First lesson in towing...grade C+ or -?

[Travelinana]

Tony came down yesterday morn and he supervised me hooking, unhooking, checking inside and outside. As we almost pulled away, he asked me if I could see anything I'd missed..nope, all looked good...wrong! the steps were still out..I pulled it out of garage and onto the street, then I pulled it into his driveway and up the drive. He wanted to pull it into the place for pad so he could spray paint the perimeters and the dump drop. We got that done then I pulled it back to the highway. He got a little nervous because I had cars piling up behind me since it's very curvy so I finally sped up to speed limit. I then turned into the Corp of Engineers visitor center where they have a parking lot with lines for RVs. I practiced my backing up (seems I have a tendency to jackknife) and got a little more comfortable. I then drove back to the house and backed into the driveway. He put it back in garage. I need lots of practice but am much more relaxed about this. With the equalizing hitch, it doesn't take brute strength for anything and the back up camera is great.
Glad this is under my belt...makes me so anxious to get out there in my new rig.

[VickieP]

Sounds to me like you scored higher than a C+ for sure! Just a note, if you have a sway bar on, you have to remove it before backing up. Ours has a slight bend in it thanks to male impatience.

[cpatinjones]

You are getting, keep on practicing.

[sharon]

Yup, at least a B! Good job! Jackknife is my middle name...probably why I have a MH instead of trailer!

[Carolinagal]

Sounds like you have a good start and your attitude is great. You will be a pro in no time and having a great time too.

Good Luck and Happy Travels ahead,

CArol

[Dawn309]

Ditto on the jack knifing being the reason for me getting a MH. You should have heard Chuck laugh when he was trying to teach me how to back a trailer. Could be why he was pretty insistant on me getting a MH to start full timing. I can back a car or truck into anywhere. That makes perfect sense to me. Trailers not so much!

[Travelinana]

One thing I could do better than my husband was back a sailboat into a slip. Sometimes I had to do it without the motor. He adjusted the sails and I steered it in. He was one of those who had to sail out of the slip, probably to show off.

[Redwahine]

Ditto about backing into the boat slip. However when it comes to land, that's another story. I am so uncoordinated when it comes to backing with a trailer. This is my biggest fear about RV. Towing. But I know with enough practice, I will be O.K.

[Travelinana]

Yes, Red, we can do anything we set our minds to, within reason of course, and towing is definitely within reason.

[cookiemom]

I have a checklist that I review every time before I move my camper. It lists all of the obvious as well as the sometimes forgotten things I need to do before moving the camper. Sometimes I get so involved in the process of hooking up I forget to do the obvious like put the stairs up or close the cabinet doors.

As far as learning to back up, I took two plastic 55 gallon trash cans to an empty parking lot and practiced backing up with the trash cans three parking spots apart. After I mastered that I moved the trash cans in where I only had two spots to back into, then one. It took about 5 hours of practice, but I did it... The plastic trash cans let me see where I needed to be but if I hit them there was no damage to anything.

We all learn these things at different paces. Just keep practicing and you will be a pro in no time!

[Colliemom]

Hey, take it from a former TT owner who is without one at the moment, you scored way more than a C+. As to leaving the steps out, no big deal there, just might have lost them, but I know that there's hardly ap person on this forum who hasn't forgotten to do something. I for one, forgot to close my roof vent in my bathroom when I left a state park last summer. Coulple of campers came up alongside of me and told me. Whoops, And somewhere, buried in the threads on this forum is a thread I started way back about the "goofs" the we've all made during our RV adventures. Some hilarious stuff in there.

As to backing, it will come eventually and every trailer is different. Smaller ones tend to jacknife easier than larger ones. Just remember, take it slow and easy. Don't worry about blocking the road if you are backing into a site. We've all been there and understand. Most of all, relax and have fun.

[Sandersmr]

I have a ding in the front of the Land Dinghy where I managed to hit it with the truck trying to get it in my driveway. I now know how to "scoop" across the driveway so that I pull across the street as I approach the driveway, then pull back into my lane so that the trailer is already angled towards the driveway when backing. It's hard to describe but really helps. It also helps that the house across the street is currently empty and our driveways line up so that I have room to pull across and straighten out by using their driveway as well