The aircraft maintenance guys at the airport use a golf cart to schlep light & medium aircraft around.

They have a hitch on the front of the golf cart. They can back an airplane into a hangar with inches to spare.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
The aircraft maintenance guys at the airport use a golf cart to schlep light & medium aircraft around.

They have a hitch on the front of the golf cart. They can back an airplane into a hangar with inches to spare.

Yes indeedy. I put a Reese receiver on the front of my Tundra for just that reason. I can and have stuffed a loaded boat trailer into my garage with less than 2 inches on either side between the fenders and the door.

The difficulty factor increases proportionally to the number of people watching.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
As others have pointed out, the shorter the distance between the hitch pivot and the trailer axle, the more of a pain in the ass it is to back up.

I was raised on a farm and started driving tractors around 8 or 9 years old. I NEVER learned to back up a 4 wheeled wagon, much to my Dad's disgust. He could do it with his eyes closed, but he started with horses...

You've got 2 pivot points when backing a wagon: The wagon tongue pivots around the hitch pin and the steerable axle on the wagon pivots around the king pin. Throw in a swinging drawbar and the hand clutch on a John Deere B with no power steering and you have a formula that would make the Pope cuss.

I know what you mean.

I grew up on a farm, hay wagons, and tobacco trailers, but I always thought it easier to back trailers when hooked to tractors rather than trucks.

I would put spinner knobs on every tractor's steering wheel, when I could find those illegal devices, at least in Va back then.

A good afternoon's entertainment can be found at the local boat ramp watching the inexperienced boaters trying to load and unload their rigs.
Just today I was at the lake and getting ready to put my bass boat on the trailer. A couple putting their brand new jet skis in the water clogged the ramp for at least 10 minutes.
They were both upset and cussing each other, not to mention when they finally got the jet skis unloaded, he pulled up behind me as I was getting my boat squared away. Like RIGHT behind me, I literally bumped into the guy twice as I was putting the tie downs on the back.
I couldn't even get mad at him after the cussing he had just taken from his wife/girlfriend. Kind of felt sorry for him. But at least she was hot.

During college I worked at a tire store. We had a fairly small parking lot.
One of the freight drivers who came in regularly was a wizard at backing a short trailer up to our little dock. She was amazing.

One particular day we saw her come into the lot and begin backing toward the dock. And on that day, it took her a couple of tries. That was odd.

When she came into the shop with the paperwork, the store owner asked why she had such a hard time getting to the dock. She smiled just a little and said she wasn't driving her usual rig: "They took away my damned power steering!"

The following week, she was back on track, backing right up to the dock perfectly as usual!

In the old days which some may remember, trucks and cars had front bumpers. Many of my boating friends mounted bumper hitches on the front bumper. You then made up a ten foot extension (pipe) with a ball on one end and a hitch on the other.

The technique was as follows, back the boat and trailer up to the ramp, turn the truck around, rehitch to the front with your extension dependent upon the water depth and size of the boat.

This rig allowed us to put a 25" sailboat which drew more than 3' in and out with out a lot of pain.

My splitter was stubby and low, it was totally blind either hauling or backing. We would pull it close then unhitch and man handle it into place.

Been backing trailers since I was about 14 and thought I was hot stuff.

Then we got a PWC. Getting the empty trailer that you can’t see behind Suburban down the neighbors winding driveway and ramp edged by two poles and some cars will expand your vocabulary!

Most people over correct themselves, my shop is behind my house on a uphill curved driveway with a few large trees to miss, I back it up there at night while its raining all the time. I have a few key places on the driveway I know I have to cross to be successful. Most people ask me How I do it. Practice is the key and working in a trailer shop for 5 years when I was younger didn't hurt any.

I learned by driving trucks with boat trailers on them. My dad and/or my dad and uncle and I would go to the boat ramp. One of them would back the boat into the water and we would unload everything. They would stay with the boat and I would pull the truck and trailer to a parking spot. WHen we got done fishing they would pull up to the dock and I'd jump out to get the truck and trailer while they waited in the line of boats ready to leave. I would back the trailer onto the ramp and they would drive the boat up, hook up and I would pull us clear of the ramp. I started doing this at about 12 or 13, as soon as I could reach the pedals.

One time a "City boy" and his EXTREMELY HAWT wife/girlfriend were putting in a small boat and he couldn't get it right. Frustrated, my 15 yeard old smart-assed self jumped out of the truck, ran over to his and told him to get out and backed it in for him on the first try. His HAWT girlfriend/wife gave my a hug and a peck on the cheek. I felt bad as it seemed the guy coudn't find a hole small enough to hide in at the time. Did I mention the hottie was wearing the smallest bikini I had every seen with the bigget boobs I had every seen? Usually for a 15 year old that isn't saying much. But I grew up in Florida so it WAS a big deal at the time. My dad and uncle offered to leave me there and pick me up after fishing, in case the girl needed "other help" that day.

I had forgotten about that story until just now, so thanks for the memories.

I have backed many different lengths of trailers and boats. The shorter the trailer, the worse they are to back. I drove a 10 ton Army truck towing a generator. If you could see the generator, you were way over corrected.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
A military 5 ton 10 wheel drive dump truck pulling a bolster trailer. You cannot see the trailer in the mirrors, and by the time you can see it, you are already over-steered beyond the ability to correct.

It's the hardest thing I've ever had to back up, and I'm a truck driver for a living now.

Hated those little trailers! Trying to back those up with an M113 gave me the trailer backing skills I have today, but there was a lot of profanity involved in the learning curve, mostly directed at me from my ground guides

Smaller trailers are much much harder to back up than longer ones.

Jet Ski trailers, I'd rather back up a 40 foot flatbed than a jet ski trailer.

Only used it for a little while, but my F150 will do it for you
That said, it won't allow for a really sharp turn, like you could accomplish manually. So I went to manually doing it after a bit of practice. The lot we keep our cargo trailer in is a tight fit sometimes if the other trailers are in it.

You ought to try backing up a tandem trailer. Very hard to do. I spent a lot of time pulling back forward to straighten them back up and try again.

 
I can back my single axle utility traler fairly well, with some corrections. This using a 127" WB Tacoma. But I can can back a 5th wheel attached to a 2500 Dodge really well. Longer is better.
 

^^^^^^

[Immature snicker!]

It’s a ratio thing...your trailer needs to be longer than your vehicle. My 4dr long bed F250 is a pain w/ my utility trailer or welding trailer, not quite as bad with the 14’ stock trailer, better with the 16’ flatbed. Now, the 30’ gooseneck? Where you want this thing?

Once you pull a GN trailer, you’ll throw rocks at a bumper pull.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
I have watched farmers back up four wheeled hay wagons , on a few occasions.

I think I could watch them do it 6 or eight time , and still not be able to do it

22 years ago I was a pretty fair hand with a wagon, I wasn't even too terrible with two of them.

Now I get flustered with a 28' trailer. 53' is a piece of cake. My best advice on backing is this. If you were already in that spot would you be cranking that goddamn steering wheel this much to get here?