Almost as entertaining as a boat ramp.

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TrailBeast

TrailBeast

AKA Mopars4us on Youtube
Joined
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Messages
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Arizona
Sitting out front with my after breakfast coffee watching the neighbor down the street make dozens of tries at backing a trailer into his driveway.
Cars backed up waiting for him to get out of the way.
Could end up being his fourth DUI if the right car comes along.

Jees, I need to go find something productive to do.
 
JDMopar said:
Probably a little short trailer that is already jacked too far by the time he can see it....lol.
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Been there. My lawn mower trailer needs a longer tongue. It is a turd to back up straight. Even worse if you want to turn. put a hitch on the front bumper as well. :lol:
 
LOL....our jet ski trailer is the same way. When we take them to the lake, I open the rear hatch of my wife's SUV to back the ski's in the water because @TrailBeast might be sitting over on the bank drinking coffee!

:rofl:
 
I picked up one of those sets of foam balls on telescoping magnetic bases that you're supposed to use one on the hitch and one on the tongue to line up...

...but they don't work great for that on my vehicles.

Instead, I stick them to the back corners of the trailer, and it puts those yellow foam balls up closer to the window height.

I can't see either of my trailers out the back of my Renegade, and now that I have a cap on my Dakota, it's a ***** to see out the back of that, too.

I did learn that if I keep the spare tire on the 5x8.5 trailer in line with the rear door handle, it's straight.
 
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YY1 said:
I picked up one of those sets of foam balls on telescoping magnetic bases that you're supposed to use one on the hitch and one on the tongue to line up...

...but they don't work great for that on my vehicles.

Instead, I stick them them to back corners of the trailer, and it puts those yellow foam balls up closer to the window height.

I can't see either of my trailers out the back of my Renegade, and now that I have a cap on my Dakota, it's a ***** to see out the back of that, too.

I did learn that if I keep the spare tire on the 5x8.5 trailer in line with the rear door handle, it's straight.
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I bolted 2 plow markers to my trailer

Makes it visible before it jack knives
 
toolmanmike said:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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I learned how to back trailers even just with mirrors by 10 years old, so it’s funny watching people that can’t try over and over without learning anything from the last fail.
They just keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

ProjectBazza said:
So I'm not the only one here who watches those!
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I watch those.
Mostly just to see how bad some of them fail at reading those waves.
They don’t swamp enough though.
 
TrailBeast said:
I learned how to back trailers even just with mirrors by 10 years old, so it’s funny watching people that can’t try over and over without learning anything from the last fail.
They just keep doing the same thing over and over and over.
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Same. When I was a kid, 8-10yo, my mom always had trouble backing up our boat so my dad taught me how to do it. By 12 it was my job when we went to the lake. My brother learned how to drive the boat on/off the trailer. Looking back I think it was my dads way of making us do it so he could have a beer and relax.
 
TrailBeast said:
Sitting out front with my after breakfast coffee watching the neighbor down the street make dozens of tries at backing a trailer into his driveway.
Cars backed up waiting for him to get out of the way.
Could end up being his fourth DUI if the right car comes along.

Jees, I need to go find something productive to do.
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I back up trailers every three to four years, I could have been that guy, but without the drunk part.
 
TT5.9mag said:
I could watch the Florida boat ramp videos on youtube for hours.
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I like the ones where the truck goes clear down into the water.
TrailBeast said:
I learned how to back trailers even just with mirrors by 10 years old, so it’s funny watching people that can’t try over and over without learning anything from the last fail.
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I am not good at it by any means, but here is what I do: I put my hand on the bottom of the steering wheel, and whichever way I want the back of the trailer to go, that is the direction I move my hand. Sometimes it works out great, and sometimes I feel like the guy @TrailBeast is watching.
 
So we have lots of members here backing trailers at age 10? and with mirrors?

Come on man.

Fact is if you never had too or never have, Backing a trailer is a *****.

30 years at it myself so don't blow smoke up my ***.
 
Yep I think our licensing center offers it in at least 10 languages....funny we are a bilingual country.
Boat ramp fails are hilarious, I love watching the guy unloading get upset with camera man. I've been backing up trailers since I was 9.
 
My yard is 100x220. The house is about 1/3 of the way back. 6 feet of shrubs and pineapples from the back fence.
30x26 pole barn on one side, 5 feet from that fence. Septic field on the other, with a 10' drive way on the fence line.

I get to turn truck and trailers around in the area that's left over between the septic and the pole barn.
Now, that's fun!

I do have a bit of an "L" shape in one corner I can get into, and sometimes there's already a trailer taking up part of that.

REAL fun is dragging a car on the dolly back there and trying to unload and maneuver around.
 
dowboy1970 said:
So we have lots of members here backing trailers at age 10? and with mirrors?

Come on man.

Fact is if you never had too or never have, Backing a trailer is a *****.

30 years at it myself so don't blow smoke up my ***.
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Not really sure what you're saying here, but on one level it sounds as though you're calling BS to people who say they've been doing it since they were of a young age. If so, then count me in that group, as I learned how to back up trailers when I was around 9 or 10. We had horses Back in The Day, and I sold horse **** as "garden fertilizer" to make a little money during the summer when I a kid. But before I could sell it I had to shovel it into a trailer pulled by an old Ford tractor...

I'm 59 now, so I've been backing up trailers for 50 years or so.
 
That's nothing.........Here's me getting ready to back up my first trailer. I nailed it on my first try :)

1713531741787.jpeg
 
Backing up farm wagons is even more fun. The front wheels steer on those. Good thing the tractor turns shorter and the tongue is long enough.
 
toolmanmike said:
Backing up farm wagons is even more fun. The front wheels steer on those. Good thing the tractor turns shorter and the tongue is long enough.
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I have a half-brother who is an OTR driver (Owner/Operator), and years ago he explained to me the relationship between the wheelbase of the tractor/towing vehicle versus the length of hitch point and the centerline of the axle(s) on the trailer.

And in real life it makes a lot of sense, as it's much harder to back-up a short trailer with a long wheelbase vehicle (example, a jet ski trailer with an extended cab pickup with an 8' bed) than it is to back-up a long trailer with a short wheelbase vehicle (almost every tractor-trailer rig on the road).

Farm wagons, on the other hand, are just a PITA, in my opinion!
 
ProjectBazza said:
I have a half-brother who is an OTR driver (Owner/Operator), and years ago he explained to me the relationship between the wheelbase of the tractor/towing vehicle versus the length of hitch point and the centerline of the axle(s) on the trailer.

And in real life it makes a lot of sense, as it's much harder to back-up a short trailer with a long wheelbase vehicle than it is to back-up a long trailer with a short wheelbase vehicle.

Farm wagons, on the other hand, are just a PITA, in my opinion!
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you're right you know..jpg
 
ProjectBazza said:
I have a half-brother who is an OTR driver (Owner/Operator), and years ago he explained to me the relationship between the wheelbase of the tractor/towing vehicle versus the length of hitch point and the centerline of the axle(s) on the trailer.

And in real life it makes a lot of sense, as it's much harder to back-up a short trailer with a long wheelbase vehicle than it is to back-up a long trailer with a short wheelbase vehicle.

Farm wagons, on the other hand, are just a PITA, in my opinion!
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My step dad was literally born (and raised) on a farm and was so handy at that kind of stuff. He really had fun running a skid loader. It was on 2 wheels a lot of the time. RIP Dad.
 
dowboy1970 said:
So we have lots of members here backing trailers at age 10? and with mirrors?

Come on man.

Fact is if you never had too or never have, Backing a trailer is a *****.

30 years at it myself so don't blow smoke up my ***.
Click to expand...

Oh, so you are kind of new at it then.:D

toolmanmike said:
Backing up farm wagons is even more fun. The front wheels steer on those. Good thing the tractor turns shorter and the tongue is long enough.
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I started driving heavy equipment real early as we had 4x4’s, wheeled tractors, caterpillars and a road grader.
We had property in the Sierras north of Tahoe, and I was the oldest, so my Dad involved me in everything.

I know some of my life happenings are somewhat unbelievable to some.

My Mother and I cleared the area where our new house was to be built with and old McCormick Deering tractor while my Dad worked day shifts at the Susanville correctional facility.(aka prison)

My Mom drove the tractor while I wrapped the chain around the base of sage brush to pull them out.
We also dug the foundation trenches for the house in decomposed granite.
My Mom dug the septic tank herself.

This is going to sound kinda nuts, but in the winters I used to get up around 11pm and go out to build a small fire under the crank case of the TD cat so I could crank start it.
I had to be down at the paved road (a mile or so) to drag my Dad in his VW bug through the snow back up to the house when he got off work.
One night my foot slipped off the frozen pedals and I back that cat almost to the windshield on his VW before I could get it stopped.
He jumped out and yelled WTF?!!!
I jumped off the cat and took off running for the house, ran in my room and locked the door. (Crying of course)
Awhile later he knocked on my door and told me to open it.
I thought I was in for it, but he just laughed and handed me a piece of the VW’s chrome bumper and said “I thought you might like a souvenir”
Then I really lost it, but he hugged me and said there wasn’t a 10 year old in the world he would trust more.

My Father was an exceptional man.
6 foot 4 and 250 pounds of pure muscle.
Yet kind but firm.
I watched him slowly deteriorate into a frail old man with dementia that couldn’t go to the bathroom by himself.
He’s gone now.
 
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