Trailer backing fun . . .
More Turbo
Joined: Dec 2018
Posts: 669
Likes: 179
My worst one was the maiden trip with Our Denali. Went the wrong way going to the RV park at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, down a narrow road till I reached a high security area. After security cam and let me know I was in the wrong place 1/2 mile backing up to a little bitty turn out that was really not big enough to fit even the trailer into and it was on the outside in the middle of a curve. In the end other than wasting an hour and a half getting there.
Junior User
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 93
Likes: 3
From: LaFayette, Georgia
Junior User
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 93
Likes: 3
From: LaFayette, Georgia
The older I get the more crap I hit backing up. Even when not pulling. Even my 2 spotters couldn't spot a tree on my blind side while standing behind the 31' AS I was backing. My distance judgement is not what it used to be now that I wear glasses. I also bought a newer truck and it is a little different. I'm beginning to think I need a camera on front and back of the truck. I pull up in a parking spot and I'm 5 foot from the car parked in front of me lol. I can still put a trailer any where I want to, I just have to put out a cone or something to back into to tell me to stop.
More Turbo
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 655
Likes: 18
From: Randolph County NC
I had a 1992 F-250 extended cab with a Lance 1080 in the bed and towing a 20' boat on tandem axle trailer. Was traveling cross country and had made it to Indiana after starting in Mn. We arrived at a State park off of I-80 around 10:00 pm. checked in at gate, paid and got directions to the site. What I didn't know was the directions required passing beneath a bridge that had a 11' 6" clearance. I went 400 yds heading downhill to the bridge and saw the clearance sign. I had to disable the surge brakes on the boat trailer and back everything uphill back to the main gate. The truck transmission was not happy, but neither was I. The park ranger apologized and directed me to another road used for over height vehicles.
Cross-Country
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 98
Likes: 25
One night we pulled into a campground at around 1:30am (very bad idea - don't do this if you don't have to!). Nobody there of course to direct us to our site, so we drove around as quietly as possible in the dark. Took a wrong turn down a dirt road which ended in some trees after 400'. No way to turn around, so I had to back up that dirt road in the dark. I couldn't see anything behind the trailer, so I wrapped my campers headlamp around the bumper pointed backwards on the driver side and used that to keep the trailer mostly on the road. Only had about 2' on each side before deep ruts and mud that would have stranded us. Luckily I've been backing up trailers since I started driving or it would have been much worse.
Senior User
Joined: Jan 2020
Posts: 194
Likes: 12
From: Arizona
I'm the wife, we've owned RV's since we were married (42 years so far...). I've pulled horse trailers, and I can back whatever I need to....MOSTLY. Hubby and I have a system we use when parking our trailer. I drive, he directs. It actually works out pretty well. If I try to give him directions, we fight. If I try to out think him when he's directing me, we fight! If I trust him and follow his directions, we get it right almost every time. He doesn't read this, so he won't know I said that! HA!!!
Hotshot
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 19,726
Likes: 12,873
From: Wyoming
I'm the wife, we've owned RV's since we were married (42 years so far...). I've pulled horse trailers, and I can back whatever I need to....MOSTLY. Hubby and I have a system we use when parking our trailer. I drive, he directs. It actually works out pretty well. If I try to give him directions, we fight. If I try to out think him when he's directing me, we fight! If I trust him and follow his directions, we get it right almost every time. He doesn't read this, so he won't know I said that! HA!!!
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Laughing Gas
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 977
Likes: 455
From: Adirondacks
A few years back my buddy was a horse breeder and also transported horses around for breeding and training etc. We were on a run down to Florida and dropping off a horse in rural southern Virginia I think on a backcountry road. The owner met us at the road and because his driveway was small and tree lined and curvy he told us there was a good turn around just down the road. A quarter mile later the road went to dirt and we passed a small one car sized pull off. Not really good for a six horse trailer so we continued. The road went from two lane size dirt to single lane dirt. Not good but the owner said there was a good sized turn around. The now very narrow dirt road eventually went from improved and maintained to a single track rutted Jeep trail right past a narrow camp road entrance with a ten foot wide culvert across the drainage ditch. We could not keep going (Super Duty could but no way with that trailer). I thought we should off load the horses but my buddy said “I got this”. Lucky it was his turn driving. My buddy drove and I spotted. He did a ten or fifteen point turn to get the trailer into the camp road and get us turned around. I didn’t think we could do it. Good thing it was a goose neck.
Lead Driver
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 8,475
Likes: 728
From: Calgary Canada
or just get it jacknifed and giv'er.
Trailering
Joined: Nov 2020
Posts: 19
Likes: 5
I have quite a few stories about this.
I have a way of giving directions for backing up trailers that is extremely efficient if whoever is driving follows them, but most people don't. So I end up getting in the truck and doing it myself.
Since I have a hard time working with others I tend to just back up trailers alone,
Once I was trying to mow the part of the pasture where I keep my vehicles, I decided that I wanted to put something else out there without my step mom noticing. So I spent several hours by myself attempting to back three trailers into enough space for two of them.
I managed to do it, there was less than a foot of space between them but they all fit.
Unsurprisingly I missed something , my step mom couldn't see them from the house but she could see them from the road. So in the end I just wasted my time.
I have a way of giving directions for backing up trailers that is extremely efficient if whoever is driving follows them, but most people don't. So I end up getting in the truck and doing it myself.
Since I have a hard time working with others I tend to just back up trailers alone,
Once I was trying to mow the part of the pasture where I keep my vehicles, I decided that I wanted to put something else out there without my step mom noticing. So I spent several hours by myself attempting to back three trailers into enough space for two of them.
I managed to do it, there was less than a foot of space between them but they all fit.
Unsurprisingly I missed something , my step mom couldn't see them from the house but she could see them from the road. So in the end I just wasted my time.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: May 2018
Posts: 1,765
Likes: 502
My wife got me that shirt for Christmas! Our system is, I tell her to stand where she wants the door of the camper and I just put the trailer there. Her standing there gives me a reference point and I make it happen. We now have a backup camera on the trailer and it has a microphone so she can talk normal and I can hear what she's telling me. It doesn't have a speaker, which is probably for the best...