Learning how to drive with a trailer..

[Orange is choice]

I was told once that if you hold the bottom of the sterring wheel and move your hand the direction you want the trailer to go it will.

 

[Doz]

Here are a couple of very important things when pulling a trailer does the truck have a brake controller and make sure you know how it works it needs to be adjusted to apply more brake pressure with a heavy load and adjusted lower with no load. Next if you are hauling a tractor on a trailer you need to learn how to load it and chain it down to far back and you will get the trailer to start whipping side to side and get you in big trouble always check your trailer brakes are working you can do this with your brake controller always remember it takes a lot more room to stop when hauling a trailer slow and easy win the race good luck and lots of practice.

 

[marhar]

Okay this is something that at 58yo, I have never done and its on my list to learn. I have a tow package on my truck, but no hitch and I don't own a trailer yet. To make things more interesting I live in the country and there are lots of windy small roads...some so narrow I fold in my trucks side mirror when I am on them...as I know from experience can be an issue. Two weeks after getting this truck someone came too far over and we slapped mirrors.

Anyway what is the wisest and safest way you guys would recommend to get into this? I want to get a trailer for the tractor at some point and a small camper.

I am one of those people that is typically, cool calm and collected and not easily stressed out. But for some reason thinking about getting stuck on one of these curvy back roads and having to back out or turn around with a trailer etc tenses me up just thinking about it lol.

Thanks in advance!

Have someone with a trailer take you to a large big box store early in the morning. Practice in the parking lot. I used a super Walmart. I noticed 2 things when trying to teach someone: 1 when backing do not turn your wheel when stopped (you cannot judge how much you turned the steering wheel). 2. It is harder to back straight than it is to back in a curve (until you are used to the trailer your brain will tell your hands to turn the wrong way to straighten the trailer).

Remember no one is born knowing how to back. All of us had to learn and if we are honest all of us make mistakes.

 

[Flogger]

My advice is hook the trailer up then check the lights. After the lights check the hitch to make sure you didn't overlook something. Che ck the tires. Check the hitch to make sure nothing was overlooked. Once you have the hitch connected and latched, jack the trailer up high enough to nearly pick the to vehicle off the ground to verify that it is indeed properly connected and will not pop loose. My point obviously being that proper connection can be life or death to you or someone else.
Pulling and backing is a matter of practice. Small objects and lines can be very helpful in learning to maneuver a backed trailer. Also keep in mind the most tandem equipment trailers are 80+ inches wide as you determine what will work on your roads.
As far as not forgetting you have a trailer back there, I am 67 years old and have pulled trailers since I was probably 8 or 9 years old. I live 250 miles from my farm. On a recent trip home I pulled into a parking space at a small town grocery store that I frequent. After grabbing a few items I go back out to my pickup only to discover the small flatbed trailer I was pulling was sticking out into the aisle of the parking lot! Red-faced I backed out as a small audience watched and headed on home.

 

[Flogger]

Don't feel alone. My little dump trailer is only 4 feet wide and pulls easily even when loaded. It doesn't show in the mirrors and is easy to forget about.
On the other hand I struggle backing it up. When I had a 16 foot tandem axle I could easily back it down my driveway or up through my field; all my little trailer wants to do is jackknife.

I use a large pot magnet with a flag mounted on it. Stick it on the rear of the trailer when backing. It helps a whole lot on trailers that are not visible in your mirrors.

 

[tjandrews]

That bumper hole is useless. If your going to tow get a receiver hitch.

Wellll, not entirely useless. You just have to be reasonable with what you try to do with it. If you tow very infrequently, and only light trailers, it can be OK.
We had a '98 Explorer, and the book said the bumper was rated as a Class 2 hitch. Once a year, we towed a small boat trailer with it about 100 miles each way on a fishing trip, with zero problems. Other than that we didn't tow with it, but we did use it to tether a hot air balloon a couple of times.
Sadly, we no longer have that Explorer. A windy sub-zero January day, an icy road, and a steep hill conspired to roll it over a guard rail and down a bank, and that was that. Fortunately, my brother walked away from it with few injuries due to a combination of being surrounded by strong US steel, wearing his seat belt, and wearing six layers of clothing because he was going to be working outside.

 

[John_Mc]

Regarding backing: Practice, practice, practice.
Longer wheel base trailers are easier to backup.
Go slow, because required reactions have to happen fast.
When backing, getting a trailer to turn is the easy part, getting it to stop turning when you want (and not jackknife) is the part that confuses people.
I always tell people it’s best if you think about what which direction (left or right) the bumper of your truck is pushing the tongue of the trailer, versus which direction it should be. Then steer the truck accordingly.

Think about (the overhead view) of backing a trailer and turning trailer left (say) 45° and continuing backwards in a straight line. As you back, the trailer tongue has to first be nudged to the right, causing the trailer tires to track left. However, you now have to “follow” the tongue of the trailer with the push vehicle, keeping the whole rig in relative alignment or the trailer will keep turning (relative to the truck) and eventually jackknife.
“Be the ball hitch”.

This is why saying “You have to turn the wheel this way or that way” doesn’t make sense, because you’re turning it every way depending on where you are in the turn and your alignment situation.

And when thing start to go sideways (they will), just stop, pull ahead 1/2 a length until rig is realigned, and start over. Pull forward and start over as many times as it takes. Trying to correct a backing mistake by continuing to backup almost never works.

When driving forward, remember that like a vehicle rear wheels that track to the inside of the turn when you make a sharp corner, a trailer will track drastically to the inside of the turn. Take wide turns, with the outside nose of truck as far to the outside of the turn as possible, and watch your mirrors to see where trailer is tracking.

That's one of the best descriptions I've seen.

The concept of thinking about where the bumper of the tow vehicle is pushing the trailer while backing up is an important one.

Another important concept is the idea that while backing, once you start a turn, you have to take some action to stop it. Even if you want to keep the same radius of turn, you have to take some action to start the turn, then do something to undo part of that - otherwise, your turn will keep getting tighter and tighter until you have a jackknife.

Consider the "pull forward a half length or so to straighten things out" technique your 'get out of jail free' card. It's easier to just stop and reset, rather than trying to "save" an increasingly bad situation.

Anticipate things early. It's generally easier to make a lot of little corrections, than a few big ones. The idea someone posted of putting your trailer on a long straight line and backing up while staying close to that line (with lots of little corrections) is great practice and a great way to train your eye to catch errors while they are still small and take the appropriate corrective action.

Once you are comfortable with backing and maintaining a straight line, for more advanced training, try to find a long constant curved line and see if you can back along that. This further helps develop detection and correction of errors while they are small. It's also a good practice to visualize the whole path you want the trailer to take. Too many people get in trouble by focusing only on the desired end result. Planning the whole path helps things go smoother and puts you in better position when manuvering in tighter spaces where you have no choice. For example: imaging trying to back in to a parking space or driveway that is at 90˚ angle to your direction of forward travel. You want the trailer to follow an arc which gets you to that driveway or parking space with the trailer mostly already aligned with it. Cutting the corner so you get to that space with the trailer at 45˚ is a problem. Visualize the whole path and stick to it as much as you can. Don;t focus only on the destination.

Unlike many commenters here, when backing I put one hand at the 12:00 position (when the wheels are pointed straight ahead) and look back over my shoulder (or in the mirrors). I find it easy to make small corrections. If I'm doing it correctly, and don't need to make extreme maneuvers, I never have to move my hand from that spot on the wheel. It also makes it simple to know when I have neutralized the steering again: if my hand is back on top, the wheels are straight ahead. I guess I tend to focus more on how I'm moving the back of the truck and the front of the trailer with this grip: the motion of my hand matches the motion of the tow vehicles rear bumper/ball. If I have to make a more extreme maneuver that requires moving that hand, once I'm done with that move, I reset my hand back at 12:00. Really, this is just a matter of personal preference. Either works, you just need to get used to whatever it is you want to do.

 

[troverman]

Wellll, not entirely useless. You just have to be reasonable with what you try to do with it. If you tow very infrequently, and only light trailers, it can be OK.
We had a '98 Explorer, and the book said the bumper was rated as a Class 2 hitch. Once a year, we towed a small boat trailer with it about 100 miles each way on a fishing trip, with zero problems. Other than that we didn't tow with it, but we did use it to tether a hot air balloon a couple of times.
Sadly, we no longer have that Explorer. A windy sub-zero January day, an icy road, and a steep hill conspired to roll it over a guard rail and down a bank, and that was that. Fortunately, my brother walked away from it with few injuries due to a combination of being surrounded by strong US steel, wearing his seat belt, and wearing six layers of clothing because he was going to be working outside.

My first vehicle was a 1996 Ford Explorer, 4-door Limited V6 with 2WD. It also had the bumper ball for towing. I used it to tow a 2,000lb trailer regularly for a couple of years and it did great. Although this generation of Explorer was known to be the rollover risk / Firestone tire debacle, I put 140,000 miles on it and it was one of the most reliable and trouble-free vehicles I ever owned.

 

[Jlillie2]

Okay this is something that at 58yo, I have never done and its on my list to learn. I have a tow package on my truck, but no hitch and I don't own a trailer yet. To make things more interesting I live in the country and there are lots of windy small roads...some so narrow I fold in my trucks side mirror when I am on them...as I know from experience can be an issue. Two weeks after getting this truck someone came too far over and we slapped mirrors.

Anyway what is the wisest and safest way you guys would recommend to get into this? I want to get a trailer for the tractor at some point and a small camper.

I am one of those people that is typically, cool calm and collected and not easily stressed out. But for some reason thinking about getting stuck on one of these curvy back roads and having to back out or turn around with a trailer etc tenses me up just thinking about it lol.

Thanks in advance!

If you have to pull the mirrors in going forward, backing up is not going to be an option, so I'd stick with the smallest trailer that you can actually use.

 

[dgriff23@cox.net]

Okay this is something that at 58yo, I have never done and its on my list to learn. I have a tow package on my truck, but no hitch and I don't own a trailer yet. To make things more interesting I live in the country and there are lots of windy small roads...some so narrow I fold in my trucks side mirror when I am on them...as I know from experience can be an issue. Two weeks after getting this truck someone came too far over and we slapped mirrors.

Anyway what is the wisest and safest way you guys would recommend to get into this? I want to get a trailer for the tractor at some point and a small camper.

I am one of those people that is typically, cool calm and collected and not easily stressed out. But for some reason thinking about getting stuck on one of these curvy back roads and having to back out or turn around with a trailer etc tenses me up just thinking about it lol.

Thanks in advance!

I helped a friend do this.
1. The longer the trailer, the easier. Small short trailers can be difficult for experienced pros. If a friend has such a rig ask him if he'd spend a little time with you.
2. Find a large flat area to experiment. A school parking lot on the weekend, a church lot, etc. Would work well.
3. Grasp the bottom of the steering wheel. Move your hand the direction you want the back end of the trailer to go. Small movement, slow speed, and the patience of Job will have you using your mirrors and controlling the trailer.