Any trailer "simulation" software?

[newbury]

I presently have a Hudson 12K trailer, 24' end to end, and a Ford F350 CC dually 21' end to end. One of my considerations in getting a new enclosed trailer is parking. One place I have to park it is in my 2 car driveway on a suburban court where the road is about 22' wide between curbs and the neighbors are pretty picky about running over the curb on their lawn. Consequently I usually use my B7610 to park/unpark the Hudson and have used a Toyota Rav4 my son had, but sold. I just cannot make the angles avoiding obstructions like mailboxes to park it with my 21' truck.

I'm in the market for a new enclosed 7' wide trailer 12' to 18' long and got to thinking (dangerous) is there any simulation or game where I could put in the dimensions so I could "practice" parking trailers of various lengths? Obviously the 12' would park easiest.

 

[woody]

no help on a simulator, but it seams as a short trailer is harder to back but in your situation I can see where you may need a short trailer

 

[schmism]

One software package is called autoturn. Its a professional cad package that transportation engineers use to layout intersections/parking lots for the exact thing your talking about.

AutoTURN - Swept Path Analysis Software - YouTube

The software website says you can download a demo but your unlikey to learn how to use it in a reasonable period of time. My wife uses it for work.

 

[4570Man]

What about the less technical approach and just attempt it with the trailer at hand. If you don’t want to end up in a bind maybe use a big parking lot and a few cones.

 

[newbury]

One software package is called autoturn. Its a professional cad package that transportation engineers use to layout intersections/parking lots for the exact thing your talking about.

AutoTURN - Swept Path Analysis Software - YouTube

The software website says you can download a demo but your unlikey to learn how to use it in a reasonable period of time. My wife uses it for work.

That's what I'm thinking of.

One of the "special points" in the video is low bridges. When I worked for the Army part of my job was fielding a "mapping system" (DTSS-Heavy) that initially was comprised of a 6x6 with a shelter on the back, with about haf a million dollars of computer equipment inside.

which seemed to be attracted to low bridges.

I think we fielded maybe a dozen and at least 4 were "retired" when they were driven into bridges.

 

[zzvyb6]

You can make up a maneuvering simulation using paper or cardboard cutouts of your rig and overlay them on a roadway diagram. Google maps or Earth ought to work for the roadway. Use a convenient scale for the rig based on the known dimensions of your driveway.

You would need these dimensions for a computer simulation anyways.

 

[3Ts]

Remember the turning radius going forward is different than when going backwards.

 

[newbury]

Remember the turning radius going forward is different than when going backwards.

Yes, that's why I was looking for some vetted software. I thought with all the decades of games there would be something. About the only "game" I play on the computer is solitaire.

I did try scaling some cardboard cutouts.

The bad part is that I worked for a hot-tar roofer back in the '70's and drove a 5-ton with a loaded hot-pot trailer. Skills have not come back.