May I have a round of applause, please?

[Belbein]

About eight months ago, I started asking you very kind (well, ok, and sometimes critical) folks how to back my 22 Sport into my very narrow driveway, downhill, off a very narrow residential street, when I couldn't see the end of my trailer or the wheels. After taking all of your advice, and after much cursing, yelling at my long-suffering spouse, backing and filling, running up on the opposite curb, destroying two mail box posts, seriously injuring one telephone pole, and putting some very nice scratches in my shiny aluminum ...

... today I backed that sucker in, first time, shloooop! like a banana slipping into its peel. (Another metaphor occurred to me, but I caught myself in time.)

And it only took 8 months!

Now that I know that it possible, I wonder if I should be looking at trading it in for a 25?

[moosetags]

Congratulations! We would love to see photos of your achievement.

Brian

[PaulnGina]

[weirdstuff]

[63air]

Congratulations also ! But you probably could have shortened the learning curve if you left the wife out of it . After 34 years I'm still trying to teach mine that the shiny things on car doors are mirrors and that when you use them you don't hit things like gas islands.

[Stefrobrts]

Good job! I admire those who can backup with confidence!

[terryV]

Very good. We knew you could do it. (Well, really, we weren't too sure, but now that you can do it....)

[AWCHIEF]

Backing certainly is not one of my strong suits. I do get lucky every once in a while and hit the sweet spot.

[polarlyse]

Was this luck or experience. Only time will tell. Don't get overconfident now with your newfound success.

[mandolindave]

I know first hand what a challenge it is to back down a hilly driveway. As President Clinton said, " I feel your pain ". i think that one of the things that make it tough is when I pick up speed and have to brake, or worse stop. I loose my hand-eye-trailer coordination, and have to re calibrate my brain.
Anyway give yourself TWO gold stars, because smaller trailers are even harder to back up than one of the big ones.

[Foiled Again]

My new Ecoboost is the first truck that I owned that has a backup camera. I've been dithering but every time I move the trailer I wonder why I haven't sprung for a wireless camera on the back of the trailer - both for backing and for seeing if someone is lurking 4 feet off my bumper.

I was in the left lane knowing I had a left turn about 800 feet ahead when a car swerved from the right lane directly in front of my tow vehicle put on his left turn signal and came to an almost dead stop in order to make a left turn less than 50 feet ahead... couldn't possibly have gone 2 blocks farther and done a u-turn of course. Well I hit the brakes hard and saw a Fiat jump over the curb and go into the grass median to the left of me. I thought that driver must have been hurt so I turned on the flashers and stopped to render assistance... Called 911 too. For my trouble got cursed out by the driver for stopping so suddenly - and naturally the car that forced my stop was long gone. The four lane is near two Naval facilities and is always patrolled so the police came to the scene almost immediately. They didn't cite the Fiat driver but DID straighten him out about following too close... and also reminded him that there is such a thing as a "blind spot" for almost all vehicles, especially trailers.

I was quite upset at being cursed at - but also glad the jerk DID choose the curb and the median instead of my Eddie Bauer's expensive rear end to hit. He got a flat and will need a front end alignment at the least.

What would I have done if I'd had a rear view camera - maybe tapped my brakes repeatedly and subtly slowed to try to get the guy to back off? I've always noticed that some vehicles can turn on their window washers at speed and 90% of the washer fluid lands on the following vehicle. Perhaps some Rube Goldberg sprayer on the rear bumper would be in order... even if an Ouzi with remote control firing would be tempting.

Hmmm. Think it's time to shop for that camera. I don't have your driveway but a camera is cheaper than replacing a rear segment, trust me, I know that for sure

Paula

[Bruce B]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

.....Perhaps some Rube Goldberg sprayer on the rear bumper would be in order... even if an Ouzi with remote control firing would be tempting. .....
Paula

I so want to build that sprayer for the back of our Bambi!
My wife will not let me!!!
I would fill it with something like that liquid A#* (think butt) stuff I once purchased as a gag gift.
Ok enough of this. It is not a very good example of Christmas Spirit...sigh
Bruce

[cwf]

Glad u and your EB are ok!!!! You may have heard "no good deed goes unpunished!"... Still, you done good!

The comedian Gallegher had a plan. Give everyone a dart gun and shoot the cars of stupid drivers. When a cop sees a car with a bunch of darts they get pulled over and ticketed!

Think of the bureaucracy you could contrive to track and the fees!!!!!

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by 63air

Congratulations also ! But you probably could have shortened the learning curve if you left the wife out of it . After 34 years I'm still trying to teach mine that the shiny things on car doors are mirrors and that when you use them you don't hit things like gas islands.

I usually don't comment on this sort of thing. However that's a gross generalization. My wife is very good at this sort of thing. The one main reason is that she possesses the patience that makes things like backing trailers a breeze. Unlike me, she can take 10+ tries at something like getting into a tight space without getting upset or giving up. So in the long run, while I might understand all the trigonometry and physics of any particular problem, I will loose patience early on. However she has the wisdom to learn something from each attempt and eventually conquer the problem.

So it has something to do with a person's personality, but nothing to do with their sex.

If your wife is also a man, please excuse me for the misapplication of my ideas. This is modern society, you know.

Ken

[ghatfield]

Originally Posted by Belbein

how to back my 22 Sport into my very narrow driveway, downhill, off a very narrow residential street, when I couldn't see the end of my trailer or the wheels. After taking all of your advice, and after much cursing, yelling at my long-suffering spouse, backing and filling, running up on the opposite curb, destroying two mail box posts, seriously injuring one telephone pole, and putting some very nice scratches in my shiny aluminum ...
... today I backed that sucker in, first time, shloooop!

While the guy in the video below does have the advantage of a fairly wide residential street, he also has the challenge of a very narrow driveway with an adjacent palm tree. The 7-minute video was a good reminder about small, slow adjustments... very impressive maneuvering:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfOzAJ979nU

[m.hony]

Sure. Go ahead and get a 25'. I can't imagine it would be any more difficult to back in than the 22".

[slpiotro]

Many years ago, I was promoted from my job as silo builder to driver of a delivery semi. I had little experience with trucks, some small amount in the army deuce and a half's. The experienced driver was to train me for a few days, but didn't show up for work. They sent me out on my own, with another driver in the other semi and a cb radio so he could advise. Fortunately the first farm was a drive thru delivery. That night when we got back, we spent an hour in the shop yard with me learning backing. Semi's are easy, 23 ft Airstreams on a small vehicle much harder. After the first time of getting the trailer in our tight driveway, my spouse and I talked about signals and where the trailer pivots. We never went to a school parking lot to and learn, so it took several extended trips over the next year to learn the trailer and each other. Now I hit our narrow 23 ft. long driveway square within a couple of attempts and I credit her guidance having gotten much better and both understanding each other much better.
Advice, find a open parking lot (schools on weekends often work) take a couple of plastic garbage cans as markers and practice until comfortable. It is do-able, but takes practice. Makes that part of Airstreaming fun also-- kind of like target practice for backing.

[macofpei]

To save both the driver and the guider (is that even a word), get a set of walky-talky's , the driver listens to the directions while the guide is free to give verbal directions. Works great when there is a campground full of looky-loos who just love to watch someone take several attempts to back into a tight spot.
I am pretty good at backing but I still rely on my wife to guide me back far enough and close enough without hitting anything.
I once backed up a 1/4 mile dirt twisting laneway when GPS lead us wrong. The lane was tree lined and had a birch tree leaning over the road, on the door side. With her help, I made it all the way out without hitting anything with either the trailer or the front of my truck ( although it was close)
Communications-- that's the key ( and Scotch after)

[m.hony]

Guider = spotter? Cell phones...

[ragin-cajun]

I know of an old Airstream couple who took a novel approach to backing their huge motorhome: she was in the driver's seat watching her husband who was giving the instructions. She patiently applied his instructions and parked exactly where/how he told her.


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