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I saw the video posted earlier on truck/trailer weights, and thought I would share this one for those who are interested and/or havent seen it. He explains how to reverse and park a trailer. He also discusses tail swing. It's long, but I feel he does a very thorough job explaining each step and breaking down the process. Worth the time to watch it IMO.
I didn't watch the whole thing, but did watch a couple snippets. The best part can be seen in the very beginning: He's in an open parking lot with nothing to hit. Great way to practice if it's your first experience backing a trailer.
Down and around are the two terms used to back up. With the right hand on the steering wheel at 2 o'clock position, to make the trailer tail go left, pull down, to make it go right, go around. Left is right, right is left. Saying down or around takes the confusion out of right and left when training someone to back up. Once a NEWB gets the Down and Around, it makes learning much easier.
Easiest trailers to back are long with the axles in the rear, hardest are short with single axle in the middle. The shorter the trailer the faster it breaks. When backing watch the very rear edge, not the wheels, for the break. Once it breaks, then switch between the body and wheels. When it breaks reduce the steering by half and use small movements to control the direction, if you make large movements you can wind up wandering all over the place.
The easiest backing is drivers side, when backing to the right, it is called Blind side backing, and you are pretty much praying you don't hit anything because there is a point where you can't see what the trailer is doing in the mirror until you can see the trailer through the window, hence why it's called blind side.
To practice backing, pull forward and back up straight until you can keep the trailer between the cones with little movements, once mastered, then move up to 90* backing into a slot. Once mastered, move to parallel parking.
There, summed up the video to a few sentences, or at least how it would be if I created it.
I learned by holding the bottom of the wheel and pushing up right to get the trailer to go right and push up left to get the trailer to go left. I grew up with cattle trailers so wasn't hard to get going but going on year 3 of camping, I still get nervous in parks with not much space but I no longer care about who's watching me as that was a fear when I first started.
That's a good way if self learning! When Teaching though, for verbal purposes, what I posted is how it is taught in trucking classes, takes the confusion out of left and right. Can't really do down and around with the hand at the bottom, but I do like your method of learning.
Speaking of verbal, wife and I use two-way radio to communicate since there are times some spots are tight and I need guidance (I don't have rear camera on TT). Wife and I use 'driver side and passenger side' whenever I back up so there is no confusion as to which is 'left side right side the other side'...
Speaking of verbal, wife and I use two-way radio to communicate since there are times some spots are tight and I need guidance (I don't have rear camera on TT). Wife and I use 'driver side and passenger side' whenever I back up so there is no confusion as to which is 'left side right side the other side'...
I've tried but I just get the signal to keep going from the wife no matter if I'm about to hit something or not. So frustrating! She's basically out there to appear to be helping. Love her though!
02-22-2019, 02:57 AM
Video on how to reverse/park a TT
