More Questions on Backing Up with Trailer???

What humblerb said! Watch the wheels and put them where you want them, the trailer will follow. I use a "farmers guide" to spot the trailer where I park at home. Works almost? :-) every time. btw- I almost never end up with the TV and trailer perfectly in line but the trailer is straight with the parking space.


"farmers guide"?? = a series of bricks or different colored rocks or other SMALL objects laid in a row

use mirrors, and respond quickly with the wheel.. but in Small amounts..

last month.. had to back down my friends driveway... 1150 feet long.. I did it in One shot... sloped gravel driveway.

and I have never done it before... slow, precise, catch it before it goes off line.

Try to see the front edge and the rear edge of trailer in mirror.

As others have said practice, practice, practice. Open parking lots, behind stores into loading docks. Good mirrors are a must, I started out with those clip on ones that weren't that great. I upgraded to aftermarket "factory" mirrors and things got a lot easier. Backing up straight is difficult, just have to go slow and make minor corrections as you go. Someone mentioned the scoop method, look it up it helped me considerably.

Quit looking out the back window. Use your mirrors.

For me, I find that focusing on just the trailer tires using the mirrors gets me backed up straight or making tight corners the easiest..

The trailer is only going to go where the tires go, so if you watch those and steer accordingly, it usually works out. You still have to watch where the front of the truck is of course, so it's a dance between looking forward, looking back in the mirrors.

Anyway, as for initiating the turn, I try to get the trailer going the direction I want, and that's usually not more than a full turn of the wheel. Then I start to "follow" it by straightening out the wheel and adjusting as needed depending on where the trailer tires are going and where I need it to go. Easy, peasy.. :) Ha, ha.. Lots of practice too... :)

Good luck!

Mitch

Well, when I went to truck driving school, they taught the down and around method. Hand on the wheel at 2 o'clock position(Remember a Semi has a huge wheel so in a pickemup, top the the wheel works just as well), and to move the trailer left, come down, which is bringing the hand down to the right(Hence why 2 o'clock works best) and to move the trailer right, go around, which is turning the wheel left.

To back up straight, keep your eye on the very back of the trailer, however don't focus on the trailer, but pick something behind the trailer as a guideline, and keep the back of the trailer lined up with that object. If you see it disappear come around, if you see a gap start come down. Small movements of the wheel is all it takes, maybe a 1/4 turn max.

To turn into a space, look at the wheels. The further the wheels are behind the truck, the slower it breaks, making it easier, yet harder at times, to back. The closer the wheels are the faster it breaks.

So to back in, the best way is on the drivers side as opposed to the blind side(did this yesterday with mine to sneak between two large lilac bushes onto my main drive with ditches and a mailbox to avoid. Took 3 attempts and I still scraped one of the bushes, not easy blindsiding.) So pull up as close to the "curb" as you can so that the trailers wheels are edging it, get the wheels about 1/2 the distance from the back wheel to the rear bumper to the entrance you are backing into. As soon as you start moving, start coming down on the wheel, watching the tires, as soon as they start to break, keep pulling down until the back tire starts to skid, then start coming around to maintain the turn. Once you break into the driveway, you should be about halfway in through the turn by now, start coming around slowly as you pivot the trailer in. You may need to pull up once or twice depending on the angle of the lot you are pulling into, but when you get the hang of the trailer break, and how much input you need, it will get easier and you will find yourself backing it in one shot.

It is a LOT easier for me to teach this when I am actually watching and guiding the driver, but hopefully you can get the idea.

You can't just hold the wheel straight and expect the trailer to back up straight. Constant correction is necessary. Even slight variations in the road surface will cause the trailer to drift off, requiring you to correct.

Here is a video tutorial of what helped me:

The Scoop

Just a couple of quick comments. Most of the replies are spot on.
One thing I found helped me when backing in to a campsite (or my driveway) was to stop looking at the rear of the trailer. Look at the wheels on the trailer.
I immediately went from 3 - 4 attempts to putting it in the slot on the first try. Every now and again, when I get in a hurry, I will have to straighten out once. But concentrate on the wheels and it makes a world of difference. You can cut your TV wheels and see the track that the trailer wheels are taking. Based on their track, you push the steering wheel further or back off a little.

Straight line backing...adjust for the way your trailer reacts..hand on top of steering wheel, use mirrors.

As you are backing watch the trailer, side to side in the mirrors, steer (hand on top of the wheel) towards the mirror you see most of the trailer in.

I can back up for miles down Gravel roads using this method. The speed you manoeuvre is related to high quickly your trailer reacts to your steering inputs. A quick to reacthe trailer will require you to go slower as you need time, even to counter steer. At first you will zigzag a lot, but after a while you can back up with only a foot of clearance.

How far past ? Most common, watch your trailer tires, as they pass your driveway, gently turn the steering wheel towards the driveway you want back into and just as you reverse come back the other way with the steering wheel. I've been doing this for so long it's second nature... most days I'm top gun in reverse, some days I have an off day... shikane backing is not my thing...