do you have the vertical height, and the width, and the radius of the curves? Can you back them out, at 3am with snow coming down?

My drive was already here. But, when we fenced the front of the property along the road, and put a gate in, the access was made before we got the 5th wheel. The gate was set up based on experience towing my tractor, doing part time concrete work, and volunteering at the Fire Dept.

The gate/sign is at 16' high. 12' gate was minimum. The gate sets back from the road, and the fence at the road access is about 24' for the turn radius. I can easily get any of the Engines in our Fire Dept in here. I can also easily get a concrete truck in.

Unfortunately, I have had to test it out. Twice I have had to have a 911 call for my MIL, who had a fall, and then later a stroke. There is plenty of room at our house, but at the Granny flat, there was not enough room to turn the engine around; they backed out 600' of drive.

Since we put the gate in, we have had a couple 911 calls at the Granny flat, had concrete trucks in, and now have a smaller 27' 5th wheel. I think I could get a 30' 5th wheel in here. Any larger and we would be limited by other parts of the road leading to our house.

I think they look nice, but little curvy drives are a pain unless you are in a car.

Brush/trees should be cut back to allow side clearance, AND vertical clearance. Riding on the engines, sometimes we have to access up tiny little drives that were cut back to allow access for a compact car. Trashes the Engines; scratches, gouges, lights, antennas...

I look at turning raidus as the INSIDE TIRE TRACK of the vehicles. My question: what is a good turn raidus plan for an extended cab pick-up and an 18 foot car trailer? (This would likely be my worst-case scenario with boat and implement trailers and any service vehicles.)

Suggestions?

 

[foggy1111]

OK....so the responses are pretty much "par for the course" on these boards lately. Grin. No offense....I know everyone means well....but it seems we (myself included oftentimes) all supply all kinds of innuendo and warnings...but nobody answers the question!

I do realize that I gotta get cement trucks into my place (had five+ there already) and the rafters and floor joists take a good size truck too......and fire and rescue guys have big equipment....yadda yadda. My new home is at a lake....and the lakeside community here has all kinds of varied driveway issues to get the fire and rescue boys into the homes - many whom have driveways that wont hold a candle to that which I have planned.

STILL....nobody has answered the question! What is the turn radius?? I figured someone may have a formula or experience with this?

OK....a bit of a rant. (I hope I did not offend.....just feeling a little surly today.)

I look at it a little differently. Worst case scenario is a heart attack or a stroke, at 3am on a snowy dark night.

Can you easily get a couple fire engines and a Medic unit in there? Do you have the vertical height, and the width, and the radius of the curves? Can you back them out, at 3am with snow coming down?

My drive was already here. But, when we fenced the front of the property along the road, and put a gate in, the access was made before we got the 5th wheel. The gate was set up based on experience towing my tractor, doing part time concrete work, and volunteering at the Fire Dept.

The gate/sign is at 16' high. 12' gate was minimum. The gate sets back from the road, and the fence at the road access is about 24' for the turn radius. I can easily get any of the Engines in our Fire Dept in here. I can also easily get a concrete truck in.

Unfortunately, I have had to test it out. Twice I have had to have a 911 call for my MIL, who had a fall, and then later a stroke. There is plenty of room at our house, but at the Granny flat, there was not enough room to turn the engine around; they backed out 600' of drive.

Since we put the gate in, we have had a couple 911 calls at the Granny flat, had concrete trucks in, and now have a smaller 27' 5th wheel. I think I could get a 30' 5th wheel in here. Any larger and we would be limited by other parts of the road leading to our house.

I think they look nice, but little curvy drives are a pain unless you are in a car.

Brush/trees should be cut back to allow side clearance, AND vertical clearance. Riding on the engines, sometimes we have to access up tiny little drives that were cut back to allow access for a compact car. Trashes the Engines; scratches, gouges, lights, antennas...

 

[RobertN]

Try your local DOT. They may be able to shed specifics.

You may be looking at a moving target I fear. In my case, my truck turns tighter than my previous truck. My old F250, I swapped from IFS to solid axle; that made a huge(good) difference in turning radius. Both were long bed extra cabs. I would guess that a short bed standard cab would out turn them both. I have also used a F450 with a 12' flatbed; it did not turn as well, especially while trailering.

Googled "trailer turning radius calculator":

How to Calculate the Turning Radius of a Truck With a Trailer | eHow.com
CR4 - Thread: Calculating Vehicle and Trailer Turning Radius
Turning radius for a 53' tractor and trailer? - Yahoo! Answers
Calculating/Estimating Turning Radius of Rig and Trailer - Diesel Place : Chevrolet and GMC Diesel Truck Forums
Turning Circles | archive content from Fire Chief
http://cimar.mae.ufl.edu/CIMAR/pages/thesis/jayakaran_a.pdf

I did a quick Google search. First was for my truck "2001 Dodge Ram2500 turning radius". Then tried a couple other misc trucks. Look at the second page of specs here?

2001 Dodge Ram 2500 Specs
2013 Ford F-250 Specs
2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTZ Extended Cab Pickup 5.3L V8 FFV 4x4 6-speed Automatic 8.2 ft. Bed Features and Specs

Some others: Googled "Circular drive radius"
Circular drive radius
Circle Driveway Layout and Radius Dimensions
DRIVEWAYS and SIDEWALKS
Driveway Design / Layout

STILL....nobody has answered the question! What is the turn radius?? I figured someone may have a formula or experience with this?

OK....a bit of a rant. (I hope I did not offend.....just feeling a little surly today.)

 

[foggy1111]

Try your local DOT. They may be able to shed specifics.

You may be looking at a moving target I fear. In my case, my truck turns tighter than my previous truck. My old F250, I swapped from IFS to solid axle; that made a huge(good) difference in turning radius. Both were long bed extra cabs. I would guess that a short bed standard cab would out turn them both. I have also used a F450 with a 12' flatbed; it did not turn as well, especially while trailering.

Googled "trailer turning radius calculator":

How to Calculate the Turning Radius of a Truck With a Trailer | eHow.com
CR4 - Thread: Calculating Vehicle and Trailer Turning Radius
Turning radius for a 53' tractor and trailer? - Yahoo! Answers
Calculating/Estimating Turning Radius of Rig and Trailer - Diesel Place : Chevrolet and GMC Diesel Truck Forums
Turning Circles | archive content from Fire Chief
http://cimar.mae.ufl.edu/CIMAR/pages/thesis/jayakaran_a.pdf

I did a quick Google search. First was for my truck "2001 Dodge Ram2500 turning radius". Then tried a couple other misc trucks. Look at the second page of specs here?

2001 Dodge Ram 2500 Specs
2013 Ford F-250 Specs
2010 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTZ Extended Cab Pickup 5.3L V8 FFV 4x4 6-speed Automatic 8.2 ft. Bed Features and Specs

Some others: Googled "Circular drive radius"
Circular drive radius
Circle Driveway Layout and Radius Dimensions
DRIVEWAYS and SIDEWALKS
Driveway Design / Layout

Thanks Robert. Looks like lots of sites I did not see when I googled for info. Will do some more reading. Lots of variables for sure....I was hoping for some good old standard engineering practices. So much for wishes.

 

[RobertN]

Still guessing your best bet for that is to go directly to your state or county DOT.

I didn't think about this before, but maybe ping the local paving contractors... Or civil engineer.

I was hoping for some good old standard engineering practices. So much for wishes.