Trailer Backing Issues

[brian4321]

And go slow.

+1

 

[Keith Ogden]

30+ years as a CDL truck driver. Nothing beats practice .
It has to become instinct . You have to know what to do be fore you need to do it. I LOVE backing. I love the challenge.
The longer the trailer the easier it is. I some times pull a 110 Foot trailer hauling Boeing aircraft wings . They are easier to back then a standard 55 foot trailer , just takes longer and more room.
Practicing in a parking lot is good but it is better for you to practices at a boat dock. Nothing beats having uneven ground and obsticals to avoid.
Go on off days , go to low usage docks .
Back it up and dip you tires then pull thru the lot and do it again .
It matters not how you get it in the water , so long as you do it safely .
Even I have been known to give up and go get a POP and come back when the "Pro" boaters have all put in.

I hate it when some yahoo with a 30ft sits there fuming when a new guy with a small boat struggles . Any dock can kick your butt some days. especially when your nervous or rushing it .

 

[Silvertip]

Backing any trailer straight without any steering correction is not possible. Even your car or truck will not stay completely straight without slight correction when going forward. The mistakes I see people make are: 1) They feel they must "twist" away aimlessly at the wheel in order to put the trailer where it needs to go. 2) waiting too long to make a correction, 3) making to much of a correction which then requires a counter-correction, and 4) looking out the side window, looking out the open door, looking in the inside mirror and then the outside mirror. Doing all of those in rapid succession is a good way to confuse and frustrate yourself.

Hands at the bottom of the wheel to get the right-left issue in your head is good for learning but once you make up your mind the trailer is going where YOU want it to, not where IT wants to go you will quickly drop this technique and just steer the darned vehicle. You know how wide your trailer is so when you plan your attack, look at the area behind you before getting in the vehicle. Make the drivers side of the trailer and tow vehicle your guide. Pick a spot on the ramp that if you keep the boat/trailer lined up on you don't have to worry about the other side. Yes -- you need to make sure nobody violates you space while backing but that's easy and what mirrors are for. Not so much of a problem with a recreational boat but with a travel or cargo trailer a rear vision camera would be handy.

I have a cargo trailer that gets backed into the third stall of my garage. My challenge is to get it in the garage after stopping on the street, without having to pull forward. I'm about 80 - 85% successful. Again, I know how wide my trailer is. I therefore know that if I miss the door by 6 inches or less on the drivers side I have plenty of clearance on the other side. On the garage floor I have a strip of black/yellow caution tape that when the left side trailer wheel is on that line all I need to do is back up until I hit the stop block. The other trick is to always back up from the drivers side. Backing from your blind side can be more of an issue but again, practice and use of mirrors is essential for good backing technique.

 

[airshot]

Well you have been given some great advice on here especially about practice and using your mirrors. One thing I might suggest is....if your pontoon trailer is wider than your vehicles mirrors you will get a false reading when lining up your mirror to a reference point on the trailer to a point you are backing up to. The mirrors on your tow vehicle need to be slightly wider than the width of your trailer, otherwise you are constantly backing at an angled view. Simple mirror extensions may be in order to help you back straighter.

 

[thumpar]

I trained my reflexes by turning my head around and looking out the back window. I did that for so long that now I get all messed up if I use the mirrors.

Same hear except I open the hatch on the Yukon. If I use the mirrors I get it backward. I do use the mirrors to double check but have to look back to keep it straight. After over 10 years I would like to say I am pretty good at it. I don't have to do the snake walk down the ramp.

 

[Bad Pete]

I feel your pain, I just got my first boat that I am regularly trailering. I'm fine on the water but totally new to trailering. I echo all the advice from all the more experienced guys here. Practice makes perfect. One thing I would add is you have to figure out what works best for you and stick to it once you find it. If you back up and its not right pull forward and try again, no shame in that. I watched all the videos and listened to all the advice from the boat launch peanut gallery. In the end it was too much. I stopped listening to every one giving me advice when I was backing up (including my wife) and focused on the boat the trailer and mirrors and I did much better. I launched yesterday by my self and did not get my feet wet!

One thing I would point out that a lot of the videos do not point out is when you back up the trailer and you make big turn you have turn the wheel back and follow the trailer until it straightens out, its the opposite of the way you turn the wheel to start the turn. Once I started doing that things got a lot easier.

Also know that you need to get to know your boat launches. I have launched at 3 and they are all very different. At two of them if you do not launch in the right spot on the ramp the trailer wheels are not even. I think its due to the low lake levels here in the New England and we are backing up much farther than normal.

 

[roscoe]

My brain doesn't work like most people's.

All the tips and tricks you find on the internet just mess me up.

Here is what I do.

Put your hands on the steering wheel.

Look at the trailer in your side mirrors.
(with a smaller boat, you may be able to use the rearview mirror, or just turn your head and look out the back window.)
It doesn't matter, my "method" works the same however you are looking at the trailer.

Start with the trail straight behind your tow vehicle.

As you start backing, you will see the trailer start to drift one way or the other.
Turn the steering wheel in that direction to correct the drift.
Only turn the wheel about 1/8 turn.
Go slow.

As the trailer gets back in line with the tow vehicle, move the steering wheel back to center.
Keep checking both mirrors so you can notice any drift as it starts.


If there are lines or cracks in the pavement, start with a trailer tire on or near the line, then make small subtle corrections to keep that tire close to the line.

 

[KJM]

like everyone else says it mostly comes down to practice and make small corrections early. I also found trailer guides to be helpful in keeping the trailer in sight as it starts to go down the ramp and you are looking out your rear window.

 

[Rapio]

Backed my boat in for years looking out truck back window, then extended cabs, canopies, tinted windows and aqe. My wife backs her horse trailer into the driveway 4 or 5 times a week. now she backs down the ramp, I stay in the boat and back it off the trailer. Sooo! I suggest a good wife driver saves a lot of frustration. LOL

 

[airshot]

All these posts bring back memories of my youth when I was learning to backup a trailer and yes that was 50 yrs ago!! Today I live out in the country and my drive back to my barn where the boat is kept is about a 400 ft distance backing up all the way and having to swing out around a garage then cut back again to line up with the barn door in which I have about 8 inches on each side. Myself doing the backing I normally do it in one easy motion with all my years of practice but sometimes the neighbors go with me so they take turns using there own truck to tow my boat on occasion. They all claim I make it look so easy but watching them make the long backup the drive makes me appreciate all the practice I have done. Practice, practice ,practice is KEY....no doubt about it. I made all my kids learn to back a trailer before I would allow them to get their license just as my dad made me. On a day when you have nothing to do take your boat and trailer for a ride to a different ramp and practice, parking lots are Ok but an actual ramp Is better experience. As mentioned go when the weather is bad and no one else is there, you don't have to actually launch your boat just practice backing down the ramp. One real good way to learn is to find a crappy day when the ramp is vacant then back all the way around the parking lot to the ramp..."LEARN" to use your mirrors, once you do you will never go back to looking out the window as the mirrors make it much easier to make corrections. Just go practice but make the practice a learning experience!!

 

[roscoe]

If you really want a challenge, go hook up to a chopper box or hay wagon, where the front axle pivots. And do it with a tractor that doesn't have mirrors way out there.

You have to look inside the box to see which way the rear end is moving, if at all, and look at the trailer tongue to see if the front is pivoting.