Hi. We have just bought our new trailer tent home but tried to reverse it into the drive - what a disaster. It was going everyway but in the direction we needed it to (and it was just as the grumpy neighbour was wanting to pass!!! - and of course he had his moan). We eventually unhooked it and pulled it onto the drive. Does anyone have any tips on how to do it properly? Thanks
Hi you just need to practice and remember that everything is oppisite when reversing, I would try and find a large area to do some practice reversing in.
Lots off practice is needed as trailer tents are comparativly short they can actually be harder to reverse than a caravan.A small movement at the towball is amplified at the axle. I am a Farmers son (I dont farm) and have had lots of practice with tractor & Trailer Quite good at that but still find My Trailer tent a pain to reverse,so I am inclined to unhitch and push when possible.
Keep steering to the minimum-the more lock you put on, the quicker it takes to jack knife-so more is needed to remove the knife.
Look in the mirror-as the back of the trailer comes into the mirror, turn the top of the wheel towards that mirror,that removes the 'bend' in the middle.
Untill you're good try and reverse onto your right (in a right hand drive car)-ie drive past the space you want to go into so it's on your right, you can see it better in your mirror-or look out the window (open it first or it hurts, have made that mistake many times)
As an example:
Drive past your space so it pases on your right,go well past-open your window-as you go back put a slight left lock on, not much- the back of the trailer will turn in towards the pitch-when it does put slight right lock (bout half as much as the left was)and just let the car 'follow' it round- just before its straight in the pitch, add a bit more right lock and the car/trailer will straighten up (should).
Don't be afraid to shunt-it won't hurt!!
Just go and practise one night in tesco carpark-just don't try too hard or it goes to pot.
Am an HGV Driver-and still get it wrong-so don't worry.
Having reversed f/c caravan and boat, I find the T.T the hardest as it tends to dissappear into your blindspot, making it difficult to see when to reverse the steering lock and follow through. Practise is the only answer.
------------- There's no such thing as common sense; it there were we'd all have some.
Thanks all! Glad it's not just me. Trouble is our Tescos is 24 hour and never that empty barring 2 in the morning which is a bit drastic. However, I shall persevere as am living in fear of meeting something larger in a narrow lane, could be embarrassing.!
me to On a country lane if I meet someone going the opersite way, I put on a sad face tell them Its are 1st time out, and have trouble to reverse, they feel sorry for me and they reverve to let me pass
I must say, reversing a TT is not easy. Especially, in my case, reversing it with a LR discovery. With the back full of stuff the only way I can reverse sucessfully is round a drivers side corner with the window open and my head handling out as far as I can to see the damn trailer. Reversing around a passenger side corner is virtually impossible (for me), especially as the mirror is a plain one, not convex/concave.
Tesco only open between 10 and 4 or 11 and 5 on Sunday. It's the law. Give the staff an hour to clear off home then its all yours 'till 8 on monday morning.
------------- There's no such thing as common sense; it there were we'd all have some.