Trouble Hooking Up Trailer due to "Gear Slack"????

Get it where it needs to be then set the brake, then put it in park. it shouldn't roll with the park brake applied!

Put it in Park, then, before taking your foot off the brake, set the parking brake. This should eliminate roll, if your brake is properly adjusted.

Parking brake is your helper on this problem.

set it before releasing your foot from brake petal.

Yep.......good ole parking brake

Should be set EVERY time before removing foot from brake pedal.

Not just for hooking up trailer but any time you get out of vehicle.

Make it a habit....
Parking brake....then release vehicle brake pedal

I am pretty stout and this might not work for you but I can push or pull the tow vehicle the half inch or so that results from "Gear Slack".

Alternatively, I open the pickup door and pick a point of reference. If it rolls forward or backward when I release the brake, I put it back in the appropriate gear and move about one inch in the opposite direction of the roll.

TomG2 wrote:
I am pretty stout and this might not work for you but I can push or pull the tow vehicle the half inch or so that results from "Gear Slack".

x2 on leaning on the truck to move it one way or the other... one of the very few advantages of being rather large.

Once your lined up set your parking brake and then put it in park.

If it should roll still then you need to adjust your parking brake.

My wives truck was bad when we tried it for our ATV trailer. All the way to the floor and it still rolled.
Once tighted up it was all good. She wasn't in the habit of using it and I don't drive her truck. Mine is always set

bowler1 wrote:
When I hook up my trailer by myself I have a problem with my truck rolling forward or backward after putting it in park and taking my foot off the brake. I get lined up on the ball and then the truck will either roll forward or back as a function of the "slack" in the gears (and not as a function of being on an incline). The amount that it rolls and direction can be unpredictable.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this? I have tried putting the parking brake on and a few other things, but it doesn't seem to help.

Would maybe putting it in neutral with the parking brake on be a way?

thanks for your help

Matt

Time to have your Parking brake checked/serviced.

Good chance you have a frozen cable, rusted parts or just worn out or not adjusted parking brakes.

They are a often unused and overlooked neglected piece of your vehicle that are a critical piece of safety gear.

Put it in park and before taking you foot off the service brake MASH that parking brake down.

When set correctly and all parts are working it should be all but impossible to physically push your vehicle and make it move.

That brake WILL stop ALL of the movement (gear/transmission, driveline slack) when it is in good working order.

There MUST be some "slack" in the transmission, driveline and axle.. No slack would not be a good thing and eventually would damage some rather expensive parts.

Most folks don't ever use the parking brake and many do not even know why it is there.

On my Chevy I find it very predictable, almost helpful really. I can look at how far the hitch is from the coupler and estimate how many teeth I need to move the parking paw on the flywheel. It's pretty easy to do 1 tooth at a time.

dodge guy wrote:
Get it where it needs to be then set the brake, then put it in park. it shouldn't roll with the park brake applied!

And if it DOES your parking brake may not be working right.....or at all.