Trying to back a trailer is no fun

[Soundguy]

i love it when going to a new place and the people tell you.. oh sure.. you have room to pull your extended cab dually in and turn around that 30' trailer... and you get there and it's a winding road the entire way 8' wide with a couple 90' turns in it.. and then you have to back out..

 

[Qapla]

SoundGuy, I know the feeling. A few years back we went to a job that is down a long winding drive (somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 mile) with several turns and twists.

When it was time to leave, the home owner told us that there was no room to turn the trailer around because he did not want us driving off the drive at all.

We were in a 3/4 ton utility truck with a toolbox body and a 20- pipe rack on top loaded with PVC. We had a 16' equipment trailer with a mini-excavator and various other tools and supplies. When I got to the end of the drive (or was that the beginning) I had to back in to a busy street near a curve to exit the drive.

We never pulled the trailer to that customers house again!

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. sounds like one I did.. had to back onto a street, that was at an intersection AND a 90 turn.. there was a DITCH on either side of the road, and the entrance was over a timber 10' bridge.

lets just say I'm not planning on going back there.. first time one of the rear tandems went off the ground I knew it wasn't going to be a fun day..

 

[sunshine coaster]

My kids have had trailers on every tricycle, bicycle, go cart, quad that theey have owned, me being a former farm boy (always a farm boy BTW) means they will have to have some oF The skills I learned o so many years ago

 

[Brad_Blazer]

I can back a trailer no problem, never could back a wagon worth a darn. The farmer I worked for back in HS could back a trailer plus wagon in tandem e.g. a tractor-chopper-chopper box. In the 30 years since then I don't think I've seen anyone else do it.

 

[Gregster613]

Yeah, I hear you Brad! My dad used to do that alot also and made it look just so easy! Tractor, baler, and haywagon...Tractor, chopper, chopper wagon. It's a skill that takes mucho mucho practice for some of us. Me, I had a hard enough time just backing up the darn wagon whenever i had to.

 

[Marveltone]

I think one of the most common problems with backing a trailer is a combination of the failure to anticipate, followed by late overcompensation. Gets you into trouble every time! I see my dad do it all the time.:confused2: Now, I'll never claim to be perfect at it, but I can honestly say that when we're camping with my parents, we'll let my folks pick out the sites and start backing in first. My wife and I will then back our BP trailer into position, jack it up, pull out our lawn chairs and watch my dad and brother fight, argue, miscommunicate and repeatedly jockey the 5th wheel into position while my poor mother stands and shakes her head at the whole fiasco.

Joe

 

[Bird]

My dad used to be a truck driver in his younger days and when I was a teenager, I envied the way he could back a trailer. But then in our RVing days, including one summer working in an RV park, I soon learned the easiest way to "help" someone back a trailer. Never get back behind them, yelling, waving, and making motions the driver doesn't understand. Instead, I'd walk beside the driver's door and simply tell the driver which way, right or left, to turn the steering wheel.

When we had the fifth-wheel trailer, my wife never wanted to drive the truck and pull the trailer. But if we had to back it into a tight place after dark, I put her behind the wheel and told her she could even close her eyes if she wanted to. We had a good CB radio in the truck and I bought a cheap handi-talkie from Radio Shack that was on CB channel 11. At night, the backup lights would reflect off the white front of the trailer so you couldn't see down the side of the trailer. But with the handi-talkie, I'd go behind the trailer and simply tell her which way to turn the steering wheel and she could back right into even very tight spots.

 

[Mace Canute]

My dad used to be a truck driver in his younger days and when I was a teenager, I envied the way he could back a trailer. But then in our RVing days, including one summer working in an RV park, I soon learned the easiest way to "help" someone back a trailer. Never get back behind them, yelling, waving, and making motions the driver doesn't understand. Instead, I'd walk beside the driver's door and simply tell the driver which way, right or left, to turn the steering wheel.

I've done that, and found that the odd driver would turn the wrong way. "Turn right" meant turn the wheel clockwise but they would get it mixed up and turn so the front end of the vehicle went to the right, which of course was opposite to what was needed. Never could figure out the why of that particular action on their part...just the way their brain worked I guess. I ended up having to tell them right hand down or left hand down; that seemed to work better for them.

 

[Rod in Forfar]

I am in the same boat as your wife. My only saving grace is that my husband is no better and probably even worse. We had a pop up camper that used to literally take us one hour or more to back up onto a 20 foot driveway and then make a 90 degree angle into a parking pad adjacent to our driveway. We only did that a few times and then rented a permenent campsite so we did not have to do it any more. We have never rented a trailor for moving either always rented a truck just so that we would not have to pull a trailor. It was good that we learned that when we were young so that we just never ever bought or rented a trailor and probably saved ourselves from disaster. if oyu ain't got it you aint got it adn I take my hats off to everybody who can drive a big rig, drive a bus and pull a trailor as surely that is an acquired skill and valuable one. I still remember telling my hsuband he ws going to hit the mailbox adn he insisted that he wasn't and oh well you can guess the ending. We would each take truns trying with the other person directing until we would become so frustrated and excited that we would jump out of the car and tellt he other person to try it. It was HE double hockey sticks.

Men who eat quiche can稚 back up a trailer. Walnut Diary