Ford Trailer Backup Assist

You can always attach temporary extensions to the trailer, so you can see it when you need to back up significantly.

When the camper is on, the hitch extension will bring the receiver to the back end of the camper, making the hitch ball about the same distance behind the camera as the tailgate camera is to the stock hitch. The big difference will be the extra distance from the rear axel to the ball.

As for how well it works, I'm more concerned with keeping it straight while backing up a long distance. One of the trailers I town has no place to turn around, so I have to back it up over 100 yards. The trailer is pretty narrow, so I can't see it behind the camper. On top of that, its short so it gets out of line really quickly.

Bionic Man wrote:
As others stated, the way that the back up assist “works” is based on the distance from the rear view camera to a sticker on the trailer. And there is both minimum and maximum distances required, so you would have to find a way to make that work if you somehow re-positioned the camera.

Have you ever tried using the assist in the first place? I set it up on my Expedition MAX on both my wake boat and my fishing boat. And my personal experience is that neither of them work very well.

First, it is very finicky to pick up the sticker at all. I find mine has to be in complete sun for it to work. Not at night, and not if it is in the shade.

Second, it isn’t unusual for it to lose the sticker once you start backing up.

Third, it won’t make a very sharp turn. For example, turning 90* from my street into my driveway isn’t possible with the assist.

Maybe Ford has made significant improvements since my 2019. And maybe I’m just not patient enough to fiddle with it as I am competent in my backing skills. But I personally wouldn’t want to rely on that as a system to back up my own trailers.

You want to pull a trailer behind a truck camper with a long overhang, using some sort of hitch extender, right?
You can always try and see what happens.
In order to calculate the necessary steering maneuvres, the algorithm probably needs to have an idea of the positions of the camera and the hitch point (and the trailer, via the sticker already mentioned) in relation to the vehicle axles and steering. Since these positions are constant on any given vehicle (with the exception of the trailer sticker), they may well be somehow included in the algorithm - either hardcoded, or as parameters. Or the assistant may just work with very broad assumptions, camera data and a self-learning approach.
If you change the camera and hitch positions without "telling" the assistant algorithm, it may produce results that do not match the actual physical reality. Or the way it is set up may prove to be fairly flexible and the results may still be useful.
There is no harm in trying under carefully supervised conditions ;-)

As others stated, the way that the back up assist “works” is based on the distance from the rear view camera to a sticker on the trailer. And there is both minimum and maximum distances required, so you would have to find a way to make that work if you somehow re-positioned the camera.

Have you ever tried using the assist in the first place? I set it up on my Expedition MAX on both my wake boat and my fishing boat. And my personal experience is that neither of them work very well.

First, it is very finicky to pick up the sticker at all. I find mine has to be in complete sun for it to work. Not at night, and not if it is in the shade.

Second, it isn’t unusual for it to lose the sticker once you start backing up.

Third, it won’t make a very sharp turn. For example, turning 90* from my street into my driveway isn’t possible with the assist.

Maybe Ford has made significant improvements since my 2019. And maybe I’m just not patient enough to fiddle with it as I am competent in my backing skills. But I personally wouldn’t want to rely on that as a system to back up my own trailers.

I figured that it would be a bit off, but I'm hoping I can connect both the trailer and camper cameras.

trail-explorer wrote:
I'm guessing that the steering input required to make a give turn is based on geometrical calculations of the distance between the tail gate camera location and location of the checkered sticker. Once you "relocate" the camera, all those dimensions change, so it's hard to say how well it would work.

I think Trail-explorer’s on tract.

I'm guessing that the steering input required to make a give turn is based on geometrical calculations of the distance between the tail gate camera location and location of the checkered sticker. Once you "relocate" the camera, all those dimensions change, so it's hard to say how well it would work.

Towing a trailer behind the camper.

I was thinking it might work if I attach the aux camera in place of the tailgate camera.

Are you towing a trailer along with the camper, or just for the camper.

Grit dog wrote:
Say wut??

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