Pulling through narrow side yard, min. width

[Hiho Silver]

Originally Posted by tojimmiller

back up slowly

Real slow

[Rgentum]

I'll second the idea of installing a front hitch on your truck and then using it to back your AS onto your property.

[Hiho Silver]

My garage door is 10’ wide. I don’t have a lot of space in front of the door to get lined up, but it is do able. I have a flying cloud 27’ FB

[wmarsha]

I use a winch and a 1000lb tongue dolly. Concrete is waaaay better than the paver idea. I think gravel would be better than the pavers, once compacted. Concrete is still my choice. Now, I know no one is going to believe this but here goes: my wife and I are 142 years old together. we can actually push our 30ft excella into our shop by hand! We have done it with just a tongue jack wheel and pushing on the jack/tongue. Our drive and entrance into the shop are dead flat, of course. I would not recommend this to anyone, especially if you are under 230 lbs! As I gracefully age, the winch earns its keep. The rolling resistance of the A/S and dolly are quite small. Oh, I made a little "hole" in the frame rail at the rear of the trailer to accept the hook of the winch. I inserted a "Red head" floor anchor into the floor of the shop at the front of the A/S. Then, with a cable extension and a pulley (snatch block, if you will) I can use the winch to "pull" the A/S out of the shop. Oh, this is all after I managed a close encounter of the wrong kind when backing the trailer into the shop with my TV. Yikes! No excuses, I just fouled up. Dont do it. get help to watch, know what signals/words to say and take it slow. The only thing more volatile than the aluminum skin on an Airstream is the Money it takes to repair said aluminum.

[waninae39]

i use this parkit360 force 5k . it is great

https://parkit360.ca/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzBOPy4gB1I

i can move it 190 degrees

[tdmaymac]

One additional thing to consider, from my own personal experience, is the grade of the property. If it is a grassy or loose dirt backyard and you are trying to back uphill, you may find the truck has difficulty gaining good enough traction pushing Sisyphus up the hill, if you know what I mean. You can tear up your yard on your way to the parking destination, depending on the grade.

[MissingLink5]

I backed into a 10’ garage, by myself, for 4 years without any problems.

[CampingJoe]

Mark with experience that would not be a problem. Unfortunately for a new person backing up a trailer it can be scary and damaging to the Airstream and structure

[Silver Goose]

Yes, as you suspect the trailer is 8’ 6” wide plus the few inches for the awning arms.

We have a similar situation with a gate leading to the backyard where the concrete drive extends from street to alley. This gives me nearly a 100’ approach to get straight before entering the gate. My extension mirrors allow me to see down the left side of the trailer and also see where the tires are. Once lined up it becomes increasingly easy to back using the view of the left side and tires only to guide it straight back. I can feel a paver set on the concrete when the rear tire touches it stopping me about 3” from the back fence. I do this solo as I know there’s no obstructions on the far side and if I allow 4-6” between me and the gate I’m gold on the far side. You could use a duct tape “stripe” on the pavement as a guide for the tires to follow until you gain confidence.


Another issue for me is the angle of the apron where it meets the street and the crown in the middle of the street. Fortunately my neighbors don’t park in the street and I’m able to pull out and back in with the trailer tires at about 45° to the driveway at the gutter. This prevents the end of the frame rails from scraping bottom. Each situation is a little different.

[Steve340]

Originally Posted by Hiho Silver

Attachment 318298

Real slow

What is the width of that opening? Mine is 10 feet and I still have a hard time backing it in.

[TBRich]

Slow slow slow ... and have someone spotting you ... stop when you can't see them or when they go to check the other side. Walkie-talkies or phones are helpful.

[gecko]

Mark, I would start by walking the Katy—always good to do first! Check out any overhangs or protrusions into the alleged 10’ wide space and find out what the trailer will actually encounter.

Then as stated above by several, very doable. Must go very slowly, and if you get too close on it ne side, stop and think fir a while to understand what your next move is going to do as far as alignment or misalignment, as not much room to spare.

This is definitely a two person job—3 wouldn’t hurt. Go very slowly and stop a lot, checking both sides and up and down, and always checking alignment as your small space margin on each side will disappear very quickly should the trailer not be parallel. It takes a fair amount of rolling distance to realign—that’s why you want to stop often and check to make sure you have room to correct.

When backing into tight spaces, my wife and I have become a good team. I stay litisude, going from side to side behind the trailer and she follows hand signals perfectly. With experience with trailers since a teenager, it’s easy for me to see dolly/truck to trailer angles and steering tire angles to correct as necessary.

We have confidence in placing our rig within one inch side to side, as long as we’re patient and not embarrassed to start over if I’ve made an angle judgement error.

Good luck, and welcome!

[dennisv]

I have parked my 1991 29 Classic beside my house for the last 5 years. The secret, if there is one, is “don’t get in a hurry.” If you can’t see., get out and look. I don’t care how many times, it’s better than ripping your awning loose. Traffic waiting? Tough. They need patience.

[John McHugh]

I put a front receiver on my '96 3/4 ton Dodge and it makes backing into tight places much easier. With practice, the route to your back yard will get easier. Learn and practice in an open parking lot. Using traffic cones (and perhaps pvc pipes set in milk jugs of sand to simulate the wall / fence), you can lay out the whole approach.

If at all possible, pour a concrete access path and storage pad. Compared to the cost of the AS, it is not significant. Pavers tend to sink into the ground when the ground is wet and a single paver will be carrying half the trailer wheel weight much of the time.. If the ground is softer on one side than the other the trailer can tilt and your clearance becomes zero or negative. The wheels on the trailer are about 7' apart. If one sinks 2" below the other, the trailer will be nearly 3" over at the roof / awning line. A properly laid concrete path will distribute the weight over a larger area and avoid this problem.

[kjbishop2]

I would strongly recommend using something other than the trailer valet. I know some use them successfully, I purchased one and it wrecked my wrist due do the instant stop when raising the handle... tried with/without the drill attachment and would consider the drill even more dangerous. I would not use on any slope where there is a danger of runaway. It is also incredibly hard, back breaking work. We now use a parkit360 electric dolly and find it adequately moves the trailer.

[203]

Comments from a long time boat backer... and AS admirer


Putting a trailer in a garage is different than backing it beside the house. You can skew it in the garage and probably not notice. All you have to do is miss the door. You skew it on the house and you have a mess.


A tandem trailer is a bear to back by hand. It wants to go straight. All the time. When you go around a curve of any radius, the force is *not* with you. Single axle is fine. I don't know what the OP has.

All that leads me to this... learning to back it in with the truck is not impossible. Certainly on this board somewhere is a backing 'lesson' using the hand at the bottom of the wheel and eyes on both mirrors and never making more than a quarter turn on the wheel.. that will save you hundreds of dollars, and make putting the trailer in the back yard a dream, after about 15 tries. Use a spotter, then after while, just make sure the dog isn't asleep in the way as you put it up yourself. If you have a backup camera on the AS, all the better.. I don't have one on my boat.

Cheers,
Dick
W4PID

[Overstreet]

Originally Posted by waninae39

i use this parkit360 force 5k . it is great

https://parkit360.ca/

i can move it 190 degrees

I use one of these. You will find the AS tounge jack foot conflicts with the wheels of the tugger. Mine just removes with a pin. So I'm still limited to less than 190 degrees, maybe 140. I use it to turn my Classic 30 around in the driveway and push it into the RV port. Our port is 14ft wide. Pretty good since I can't see where I'm going.

[alantbird]

I pull my 40’ diesel pusher through an rv gate w about 2” clearance on each side then About 50’ to the rear of my yard. It Takes the perfect lite of daytime, patients and I do better without any help. And if you’ve never backed up a trailer. Practice practice practice.

[Overstreet]

A word about pavers. I was a Commercial Construction Project Manager at retirement. We have put pavers down for delivery trucks at loading docks of fancy shopping centers. They don't sink if you prepare for them properly. No they are not patio pavers. Interlocking concrete truck pavers are about twice the thickness of "patio" pavers. They sit on limerock screenings.....not sand....but a course interlocking sand. They sit on a limerock (prepared) subbase with a LBR of 40. (load bearing ratio) They are vibrated with a plate compactor and later a walk behind roller. The border needs to be a concrete reinforced curb to "lock" in the assembly. We later added bollards on some of the truck pavers areas and had to use a jack hammer to break them loose. The whole point is yes you can put your 10,000 gross AS on pavers, but they have to be built for it. Prices of course vary widely depending upon cost and who needs the work.

The problem is that that area besides the house should slope away from the house to provide drainage away from the foundation of the house. Water can make a decision and you want it to do the right thing. Thus any paving there pavers, concrete, gravel or asphalt has to include a "swale" , slope or other device to encourage the water to go the right way. Such slope is usually a disadvantage to the moving of the trailer. So what ever you do take that into account.

Of course if you live in the desert it will only be a problem when it rains.

[sherpa27]

We keep our sport 16 in a 10 x 20 covered storage space. There are metal poles on each side, and we haven't hit one yet. So yes, 8' is an accurate width and it will fit.