Trailer backing nightmere

I was heading to a mowing job. I turned one street to soon. I thought I will just turn around at the end. No problem. The road just stopped. No turn around what so ever. All I could is back up a couple hundred yards. I am not the best at backing a trailer. The trailer was all over the road. I finally made it. What if a semi with a set of doubles had to back up. I'll bet that's a challenge. Anyone had a bad backing experience? This wasn't this year, weeds are still growing. Stan

All my life I?ve been able to back a trailer anywhere it needs to be. Here?s why I think I can back a trailer so good. When I was 3 years old my grandfather got me a tricicle, and then (2 years later) I wanted a trailer ?like he has?. So he and I built a trailer. I spent HOURS and HOURS on my trike with my trailer backing it up the driveway. I?m 17 now and I can back tractors and trailers, trucks and trailers. If I can drive it I can back it.

My road is a narrow unlined paved road 6 tenths a mile long with 2 tight 90 degree turns and it ends abruptly as you describe with deep ditches on each side an nowhere to turn around except tight driveways. To make it worse you don't see the end until the last moment after coming over a hill. I've seen several semis slowly backing out. I talked to one who had to deliver 2 tanker loads of water to a neighbor's pool--he took it in stride. All the drivers seem to be pretty good at backing but usually take a few attempts backing around each of the 90 degree turns.

Back when this street was put in a turn around wasn't required. Now days it's required--but I don't think the required turn around size would handle a semi.

Just few days ago I saw what must have been the worlds largest tow truck backing out. Nice consistent speed about 2 miles and hour. Long, long truck with a huge sleeper. I've never seen a tow truck like that--have no idea who's house it went to or if it did.

I hope I never have to back a trailer that far.

You don?t back a set of doubles more than about hundred feet if your lucky unless some guys have a pin they can pin the dolly solid so it can?t swivel .

Locking the pin definitely helps. I have friends who run gravel trains for a living. Watching them back those things is nothing short of amazing.

try this

I bought a little Ford tractor at an auction a few years ago.
Not heavy, 2500 lbs or so, on a 3000 lb trailer behind an F150 4x4.
The ground was so muddy we had to be in 4x4 to get to the tractor.
Loaded it up and drove forward down the auction row to make the
corner and go back out to the driveway. No go. There was a big mud
hole there with a truck already stuck in it. So I had to back it up
the length of that auction row. Probably 500 yards or so.
Not a big deal except for the well casing I had to back around.
When you can't drive straight ahead in 4x4 without sliding,
backing around something that important was a bit daunting.
We made it safely. So did the well.

You might not want to take your trailer to a consignment auction. People that arrive late park every witch way not caring how you get out.

When backing a trailer while watching your mirrors, always keep your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel. Move your hand in the direction you want the back of the trailer to go.

When backing without a trailer (just your truck) and watching the mirrors, keep your hand on the top of the steering wheel. Move your hand in the direction you want the back of the truck to go.

The longer the trailer, the easier it is to back it up.....

District fair had a 4 wheel wagon backing contest and was won by one of my students, a 15 year old boy from a dairy farm with a lot of experience backing silage wagons into the blower. It is an acquired skill.

and the shorter the pull truck.

Stan,
We all have issues getting into or out of tight spots when pulling a trailer. One time I turned too fast and the rear of my 20 ft implement went into a guard rail. Ripped the lights off the trailer. That's one reason I won't have a travel trailer or a camper. One time I was driving my sister's 40 ft motorhome. She said pull into this gas station. Good thing it was 2 in the morning. It took us half hour to get out. Sister had just had motorhome repaired because they turned the rig into a post while turning.
I can't imagine taking a vacation in a large motorhome not knowing if I have a safe place to pull into to get gas or just park for lunch.

I do OK with a trailer, but I have problems doing it by feel, such as in the dark when your back-up lights are lighting up the front of the trailer blinding me, or when blind siding around a curve so that I can't see the road behind me or the person who is trying to guide me. I think that bumper pulls behind a tri-axle dump are difficult because the truck is so long.

There was a one lane suspension bridge crossing the Brazos river in a community called Tintop, Texas many years ago.

The bridge was one lane with 2x12's running long ways you had to keep your wheels on.

There was a boat ramp near the bridge, so trailers were common on the bridge.

Common courtesy said look before starting across, take turns and everything will be fine.

Well, that only works for those with that capacity...

Sure enough, I'm coming across, almost to the end, here comes a motor home. Never looked, just bullied his way on to the bridge when I'm only a few feet from the end.

He wasn't about to back up. We just sat there looking at each other for a few minutes. He gets out and tells me he can't back up, can't see behind. He's only about 20 feet onto the bridge. We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, I finally had to back the boat trailer all the way back across to let this idiot go on his way.

I made it, never had to stop and correct. I was sure nervous though!
Tintop Bridge

Several times over the years I have had to back trailers in for people who come to buy lumber at the sawmill here. They are not able to back up to the building where the wood is. I've spent a lot of time backing tractors and wagons in the woods where there's sometimes not a lot of room, so I've gotten fairly proficient. What I can't do is back up smoothly with a trailer using the mirrors. I have to look out the back window or out the side window with my head pointing toward the trailer and then I do fine.
Zach

never had a problem yet. LOL
have backed a supper B train over 1/2 a mile one time. Only time it was real hard was when loaded with round bales and had to use those little round wide load mirrors.
when I was 16 I worked in a barn 200 ft long. had to back tractor in to clean manure. Isle was 1 ft wider than tractor. 6 isles every day. Didn't take long and backed it up in high reverse. JD 2750 tractor with blade and loader. Trick is never look forward. Did that for 11 winters.

I have watched truckers that could not back a trailer into a driveway. stood on the step and gave them directions as the company would not let them let someone else drive it. I have taught my daughters how to back as well. second oldest can out back alot of farmers. Most farmers have such big equipment now a days that they never back up anything anymore. Cultivator hocked to seed tank hooked to fertilizer tank. everything is pull through as it is to big and to many pins to back up. When you start young out of necessity all of life's capabilities are learnt much better.

A long time ago an old truck driver told me the key to backing any trailer is to get it straight first. His advice has served me well over the years.

-Scott

You want a trailer backing NIGHTMARE , heres one for ya . Back in early Nov of 1978 i was hauling a load of road salt to a township east of Washington Pa. a place i had never made a deliver to before . Nasty night with rain one of those nights that it seamed extra dark . I had direction given to me by Pete the head shipping dept manage at the salt mine as how i was SUPPOSE to get there and what i was SUPPOSE to do when i did get there . The township house was 9 miles North of interstate 70 up a Township road thru the foot hills of the Allaganey mountains , a little two lane road with lots of hills and curves with the mountain side to the right and a drop to the river below on the left , with high beams on and my two super bright air craft landing lights cutting thru the night i wind my way up this road at between 30-40 MPH . As i am coming down a grade i can see the township house and salt shed on the far side of the OTHER HILL on the OTHER side of the valley and at the bottom of the hill is a wooden 3 ton bridge . well this ain't good , Now what. well on the bills it said that when i arrive to go into the office as the door was unlocked and call Clearance at 412 -what ever the Number was and he would come down and push the load into the salt shed with the loader when ever i got there . So i got out of the nice DRY WARM cab and WALKED across that bridge and went in and called Clarence . His response was SHE DID IT AGAIN she gave the wrong directions again you were suppose to come in off I 79 NOT 70 . You are going to have to back all the way back to 70 then go west on 70 to 79 then north to this exit and come EAST 17 miles and this will put you on the other side of that bride , she can't understand that ya can't take a truck over that bridge , we don't ever take anything bigger over it then the one ton and that really is tomuch weight. So at 9:30 at night in the rain darker then a coal mine with no lights i had to back the 9 miles back out that road the built into the side of a mountain following a side winder . The only thing i had going for me was the two 4509 G E air craft landing lights i had installed in the back of that dump trailer earlier that year after a simaler experience also in Pa delivering ag lime of getting in and fginding noplace to turn around and had to back out only a half mile in a down pour , Two of us were on that one and to get out and BACK in to dump one at a time a person can only get so wet and it took two weeks for the drivers seats to dry out . Yep it was lots of fun backing 80000lbs up and down those humps and bumps.

Backing a trailer up is a piece of cake once you get the feel of it..

My boss went to pick up a tractor once, and he went down the wrong road also. No road sign. Same deal-no turn around, narrow road, very curvy. So he decided to back into the closest driveway. Well the owner came out as he was doing this, and raised hell with him about 'he better not get into his grass-tearing the yard (he didn't),tearing up his driveway, etc.' Well my boss said he pulled and backed about 30 times, but he did not hurt the guy's yard, all the while listening to the guy rant and rave.
By the way, a set of doubles is not meant to be backed up. Very few drivers can back them more than a few feet: the converter dolly will always jack knife. Mark.

Couple of the hardest things I ever backed was a little 8 ft lawnmower trailer behind a crew cab pickup, couldn't see it in the mirrors until it was already jackknifed.
Other was a 20 ft container chassis with a extended hood double bunk Peterbilt, when the trailer started turning the truck couldn't turn fast enough to catch the trailer, took me a dozen try to get it backed up to the dock.
Never was real good backing a short tongued farm wagon ether.

Over the years delivering to coal mines and construction sites I've backed standard length trailers for miles on and off road.

(quoted from post at 04:07:08 01/17/19) District fair had a 4 wheel wagon backing contest and was won by one of my students, a 15 year old boy from a dairy farm with a lot of experience backing silage wagons into the blower. It is an acquired skill.

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oonlite, must have been a while back because there ain't that many dairy farms left around here. I drove over the road for 40 years and got to where I'm pretty good at backing a semi trailer but when there is more than one pivot point I am screwed.

Backing a set of super B's 1/2 mile down an old blind country road is how you learn to back up. Thats how I learned 30 years ago.

Not a nightmare, but not real easy to back up. If you're going straight, you cant see the chipper. If you can see more than just the edge of the fender, you better stop and straighten it back out. It's definitely easier to back up my 18' trailer.

Gravel trains in MI all that I know of have a pin or 2 to lock the dolly to the pup for backing. If you can do that they would back pretty good. I used to back the chopper and the wagon up all hitched together some. Didn't make a habit of it though. Chopper was short and the wagon was 26 feet long.

Can't back up, call Ron Pratt
Call Ron Pratt

Zach, wait a few years till your body and neck get good-n-stiff. Then you will have to learn how to trust the mirrors. My horse loving granddaughter’s first vehicle is a pickup. All cowgirls have a pickup don’t they? Next summer when she turns 16 she is going to be on her own pulling a horse trailer to her barrel racing events and she is going to have to learn to back. My advice to her was to pull the trailer out in the bean stubble when no one is watching to create nervousness and learn how to back that thing up with the mirrors using the bean rows to line up with. Once she learns how to line the trailer up with the rows and keep it there while she backs up she is half way there. After she gets good at it she can impress the boys.

I had a 21 foot dia grain bin on a trailer behind the pickup...had scouted the route but was surprised by an electrical service crossing the road at a sharp angle- misty day and the wire sparked when it hit the bin, instead of the 2x4 running over the roof. Had to find a new route...had to back the bin a half mile to get to an intersection where I could turn. Had a neighbor walking in the ditch to guide me. Bit of a delay. Get home about dark, and a car is parked in my field driveway. Called the wrecker to get the car so I could pull the bin into my field!

(quoted from post at 08:31:11 01/17/19) Backing a trailer up is a piece of cake once you get the feel of it..

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D. Beatty, please tell me how to get the feel for backing blindside into a driveway with a thirty foot trailer behind a tri-axle dump truck where you are backing too sharp to be able to see the edge of the driveway in the mirror and not sharp enough to be able to see it out the window. I got it done but it was no piece of cake. So please tell me how to get the feel for it.

I started backing 2 wheel 4 wheel farm wagons at 10 years old and compete in contest which were easy for
me. As I got older I went to bigger things. At 23 years old I went to driving for a commercial LTL carrier
and stayed with them for 38 years and back in and of places 30 times a day. We had several customers that
had inside docks with no lighting and one was blindsiding with no lights. You telling me you don't know how
to use your blind spot mirrors to back in. We were told to stay away from blind siding but we had places
it was the only way to get into place. We put 53 footer in driveways if road was wide enough to swing
tractor without getting tractor off pavement. I got off road once and ground was soft and rearend sank
down till rear end housing set on pavement. I was lucky a county highway dump truck loaded with stone
pulled me out. I know several dump truck drivers and they don't know how to backup a trailer.

My biggest challenge was backing a boat 1/4 mile down a winding boat ramp at Lake of the Ozarks, made it.

(quoted from post at 17:19:16 01/17/19) I started backing 2 wheel 4 wheel farm wagons at 10 years old and compete in contest which were easy for
me. As I got older I went to bigger things. At 23 years old I went to driving for a commercial LTL carrier
and stayed with them for 38 years and back in and of places 30 times a day. We had several customers that
had inside docks with no lighting and one was blindsiding with no lights. You telling me you don't know how
to use your blind spot mirrors to back in. We were told to stay away from blind siding but we had places
it was the only way to get into place. We put 53 footer in driveways if road was wide enough to swing
tractor without getting tractor off pavement. I got off road once and ground was soft and rearend sank
down till rear end housing set on pavement. I was lucky a county highway dump truck loaded with stone
pulled me out. I know several dump truck drivers and they don't know how to backup a trailer.

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Well you have a nice resume D. Beatty, and yes I use the blind spot mirrors, all you see in the flat ones is three feet to the side of the back of the truck and the first four feet of the trailer. but with the amount of curve the back end of the trailer, which is 50 feet back there, is out of the view of the blind spot mirror as well. I assume you were eating a piece of cake until the county truck came along.

I know he needs to quit rushing his shifts I can hear the gear box clash every time

turned up a dead end road once with 22' trailer. Saw I was stuck so swung thru the yards on both sides & got headed back the way I came with 3 people chasing me. Never slowed down.

Nope no cake the place I was delivering to the guy knew somebody on county highway dept and they had
truck in area and truck was there in less than 10 minutes.

Put some poles with flags on the sides of the infeed chute.

I'm reminded of a time in the late '70's when I was transferred to central Florida to work in my company's lab on a new product. I had spent about 5 years working "on the road" in the midwest, living out of my 35 ft., fifthwheel travel trailer. Asking at my company, I was directed to an RV park and pulled in "cold" to ask about a spot for my trailer for about 4-6 months. They said I was lucky and they had a spot for me. Then asked if I want [u:37fb922a4b]them[/u:37fb922a4b] (park staff) to back [u:37fb922a4b]my[/u:37fb922a4b] trailer in to [u:37fb922a4b]their [/u:37fb922a4b]spot!?! I was highly insulted and said no! They laughed and explained "Snow Birds" to me and that the vast majority of their clientel showing up then and staying till April could barely drive their RV/pull travel trailer straight, let alone back it into a space. I assured them that I grew up on a farm and had been backing a trailer since I was 8.