Backing up a Gen Trailer

[Too many Kubotas]

You win the height award with the mast up!

 

[WinterDeere]

Yeah, that old woodie is a tall one, it's a purpose-built racing boat from the 1950's and still actively raced. Mast height is 1.6x boat length, and actually more like 1.7 boat lengths above water line, with a huge roach in the sail. Fast boats, even by today's standards, but also super-unstable. I've seen them pick up completely out of the water, and literally flip end-over-end in a gust, If you like swimming, or getting banged around and usually bleeding a little, this is the sailboat for you!

Okay, back to generator and trailer talk.

 

[CliffordK]

I can say the worst is an empty boat trailer without a mast stand or whips visible from your mirrors. Totally blind, at least before backup cameras, until the think is well into a turn. Having a pickup truck hitch rigged so that you can pull the trailer with the tailgate down is key to backing an empty trailer down a ramp for boat retrieval.

Tractors without cabs of course have very good visibility.

Yes, I like hitches that are low enough that one can safely open the tailgate. One of the advantages of some of the Bulldog Clamshell hitches with simply the ring and no lever on top.

One thing that I've done in the past with flatbed trailers is to put a block or something in the middle rear of the trailer. Picnic basket? 5 gallon bucket, tire, etc.

For your boat trailer... I never think of these trailer balls for hitching, although my bumper might like me better if I did.

However, you could snap them to your boat trailer fenders, then snag them off once you are down to the water, or perhaps even after the boat is loaded.

 

[WinterDeere]

Tractors without cabs of course have very good visibility.

Yes, I like hitches that are low enough that one can safely open the tailgate. One of the advantages of some of the Bulldog Clamshell hitches with simply the ring and no lever on top.

One thing that I've done in the past with flatbed trailers is to put a block or something in the middle rear of the trailer. Picnic basket? 5 gallon bucket, tire, etc.

For your boat trailer... I never think of these trailer balls for hitching, although my bumper might like me better if I did.

However, you could snap them to your boat trailer fenders, then snag them off once you are down to the water, or perhaps even after the boat is loaded.

Yeah, those are nice, and I've seen some guys use something like them. A lot of generator and boat trailers now come with tubes welded to the tail light mounts, where one can insert replaceable plow markers, for this very purpose.

Not much an issue for me, as my tow vehicle is a modern pickup truck with backup camera. I just drop my tailgate or use the backup camera, but guys towing empty boat trailers with older vans or generator trailers with dump trucks can't do either, so these are a great option for them.

 

[two_bit_score]

If I had the sense to get the back up camera when it was offered to me as an option when purchasing my truck I could proudly say it's the most useful thing I bought. As it is I am still happy those yellow balls with the antenna sticks and magnets are still available.

 

[WinterDeere]

That landscape trailer loaded with logs above has a high tongue weight due to the winch and two large deep-cycle batteries all mounted on the tongue. It's impossible to even nudge the damn thing a half inch to get it onto a trailer ball that's not perfectly aligned. Before a backup camera, I used to spend several minutes dickering around with truck position, to get the ball aligned with the hitch "just right". Now, I just back up once, park, and lower the coupler onto the hitch. Took several minutes of pure frustration down to a few seconds and a smile!

Now I get pissed off when moving trailers with my tractor, as the hitch I use most is on the back of my ballast box, totally below my sight line from the seat. Not as bad as re-maneuvering a pickup truck, but still frustrating after getting used to having a backup camera in the truck. The hydraulic top link helps with fine-tuning fore/aft alignment from the ground behind the tractor, but I have no hydraulic tilt to help with side/side alignment.

 

[CliffordK]

Now I get pissed off when moving trailers with my tractor, as the hitch I use most is on the back of my ballast box, totally below my sight line from the seat. Not as bad as re-maneuvering a pickup truck, but still frustrating after getting used to having a backup camera in the truck. The hydraulic top link helps with fine-tuning fore/aft alignment from the ground behind the tractor, but I have no hydraulic tilt to help with side/side alignment.

I think I've mentioned earlier that I just use my drawbar. It is a bit of a pain to unload my ballast, put on the drawbar, then remove the drawbar and reload ballast, so a hitch on the ballast is a future addition. Good point about visibility. I got some suitcase weights, so perhaps design it with the suitcase weights to the side leaving clear visibility in the middle.

With the spinning type of drawbar, one just needs to get close forward and back, then just tilt the ball into the hitch and raise the hydraulics. With the chains on the 3 pt, there is generally a couple of inches of right and left movement, depending on where it is hanging at the moment. So connecting to the drawbar is very quick and easy. If one just had a few more hands, fingers, feet, and toes to get everything held in place while adjusting the hydraulics. Once driving (slowly on my property), I don't notice the side to side movement of the 3pt.

 

[WinterDeere]

I think I've mentioned earlier that I just use my drawbar. It is a bit of a pain to unload my ballast, put on the drawbar, then remove the drawbar and reload ballast, so a hitch on the ballast is a future addition. Good point about visibility. I got some suitcase weights, so perhaps design it with the suitcase weights to the side leaving clear visibility in the middle.

That works fine with semi trailers, but not with pull trailers, as you need a lot of distance between the rear axle and the hitch to make steering a pull trailer in reverse practical. To all the folks out there who look at what I'm able to do with a pull trailer (post #94) and think they can't do the same, consider how much distance you have between your rear axle and the hitch. If you're using a drawbar, you're going to have trouble. It's best to have the space between rear axle and hitch nearly the same as the length of the tow bar on the pull trailer.

 

[CliffordK]

I'll have to dig out the luggage trailer after Christmas if I can find a good place to play with it away from MUD. It has a pintle, which I may attach to the under tractor pin hitch. That should allow pushing the tongue around to exactly where it is needed... in theory.
Although, I can also imagine the advantages of stinger steering as is common with log trucks.
My guess is the difference would be how rapidly the tongue reacts to your vehicle movement and direction changes. And in the case of parking on the porch, how far under the porch the tractor must go.
A front bucket or fork mounted hitch should be very reactive.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

How about putting a simple not-too-wide-angle mirror at the back of the ballast so you can see the ball and coupler?