Backing up a small trailer

[Oldtom]

My wife wants to go camping by herself. She has a lot of trouble backing a small pop up type camper into the space at the campground. I tried to teach her the old " hold wheel at 6:00 O clock and lift in the direction you want trailer to go" No luck. She is getting frustrated and thinking about cancelling her trip. We are trying to practice in a vacant parking lot every day before the trip. Any tips to help a newbie trailer backer?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[skyactiv]

Practice beforehand. Go to a quiet parking lot on a Sunday morning, take two trashcans to use as cones and practice.

 

[The_Jeff]

Small trailers are worse than large ones. Is there a way you can add "visibility sticks", better mirrors, or some other aid?

Maybe you could back the trailer in, then have her pull it out, but pull it out repeatedly on the same exact arc every time. Then just put it in reverse and slowly creep back the way she came out.

 

[Donald]

The length of towing vehicle vs length of trailer makes all the difference.

Short tow vehicle and long trailer is easiest. Reverse that and it's hard.

 

[Fitter30]

Donald 1+ baby steps turning the wheel its very easy to over correct backing a shorter trailer

 

[spasm3]

Exactly what the others said. Practice, and short trailers are harder to back.

 

[spasm3]

Usually if she gets there and cant get on the site, there is someone who will back it for her.

 

[atikovi]

Put a hitch on the FRONT of the truck. Problem solved, assuming she can mount and dismount the camper.

 

[beanoil]

Originally Posted by spasm3
Usually if she gets there and cant get on the site, there is someone who will back it for her.

Seen it often. Campground host or another camper will always help.
I can't recommend it, but have seen folks pull across campgrounds on the grass to pull through forward because they couldn't back and didn't want to wait or were embarassed. We all started somewhere, took me a bit of time to back the correct way.
"Scooping" the site helps backing as well by getting the tow rig positioned to start pushing without turning the steer wheels.

 

[supton]

Practice practice practice. Find an open parking lot and take some trash cans. Feel free to fail, usually traffic isn't that bad at a campground, no one tooting at you--just pull forward again and try again.

FWIW after a few years I found that i prefer backing up my "twitchy" 4x8 trailer to my much longer 6x14. Seems like I have to repeated pull forward and then reverse to get the bigger trailer where I want it--it only moves a few inches each time, because... it's slow to turn (meanwhile the front end of my truck is swinging wide and hitting trees).

I suspect watching the trailer wheel and cutting the wheel when it gets to where you want it is the right trick... been months since I moved a trailer. On my small trailer I just pop up out of my seat and watch it out the back window. And I go slow. And as a rule I always turn the wheel the wrong way and have to immediately spin it the other!

 

[Duffyjr]

I doubt I could teach my wife how to do it. I wouldn't cancel the trip, like spasm3 said some other camper would be glad to help her, I know I would!