Pushing a TT into position from the rear bumper...?

[d3500ram]

I would like to purchase a TT in the future to place on my property. The door side I would like in a certain direction but to do so the terrain will not allow me to pull it into place... (If I backed it in to position the normal way, the doors would be on the opposite side of which I want them to face.)

I know a lot depends on the type of TT. I am thinking that it would be some where in the length of a 25 footer with double axles. I do not have the site yet in a state to accept a trailer (even if I can do this "push" method.) I am trying to think down the line so as to anticipate more about getting the site ready to place the RV.

Is there a possibility that I could affix a hitch to the rear bumper to only push-position the trailer into my ideal location?
It would only be used for these temporary site placements.

[lane_hog]

Those jack-wheels do make it possible to move a trailer by hand on a hard packed surface, but sheets of plywood work, too.

If you've got some mature trees, you might also be able to use a winch or come-along with a block & tackle. It would be slow, but relatively safe.

FWIW, I've seen 2" receivers welded or bolted to the rear frame on fifth wheel trailers to allow triple-tow where it's allowed. That might also be an option to consider in conjunction with a jack wheel.

[d3500ram]

I would most certainly make sure that any placement will done safely. If it were a perfectly level, hard surface site, I would entertain different "moving devices" of sorts... but as I visualize the possibilities, my specific situation will likely require a vehicle with weight more that say an ATV. It will need to "control" the trailer when situating it.

As mentioned, this idea is a couple years away... After I prep the sit, I might just set up a yurt or even my outfitters tent. The latters will be a whole lot easier to put in place.

[Gdetrailer]

rlw999 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

wowens79 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
Can't figure out if you are serious or joking.

Might be a "good question" but a "pop up" and a 26+ ft trailer are two entirely different creatures when it comes to tongue weight.

Popup has what perhaps 200lbs-250 lbs on the tongue with a trailer weight of 1800 lbs - 3500 lbs, a empty 26ft TT will weigh in at a min of 5000 lbs and can have as much as 750 lbs on that tongue empty.. You are gonna have to have super human strength to pickup a 26ft trailer tongue by hand..

Not sure why you'd need to pick it up by hand, I'd just use a wheeled trailer jack. Put some plywood under if it if it's off road.

The harder part is getting a tongue on the back of the RV that he can hitch to his truck. Maybe some custom hardware to attach a toad tow bar.

But by the time he buys the wheeled jack and custom fits a tow bar, he's probably half way to the price of an electric tow dolly.

Nothing like chopping up conversations then reconstructing them to suit your view.

I was responding that moving a lightweight "popup" by "HAND" is vastly DIFFERENT than moving a REAL HEAVY 26ft TT..

2K lbs or so vs 5K lbs or so.. Someone IS going to get hurt or killed in the process once that trailer tongue is no longer adding friction to movement to the train wreck that is about to happen.

Folks HAVE been hurt or killed over the yrs attempting to stop their own vehicles that slipped out of "park", not sure why folks think trailers can't do the same..

Don't respect the weight, it won't respect you when it rolls right over you..

Safety should be priority, not stupidity.

Sometimes I think this forum is connected to the DARWIN AWARDS website that highlight folks creative ways to get killed..

[d3500ram]

OP here... appreciate the banter, it gives me many ideas and options.
Just to clarify, When I used the word "state" I meant it as a term of "condition" or "circumstance", not as a political boundary. I need to get my proposed site into a condition to accept a trailer in the location where I would like to place it.

As others have alluded, there is a certain ideal position on which to locate the door side of the RV, along with a deck or patio, that will capture the view to the river adjacent to my backyard with mountains as the backdrop.

I would need to bring in fill. My excavator, with whom I occasionally contract for projects, always has discharge from his other projects and is always looking for places to dispose of removed soil. I am willing to accept it and would like to perhaps make a spot for a trailer. The way it would be placed presents the quandary of which I asked on the original post. Maybe asking to "push" from the back bumper was not the best descriptor of my predicament, but it did start the conversation to eventually getting me thinking about the options and possibilities.

Very knowledgeable folks here and I appreciate the ideas. I will think on it more as to how best to resolve. It will not be this year and most likely not next either. But perhaps 3 or so years from now at the earliest I might be able to make this happen.

But as to the question of how to place the RV... when I get the site designed and installed, I will just have my excavator move the trailer into place. He has articulating front-end loaders and back-hoes that can make it happen by pulling it into position from the tongue ...and the equipment can easily navigate the new added raised soil.

[rlw999]

Gdetrailer wrote:

wowens79 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
Can't figure out if you are serious or joking.

Might be a "good question" but a "pop up" and a 26+ ft trailer are two entirely different creatures when it comes to tongue weight.

Popup has what perhaps 200lbs-250 lbs on the tongue with a trailer weight of 1800 lbs - 3500 lbs, a empty 26ft TT will weigh in at a min of 5000 lbs and can have as much as 750 lbs on that tongue empty.. You are gonna have to have super human strength to pickup a 26ft trailer tongue by hand..

Not sure why you'd need to pick it up by hand, I'd just use a wheeled trailer jack. Put some plywood under if it if it's off road.

The harder part is getting a tongue on the back of the RV that he can hitch to his truck. Maybe some custom hardware to attach a toad tow bar.

But by the time he buys the wheeled jack and custom fits a tow bar, he's probably half way to the price of an electric tow dolly.

[Gdetrailer]

ZINGERLITE wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
To put that into perspective, this is about the same as trying to push a 1/2 ton pickup truck by hand.

A little off topic but thats actually really easy for 1 person. Focus on rolling the tire not pushing the truck! a friend that used to work on semi's showed me that trick. makes rolling projects around the driveway easier!

Try that trick on dirt, grass or on a hill and see how well that "trick" works.

I have a 120 yr old antique car that weighs right around 2,000 lbs, rolling the wheel (and these are large diameter wheels, think on the order of a wagon wheel) and I can easily move it around on my flat, level cement garage floor.. Doesn't work as well on dirt and grass.
Anything unlevel, well lets say I am not dumb enough to try since that 2,000 lb car can do a lot of damage to a human body when it rolls right over you.

I have a healthy respect for anything that is on wheels, weighs more than myself and don't have a deathwish.

A 5,000+ lb trailer with no wheel chocks, no brakes and tongue off the ground or on a wheel dolly NEEDS the same or higher healthy respect..

[wing_zealot]

colliehauler wrote:
I have a similar situation. In order to get my 35' TT into position I hired a skid steer to pull it in. I wanted the door side to face the lake and put in a patio. You could make a very heavy duty dolly to support the tongue and purchase a electric wench from Harbor Freight to pull it into position. If your ground is relatively flat a power dolly would work (mine was not). The skid steer and operator was $300.

You've peaked my curiosity, I want to know more about this electric wench!

[GrandpaKip]

I attached a 2” receiver to the bucket of our compact tractor to move various trailers around. It does have a bar to mount a ball, but it’s not accessible with the backhoe on.
You would have to have about 10 feet in front of the trailer.

[gbopp]

Huntindog wrote:
I think you are reading it wrong.
The way I read it is he does't have the site ready yet... That can mean many things, perhaps a pad needs to be made, vegetation trimmed etc.

Okay, you're correct. I finally got it through my thick skull. It's probably still frozen solid from the winter.
When the OP said 'state' I was thinking of a political subdivision of the USA.
If the OP had used the word condition instead of state I would have understood.
That's not his fault, it's mine. Stupid is as stupid does. :S

[Huntindog]

gbopp wrote:

colliehauler wrote:
I beleive he is in the same predicament as I. Not enough room to pull the trailer into place and get the truck back out because of the terrain.

I have several large pine trees and a lake that prevents the use of a truck.

I understand the OP's situation. But, he said, 'I do not have the site yet in a state to accept a trailer'
It sounds, to me that he's still looking for a site and has not decided on the state.

Like I said, maybe I'm reading the question wrong.

I think you are reading it wrong.
The way I read it is he does't have the site ready yet... That can mean many things, perhaps a pad needs to be made, vegetation trimmed etc.

[ZINGERLITE]

Gdetrailer wrote:
To put that into perspective, this is about the same as trying to push a 1/2 ton pickup truck by hand.

A little off topic but thats actually really easy for 1 person. Focus on rolling the tire not pushing the truck! a friend that used to work on semi's showed me that trick. makes rolling projects around the driveway easier!

[Gdetrailer]

d3500ram wrote:
No not joking (would have posted this Thursday if it were... LOL)

Thanks for the input to think about more the mechanics of TT's.
I guess I need to figure out how to pull it from the correct side without using my truck.

Perhaps that electric dolly might be an option.

I could hire my excavator to perhaps pull it into place with one of his implements.

Some folks have used a electric dolly to park in tight places, the downfall with these are they are insanely expensive to buy, most have very small wheels and are not suitable for off pavement use and one of biggest issues is they have no brakes and no means to control the trailers' brakes.. Basically are not really safe to use on HEAVY trailers on any sloped uneven dirt/grass areas.

Think about it for one second, a 26ft TT can weight 5K lbs empty.. That is a lot of weight to move and keep under control, your health and safety should be much more important than a RV..

To put that into perspective, this is about the same as trying to push a 1/2 ton pickup truck by hand.

If you have access to a decent sized excavator, that would be most likely a better choice of tools to use..

[Gdetrailer]

wowens79 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
Can't figure out if you are serious or joking.

How are you planning to pick up the tongue? There will be considerable amount of weight on the tongue to deal with which would require some sort of wheeled dolly.

Then you have the issue of trailer bumpers being nothing more than 20 ga sheet metal, you would have to reinforce that considerably..

Perhaps consider a Motor Home instead of a trailer, then you can simply drive it into position..

You will end up wrecking a trailer attempting to push from behind..

Of course there will be a bunch of folks posting they do it all the time..

I think it is a pretty good question as I’ve been in a couple of sites I’d like to do that, and have manually done it when I had a pop up.
The silly suggestion is to buy a motor home to permanently park.

Might be a "good question" but a "pop up" and a 26+ ft trailer are two entirely different creatures when it comes to tongue weight.

Popup has what perhaps 200lbs-250 lbs on the tongue with a trailer weight of 1800 lbs - 3500 lbs, a empty 26ft TT will weigh in at a min of 5000 lbs and can have as much as 750 lbs on that tongue empty.. You are gonna have to have super human strength to pickup a 26ft trailer tongue by hand..

I used to have a "landscape" trailer that weight 500 lbs empty TW of 50 lbs, yeah, I could pickup the tongue by hand and yeah with some effort could push that trailer around the yard by hand.. But, that was on flat areas, on a hilly area, there was no safe way to to that by hand..

Not to mention the issue of the trailer tongue jack, even if you put a skid plate under the jack, it WILL dig right into the ground and the result will be a bent jack and or bent trailer frame.. You would HAVE to have something with low rolling resistance but then you would have the issue of needing to turn that wheel directionally..

The only way I can see one "pushing" a trailer by the rear bumper is one would HAVE to have sufficient weight on the trailer back bumper/frame to remove the 700+ lbs from the trailer tongue (making the tongue float in the air) but that is trickier than it sounds..

Not to mention it is gonna take several thousand pounds of down force on the rear to pick up 700 lbs of tongue weight, something is gonna give or break putting that much downforce on the trailer frame and bumper.. Heck, even most pickup trucks in 1500 weight class will have not much more than 3K lbs of weight on the trucks' front axles so a good chance that trailer will end up picking your truck off of its front wheels.

Once you remove the tongue weight, you now have a 5000+ lb wrecking ball than you no longer have control of, so if it starts moving and it is not 100% flat land, it will keep on moving..

The idea is fundamentally flawed from the start..

As far as using a Motor Home as a "permanent" setup goes as being silly, no, it is not any more silly than dumping a Travel Trailer permanently in your back yard.. Used motor Homes are plentiful, can be inexpensive with a motivated seller trying to unbury their finances of items they cannot afford or can't use and when you start adding up the expenses of hiring excavators/backhoes/cranes/forklifts and or jerry rigging a very potentially hazardous method the extra couple of dollars spent on a used Motor Home will be well worth it.

Don't want to spend on a Motor Home? Buy a decommissioned school bus..

To myself, placing a RV in the backyard as a permanent feature is not really a very appealing look, over time as the RV ages, if you don't work to maintain the appearance it will just look like a derelict old abandoned trash heap.. Have seen that a lot where I live where someone buys a cheap RV to use as a storage shed..

If you really want extra living space in your backyard, they do make small "park" trailers that are built for that purpose that will hold up much better with much less maintenance and they can blend into your yard better than a RV. More expensive, yep.

[gbopp]

colliehauler wrote:
I beleive he is in the same predicament as I. Not enough room to pull the trailer into place and get the truck back out because of the terrain.

I have several large pine trees and a lake that prevents the use of a truck.

I understand the OP's situation. But, he said, 'I do not have the site yet in a state to accept a trailer'
It sounds, to me that he's still looking for a site and has not decided on the state.

Like I said, maybe I'm reading the question wrong.