Anybody use Back Up Balls?

[Soundguy]

On a slightly similar note. With my flatbed 16' trailer, when it ie empty, the rear of it sets just outside (below) my level of vision from the truck cab in my dodge or ford.. thus if I am backing it up.. it's a bear .. by the time I see it in a side mirror.. it's already turned quite well.

I once added a pvc pipe to one of the stake pockets as a rail to judge by.. worked great til I knocked it off with the loader one day!.. got to get arounf putting it back on. Makes backing upt he narrow ramp to the hay barn at the feed co-op MUCH easier.

soundguy

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Been using the $9.99 HF balls for a while now. Wouldn't be without them.

Rusty

 

[JoelD]

I have the HF balls (only ones I have left unfortunately ).

I have same problem with getting them to sit flat on the trailer hitch part.

With the price of backup cameras coming down so low, I think that might be the easiest solution in the long run.

But for now, I use the yellow balls.

Joel

 

[SCOOBY14B]

I have never used them but seen Harbor Freight had them on sale for $9.99, lot cheaper than your link but not glow in the dark.

Avoid those cheap ones. I bought a set and the first time I used them one broke. The extending part is like a cheap antenna and when I closed it, one of them bent and broke.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

I should have added that I have two sets of HF balls (one for each truck - they are cheap enough). I also found a second interesting use for these things. When backing a trailer at night in pitch darkness, I extend and mount one yellow ball on each side of the trailer where I can see them. It makes the job of backing up at night 99.9% easier.

Rusty

 

[yooperdave]

Hi Harv,

'The Force' seems to be present in abundance with you.

May 'the force' always be with you.

Regards

Yooper Dave

 

[Builder]

I tow a thirty six foot fifth wheel trave trailer, a twenty five foot flat bed equipment trailer with a pintle hitch, and numerous regular trailers that belong to friends etc. Nine times out of ten I'll tell those jumping into guide me on to get out of my way.

The fifth wheel I've converted over to a gooseneck. Most of the time I'll stop the truck right under the ball the first try. Keep in mind the truck is a 5500 and there's a welder and tool box between the cab and the bed so I can't see squat.

What I use is my side mirrors and the computer. You know the computer, the one that sits on your shoulders. It's not unlike shooting a sling shot or swinging a twelve pound sledge hammer drinving in one by three stakes. You stare at the target and the computer will make the calculations and do the targeting. All you need is trust.

The pintle hitch is easiest of all. That's because when I disconnect I have it about a quarter of an inch lower than the ball, it's a two and five sixteenths ball type pintle coupler. When I pull up and away there's a little bump. But what's kewel is when I back into it I feel the contact and then I feel the bump as the pintle riing drops inside the coupler. Again, I prefer to drop in straight back. But when I can't I turn to the computer and concentrate on the targeting for the computer. It's surprises people who see me back in but me and computer have this thing, we trust each other. Again, think of using a sling shot or shooting a long bow or swinging a large hammer at a small target. You concentrate on the target and trust the computer on your shoulders to do it's thing.

I do the same thing. I can't use pretty yellow balls on my dumptrcuk-can't see a dang thing over that big dump box. Like harvey said, you concentrate on the target...... 9 X out of 10 I hit it just right.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Hi Harv,

'The Force' seems to be present in abundance with you.

May 'the force' always be with you.

Regards

Yooper Dave

I call it getting lucky. ; )

Seriously, most of us don't take advantage the good sense that was given to us.

You ever watch a snap shooter in action? I'm not talking about the sniper type. I'm talking about a skeet type. When you look at them they're not aiming in the kind of aiming that we consider aiming. Their eyes are on the target (s) and their reactions handle the mechanics of pointing the gun in the right direction and firing at the right time.

It's the same with operating equipment. You watch an exceptional equipment operator and they're not concentrating on the controls. They're locked in on the business end and what it's doing.

You see it in sports. Probably one of the best examples an old stinker like myself can come up with is Muhammad Ali and his slight moving of his face to cause a miss by the other fighter. You can look at professional pitchers, especially the underhand softball pitchers. There's no way you can say they're aiming. What they're doing is focusing on the target and depending upon the computer on their shoulders to handle the mechanics of the pitch when it comes to speed and location.

 

[CurlyDave]

I think we divide in two distinct groups here.

Guys who attach trailers all the time and just don't need any stinking little yellow balls, and guys who attach trailers a few times a year and need all the help they can get.

Before I got my yellow balls, I would phone my truck driver neighbor and he would come over and back my truck perfectly under the hitch. Of course, I was watching and signaling to him.

I used to try to get my wife to help me back it up, but she has a special feminine set of hand signals, which change for every situation.

 

[AKfish]

I used to try to get my wife to help me back it up, but she has a special feminine set of hand signals, which change for every situation.

Yaahhh...!! LOL.

Quickest way for me to sleep on the couch is to have my wife outside if I'm trying to - A) hook up the horse trailer; B) hook up the travel trailer; C) hook up the boat.

(I never, never load up the equipment trailer if she's outside..)

AKfish