Backing into a site.

[N TX Dave]

Good video, thanks for posting good idea to use airplane signals. I wonder if my BIL will know them this summer when I use them.

[Scion Gypsy]

Here's a video by LazyDays RV that I recently found. Maybe it will help.

 

Driver's Confidence Video 7: Backing an RV into a Campsite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spheImHRlVM

I went to Tampa and took their RV Safe Driver class where they taught this and the DOT system. Excellent training that works!

[Kiltedpig]

What is the main difference between backing a TT into a site and a 5er? I can put my 30' TT anywhere but I'm getting a 40' 5er and know there are differences so any help will be appreciated so I have an idea before I begin.

[cmelkins]

Have you ever been sitting on an airplane and watched those in the orange vests with the cone shaped objects in their hands guide the plane to the gate? To me it is the same thing when backing into a site. Using the decided upon hand signals before we ever started was key. It shouldn't be like playing that game at a party without words trying to figure out what the other person is saying. That can be very frustrating and costly.

 

I do the parking DH does the guiding. He points the direction he wants the back of the coach to go. If I need to pull forward and re-adjust multiple times it is okay. We do occasionally use our cellphone but they are not needed much anymore.

[Al F]

What is the main difference between backing a TT into a site and a 5er? I can put my 30' TT anywhere but I'm getting a 40' 5er and know there are differences so any help will be appreciated so I have an idea before I begin.

We went from a 33' TT to a 35' 5'er in 2005 and I found the 5'er to be easier to back. One advantage was being able to cut sharper. I could turn to about 75* to 80*. With TT you are limited to the bumper hitting the A frame leading to the hitch.

 

You do have to watch out that the cab of the truck doesn't hit the front corner of the 5'er with backing really sharp. It is easy to do if you are not careful.

 

However you are going from 30' to 40' so you will see a difference there.

[Al F]

Kilted - the difference is the pin / ball placement. With the trailer, your ball is 3' - 5' behind the center of the differential. With a 5'er, the optimum pin placement is 0 to 4" in front of the axle, 2" being optimum (opinions of this vary). It becomes a game of levers and geometry, nothing hard, I flip flop all the time. A 5'er just reacts slower than a trailer so you have to do things in a different time sequence.

 

Now, if you go to a short bed, or a long bed, either with a sliding hitch, it is still slower than the trailer, but faster than a fixed pivot. No real figures, but a million 5'ers and x truck drivers do it every day. Nada thing.

Bill, I'm not clear on what you mean about a 5'er reacting slower than a TT.

 

In my experience the shorter the tow vehicle compared to the trailer(or 5'er) the easier it is to back the trailer. Moving the trailer pivot point from 3'-5' behind the axle to on top of the axle effectively shortens the length of the tow vehicle. That would seem to make it easier to back the 5'er than a TT.

 

The hardest time I had backing is with a 27' Class C backing an eight foot bed (about 11' total length) utility trailer. Real long vehicle backing a short trailer. It was so easy to start the trailer on it's way to jack knifing and hard to straighten it out.

[Ray,IN]

Al, you described the backing effect accurately for the difference between a TT and 5er in your last paragraph, just as Bill outlined. A 5er is slow to begin turning, then reacts quickly once it has started turning, like your trailer did behind the short C.

For both you and Kiltedpig: As soon as a 5er begins turning, the driver must react by beginning to straighen out the rig. It begins turning slowly, then goes very quickly. If the driver waits until the 5er (which is a trailer with the hitch in a different position-above the axle instead of 4-5' behind the axle) to be in position to go straight back, it's too late to recover. It's called "chasing the trailer" at that point, trying to get the truck back under the trailer in a straight line. Then it's, pull forward, back, pull forward, until you're back under the 5er in a straight line in the site.

 

I hope that makes sense. It's much harder for me to explain than visualize. I've owned a 5er since 1995 to 2013, got so used to backing I never thought about the procedure much.

[skp51443]

Think of it as levers, grab a couple rulers and try it out on your desk. On a pull trailer the hitch is well behind the truck's axle so when you turn the truck the hitch is moved to the side and starts the trailer turning. On a fiver when you turn the truck pivots under the trailer's hitch so there is no additional turning input to the fiver.

 

The faster turning is why you'll see many MDT and HDT trucks with the hitch well to the rear of the axle even if no other reason to put it back there exists.

[Raquel]

The faster turning is why you'll see many MDT and HDT trucks with the hitch well to the rear of the axle even if no other reason to put it back there exists.

 

Yes, I believe our hitch is 48" behind the axle. I love it for the maneuverability that distance provides.

[N TX Dave]

The hardest thing for me is figuring how much and when to turn when backing the 5er, I seemed to have an idea when backing my TT but have to learn new ons for the 5er. Also I think you need to follow the tracks of a 5er more than with a trailer. To me it seemed like to me you needed to keep the wheels turned the same way until you got the trailer where you wanted but with the 5er once you get it going the correct direction you need to straighten the wheels some and follow the unit and as someone said you can turn much sharper with a 5er. Where I park at my house I have to go between a fence and my garage and if I try to park the 5er the same as the TT I end trying to put the 5er in the garage so I have to pull into the street and start again. One other thing I have noticed is once you get a 5er turned so far you can not turn the TV wheels enough the other direction to straighten it out it continues to go right until I pull forward to try again. I have only backed my 5er about a dozen times so I am still in the learning curve.

[bigmike]

Personally, I think I'm always in a learning curve parking the fiver. We have been FTing for 8 years now, and have literally hundreds of experiences. But it still doesn't change the fact that sometimes I can put it in like I am a professional driver and have been doing it twice a day for 30 years, and the next time I look like I have NEVER even driven a pickup before. LOL

 

And of course, never forget the other rule of parking the fiver, which always applies to me. "The difficulty and inability to get the fiver parked, with a reasonable amount of moves, is directly proportionate to the number of campground residents I am entertaining"

[Kirk W]

And of course, never forget the other rule of parking the fiver, which always applies to me. "The difficulty and inability to get the fiver parked, with a reasonable amount of moves, is directly proportionate to the number of campground residents I am entertaining"

We towed RVs for nearly 20 years before we shifted to a motorized RV for the following 20 and we had become a pretty good team at parking the trailers, but adapted fairly quickly to the motorhomes. Now we are back to a travel trailer again and not a very large one, yet it is sometimes as though neither of us had ever backed a trailer before, while other times it is just like the old days when looked like pro's or at least thought that we did.

[Daveh]

I love these comments about screwing up when people watch..That is soooo me. Some people actually walk up to your lot and stand there staring at you. At some point they may start making hand signals. I imagine them thinking,you are a complete idiot and I am waiting fpr you to ask for me help". Please!!!!!!!!! Leave me alone. I will eventually get it done.

[Jack Mayer]

Don't feel bad about screwing up backing. Even professional drivers of semi's have bad days when it seems backing is just "not happening". Although those are fewer than the bad days of non-professionals. The key is to use the GOAL principle (Get Out And Look), start your backing farther forward than you would likely expect to be, and pull forward to break your angle if you get too far into the turn.

 

The main thing is to take your time, and if you lose perspective (even if you have someone guiding you) get out and look. I never feel bad about getting out. I do it often, and I'm probably what you would call a very good backer. I also have an excellent helper....

[oscarvan]

While I'll be the first to admit that I have my bad days, I am, generally speaking, a fairly accomplished driver (Ask my wife, she'll be the first one to sing my praises). Nothing gives me more satisfaction than pulling into a busy campground at about 7 pm with my 65 foot rig and starting the back in maneuver. Instant panic amongst 5 "neighbors" knee deep into their 6 Bud barbecue, that suddenly realize the Bismarck has moved into their neighborhood..... And then I just skirt their treasures (golf carts, toads, kids bikes and sundry accessories ) by inches and slide into my spot in one shot and jump out....."Hey, how y'all doing?" The usual response is "Wow, that thing is MASSIVE, nice job, you want a beer?" "Why yes I do....."

 

And yes I got out a looked, a few times actually, but I did it quickly and no one noticed.......

 

YMMV.

[GR "Scott" Cundiff]

As an observer I only got involved once. We were in a parking lot campground - clear full with people so close awnings couldn't be put out. A fellow was trying to back in behind me - a brand new 5ver out for the first time. Ultimately he would be so close to my rear bumper that you couldn't walk between the two rigs.

 

His wife was directing him and since my 5ver was directly in the line of fire I was "hanging around" to protect my own interest.

 

I watched as he backed ever closer to the slide out of the motorhome that would be next to him and his wife, was letting him do it. When he got to within a foot of the motorhome and was still backing I couldn't stop myself from calling out: "stop him!" He heard me and stopped - she glared at me and I said, "He's backing right into their slide." Before long they were close to having a public fight.

 

He managed to pull forward, got some people to move their vehicles so he could maneuver his pickup and get into the site. I would have felt terrible had I watched him back into that MH - better to stop it and have her upset with me than just watch and say nothing.

[kathydavidb]

We tried using the walkie talkies but the wife would often talk before the button was completely pushed down. I told her to push the button down, wait one second & then talk, but still she went back to her old habits. So we haven't been using them. Dave.

[Al F]

We tried using the walkie talkies but the wife would often talk before the button was completely pushed down. I told her to push the button down, wait one second & then talk, but still she went back to her old habits. So we haven't been using them. Dave.

Ditto! Only DW would not push the button all the way down so I couldn't hear her talk. Cell phone worked much better, as long as we had a cell phone signal!

[jayco1]

This comes up everyday on RV forums, and my advice would be to relax, it really isn't that difficult. It becomes intuitive very quickly. You do similar things everyday, just follow your instincts. You got the thing 1000 miles to the camp ground, the last 30 feet can't be that tough.

[Barbaraok]

This comes up everyday on RV forums, and my advice would be to relax, it really isn't that difficult. It becomes intuitive very quickly. You do similar things everyday, just follow your instincts. You got the thing 1000 miles to the camp ground, the last 30 feet can't be that tough.

 

I'm not sure - - we watched someone try and back into a site across from us - - after two hours they were actually on the wrong side of the patio into the next site (good thing it was empty). Finally someone from the office came and lead them away to a pull through site. Several people offered help, but the fellow was rather rude and his wife just shrugged. I think there really are people that will never learn how to back into a site.

 

Barb

[mohamer]

I was at a campground last summer and a guy with a 5th wheel he had just purchased could not back it into the site for anything.

I walked up and watched him for a little bit. He gave up and walked over to me and asked if I could help.

I got in his truck and pulled it up and backed right into the spot in one motion.

He thanked me but was beside himself that I could do it and make it look so simple and he could not.

I just could not tell him that I have 100s of thousands of miles of driving experience with all types of trailers and long trucks, I have even parked a submarine in a floating drydock in Rota Spain!!

I you need to ask for help, even I have a bad day sometimes..

 

PS,, By the time I got in the truck there was a crowd watching, nothing like pressure!!!

[bigjim]

I am pretty good I think backing my 30ft, TT and have been doing it a long time but like anyone I sometimes have a little trouble. To me the visibility is usually the key issue and I RV alone so I don't have leeway by having spotter most of the time. Once in a while I get nervous by observors but not usually. I have only backed a 5ThW. once and had no issues at all. But to be fair it was an easy angled spot with good visibility. I did have the 2 ladies watching that owned it but they were so happy for help after all the trouble they had even though I told them I had never backed a 5thW before. I had the most trouble backing my 13ft single axel Scamp TT or once in a while my boat trailer.

[N TX Dave]

bigjim I am with you on those short trailers. They can turn so fast, I used to back a 12 ft scout trailer and I have had it almost jackknife in the time it takes to move from one mirror to the other. The problem with them is they can turn so much sharper than the TV.

[rv-voyager]

I am going to start showing up early just to watch.

[kathydavidb]

How do you politely tell people that their help is not really helping nor are the watchers helping? Dave