Help!!!! Travel Trailer Back in

FLY 4 FUN wrote:
Natural to feel pressured those first few seasons of backing a rig. For sure get somewhere open and practice with your spotter. I insist on radios or phone contact so theres no yelling/gesturing etc. Back in the day if we got really out of shape I did a "lap" of the campground and then started over. This gave me cool down time and cleared all the folks behind me out. Its all part of the lifestyle.

Amazing how many people wind up yelling on radios.

We use only gestures, no talking. If something is complicated enough that it needs discussion, the spotter walks up and we have a discussion. Work out the gestures ahead of time. What we use:
- Hand up in the stop position = stop
- Point left or right (full arm extended) = turn the back of the trailer that way
- tomahawk chop = straighten it out.

The person directing is in charge.
The driver only has the authority to hit the brakes if they see something wrong.
If the drive can't see the director in the mirrors, the brakes are hit until you can see and get clear signals.

Random thoughts:
- Don't really care what side we back into, the person directing can see whichever side needs watching.
- As others have said practice really helps. Go down to an empty parking lot or show up at the campground mid week when it's empty to practice. Practice with a small trailer really does help.
- Particularly for 5th wheels but also bumper pulls, practice an S-curve approach (goes by different names). Pull up as close to the side of the site as possible. As you pass turn hard away from the site until you run out of space. Then turn hard back toward the side of the site. Once you have it down, that will leave the trailer already angled toward the site making it easier to start the turn into the site.
- If a car on another site is blocking and you don't feel comfortable, you ask nicely. Most campers will be happy to move it to help if approached with a pleasant attitude. They were there once too.
- Slow is fast. Fast is slow.