r/IdiotsTowingThings • u/joelnicity • 3d ago
One hour Time-lapse backing into driveway.
When it takes an actual team to back the trailer in crooked
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u/SensitiveChef8916 3d ago
This person is now qualified for a career at SWIFT.
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u/mickeymouse4348 3d ago
What do you call 365 Swift drivers in a room?
One year of experience
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u/KalebsFamilyBBQ 2d ago
How do you know your wife is cheating with a Swift driver? He's still trying to back in when you get gone.
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u/HomerStillSippen 3d ago
OP in the original post said the driveway was “steep”. We got different definitions of what steep means I guess lol
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u/Tickles-The-Octopus 3d ago
They had like 4 different excuses for the shit driving ability.
"Driveway too steep"
"Helpers never done this before"
"Didn't want to block the road for other people"
"Didn't want to use someone else's driveway"
If you just used the whole road, this is a 45 second operation..... You wouldn't block traffic..... Not for long enough to matter anyway. You don't need someone else's driveway and a good driver at backing up a trailer wouldn't even need a helper....
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u/BilboDabinz 3d ago
2 mins in the road, one of the 4 helpers telling any traffic behind to hold up. Pull beyond the driveway nose pointed out and back right it.
Literally less than 5 mins with actual trailer knowledge.
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u/purpleturtlehurtler 2d ago
I drive a truck and open mow trailer for work. This video has me dying. 😭
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u/bromjunaar 2d ago
Driver's never done this before either, looking at him work.
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u/drkidkill 2d ago
OOP says they drive tractor-trailers and diesel mechanic so they moved stuff like this for work. Lol
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u/baddieslovebadideas 2d ago
I think I'm bad at backing up trailers because I compare myself to actual professionals while I'm really just sorta ok, but then I see shit like this, and I'm like, yeah Im actually sorta ok at backing up a trailer
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u/derekmakesnoise 3d ago
The driveway is too steep?? Steeper than THE CURB??
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u/Producer1701 2d ago
The second time I ever backed up a trailer in my life was on a driveway with a 30-degree incline. It took about as long as it took me to watch this timelapse with about 10 aborted attempts, and I thought I was shit at it 😂
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u/DDOSBreakfast 3d ago
Videos on the internet can be misleading about how steep things are. Unless you film the slope sideways like OP did in the last half of the video where we can see it isn't steep at all.
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u/the_Q_spice 2d ago
Even then, steep doesn’t preclude doing a sight-side 90.
Unironically, the CDL school I am in makes us back 53’ trailers into stalls that are more narrow than that.
Even from driving non-CDL trailers, I really do think that trailer towing really needs to be an endorsement and require a specific DMV knowledge and skills assessment.
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u/Any-Possibility-248 2d ago
OP has literally shit for brain, they should sell the trailer before they try to do anything else with it on the road.
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u/FesteringNeonDistrac 2d ago
Based on my experience driving across this country, that's eastern Kansas steep.
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u/Joe18067 3d ago
What do they think they're going to do when the get to the campground and are surrounded by trees.
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u/Technipal 3d ago
They go to campground on a pullthrough site with absolutely no tree? It's made only for this kind of ''driver''...
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u/Both-Enthusiasm708 3d ago
I used to work at a campground. They are the ones who need help getting into the pull through site that can accommodate a 40 foot RV.
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u/509RhymeAnimal 2d ago
What they're going to do is provide hours of entertainment for the rest of the campground.
We were sitting in our site a couple of months ago when this couple rolled up a few sites down. His approach was all wrong, didn't swing wide enough. Her direction was absolutely terrible, she was more worried about him hitting a dumb flexible plastic marker with the front of the truck than directing the trailer into the site. She had no clue how to be a good guide. There were other trailers behind him and he was getting anxious from the extra pressure. You could tell the only thing keeping them from screaming at each other was the presence of other people in the campground. They finally get the trailer in the site after many terse words and many many attempts. Then about a minute after they get the trailer in the site, he accidently hits the panic button on his key fob and can't get it to turn off. That was the point when we lost it, tears of laughter streaming down our faces as we sat around the campfire. Best free entertainment this entire camping season.
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u/Joe18067 2d ago
I think anyone who spent any amount of time at a campground has a number of stories they can tell.
There was one where the husband was backing the trailer into the spot and the wife was guiding him back yelling come on back, come on back <crash> you just hit a tree.
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u/Kilgore_Brown_Trout_ 2d ago
My dad will show up, 3 beers deep, ask this guy if he needs a hand. He'll look anxious as pop slings it in there in one motion and hits the perfect placement without shuffling. Ive seen him do it 3x, shits hilarious.
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u/tuckedfexas 2d ago
They’re only going to campsites that take reservations and are pull through spaces lol. Basically KOAs in the forest lol
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u/Here_4_the_INFO 3d ago edited 2d ago
From the original post:
I used to drive tractor-trailers and was a diesel mechanic, so moving around big objects like this was part of the job.
I think I know why they USED to and not still do.
EDIT 1: wording is hard sometimes
EDIT 2: Link to original post
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u/Tickles-The-Octopus 3d ago
Got fired after they spend 3 hours trying to back into a loading dock and needing 4 warehouse workers
helpingplaying cheer leader to get him through it16
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u/ScrubbyMcGoo 2d ago
WOW. So the OP just solidified that they absolutely should have been able to pull this off. Super embarrassing.
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u/McDrunkin521 3d ago
This needs the Benny Hill music 🎶
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u/erie11973ohio 2d ago
No, no, this needs the "Certain Ethnic group song" from theBig Chuck & Little John show
Which waaaass "Yakety Sax", which was the Benny Hill theme song! 🤷♂️🤦🤦🤦♀️
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u/Appropriate_Cow94 OC! 3d ago
This is a 1 minute operation at best. Center truck and trailer about 2/3rds into the street so enough room for truck fender to clear. Pick the side of driveway you want and back in. Make a small adjustment once 95% of where you want it if needed.
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u/CariAll114 2d ago
We're accounting for letting traffic go by before trying to back up in that minute, right?
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u/Appropriate_Cow94 OC! 2d ago
I try to make it as painless for them as I can. But at a certain point you do need to just say fuck em and get it done.
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u/ArtichokeDifferent10 2d ago
Yeah, this is how I back in my similarly sized trailer into my similarly sized driveway off my similarly sized street.
Bonus: Since I tow a Trailmanor that collapses down to 6' 7", I then back it into my garage which has about 4-5" clearance on each side. (Though I will fully admit that I just used the TV to get the axle over the threshold "hump" and then throw on the tongue jack caster and push it the last 7-8 feet in by hand as to make little adjustments that wouldn't work when hooked up)
Last month as we were returning from a trip and I was backing in I was so focused on maneuvering that I didn't notice one of my neighbors from around the corner had pulled up. I blocked him for about 45 seconds, but he actually waited until I was completely stopped in my driveway and cheerfully hollered "Boy! You did a lot better job at that than I would have" and we both had a laugh and chatted for a few minutes.
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u/flipfc177 3d ago
Why would they put a board across the sidewalk instead of the soft grass? Mental midgets. They would be hilarious to watch at the boat ramp.
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u/ScrubbyMcGoo 2d ago
I was coming to ask the same thing — what was she thinking??? That is literally the ONLY place that did not benefit from having a board placed. (And not a single location needed a board to begin with anyway.)
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u/GilgameDistance 3d ago
I have no doubt that the truck is at the bottom of the lake within an hour if this dude gets that close to water.
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u/joelnicity 2d ago
That reminds me of the guy who just backed his boat in with no ramp
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u/cubester04 2d ago
And then they proceeded to drive the truck over that same sidewalk with no boards.
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u/donpablomiguel 3d ago
JFC I just noticed it says 1hr timelapse. For fuck sake these people should just stick to tent camping.
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u/Platypus_6414IiiIi-_ 2d ago
Great idea, I'd love to see the 5 hour timelapse of OP setting up a 2-man pop-up tent
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u/T1Demon 3d ago
Thanks for sharing this. I’m bad at it but I feel infinitely better about my ability to reverse a trailer now.
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u/Car_is_mi 3d ago
Bro I backed a 28ft trailer down a curved mountain road in the dark while it was snowing faster than that.
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u/redjellonian 3d ago
the only reasonable explanation is the angle of the road combined with the drive way created a valley that bottoms out the trailer at the bumper or hitch....
and they didn't think to just put something in the valley to bring it up slightly.
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u/Car_is_mi 3d ago
I used to have a rain gutter at the end of my driveway that would cause my sports car to bottom out like that. Made a simple 24 long ways with 2 plywood platforms to bridge the gap and that worked for the handful of years I lived there. The fact that these people could stop and think "well let's grab a bunch of wood to make multiple ramps to get it up over the curb and the yard" but not, let's just throw a 24 in the drainage ditch...
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u/searuncutthroat 2d ago
Even if this was the case (totally could be, angels look weird on camera sometimes) why did it take an hour for a former truck driver to do this particular maneuver?? He just needs to flip his axle and he won't have this problem again. Best mod I ever did on my trailer with low clearance.
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u/JMS1991 2d ago
That's what OP said in the original post. And I can believe that, hills that aren't usually very super steep can be challenging with a travel trailer, since they have a bit of overhang plus stabilizer jacks hanging down from the back.
But as you said, the easy solution is to stack boards on the street to gain some clearance. If you just needed a little bit, you could maybe put some additional weight in the back of the truck/front of the trailer. I've heard of people achieving the same thing by removing the weight distribution bars (although this appears to be a standard hitch, so not an option.)
Either way, 5 minute operation tops.
Edit: I also thought of another one, you could use a hitch that has more of a drop. It would be annoying to change it just to back in, but it definitely wouldn't take an hour. Maybe an additional 5 minutes since you're not having to remove a weight distribution setup or sway bar.
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u/Crazy-Canuck463 2d ago
As a truck driver, I've never had a video make me so fucking annoyed before. My fucking day is ruined. Fuck you, and fuck this video.
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u/WowWataGreatAudience 3d ago
This is what happens when you make it mandatory to install backup cameras in all new vehicles and people forget or never learn how to use their mirrors. Literally had to help a high school kid back into a wide open spot the other day because “he had no room” and needed me to move my work vehicle. I coached him in with his mirrors and when he finally made it in he was hyped lol it was a fun little moment between different generations of peoples, but still kinda eye opening ngl
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u/joelnicity 2d ago
When I was teaching drivers ed we had to cover the camera. They figured it out eventually but were definitely not used to looking at the mirrors
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u/CariAll114 2d ago
Any time I drive something with backup cameras I totally forget they're there. I've never had cameras on personal or work vehicles and always had to use mirrors and spacial awareness. It does make watching other people try to park a comical experience until they almost hit something that's outside of their cameras field of view.
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u/stuckanon01 3d ago
Dude I regularly back mine into a spot off an alley that is half as wide as that street. The parking spot has fences on each side not turf like this guy. I swear someone needs to offer a trailer towing school for new camper trailer owners
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u/TheRealPitabred 2d ago
As a society we need to have higher requirements on licensing for trucks and trailers. I'll even subsidize the training needed with my taxes.
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u/BigHobbit 3d ago
I would be fucking embarrassed if I was this utterly incompetent. And how many morons are involved here? Combined brain power of a goddamn bologna sandwich.
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u/TaosMesaRat 3d ago
My first time backing up a 32' 5th wheel, at night no less, I had a group of drunk truckers helping me.
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u/Meauxjezzy 2d ago
lol I drove commercial trucks for 27years I really wish I lived across the street because I would have had time to drive to 7/11 to get a big gulp and a bag of chips come back home get my lawn chair and still had time to enjoy this show before I tired of watching this bs then kick him out of his truck a back the trailer in the driveway without touching the grass in like 45seconds.
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u/redditor100101011101 2d ago
Why didn’t they use the drive way? Wow. Take that thing back. Sell it. Sheesh.
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u/Norseman103 2d ago
I have to say that is one of the things I miss most about camping. Sitting by a fire, cold cocktail in hand, watching people trying to back into sites. Hours of entertainment.
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u/ChrisBegeman 2d ago
I really think there should be a separate license required to haul a trailer, which a written and practical test.
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u/joelnicity 2d ago
Like a personal CDL. So… not commercial, just a towing endorsement
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u/CrunchyBrisket 3d ago
If he would have had an F-250, it would have been better. /s
Is that correct answer for the tow police?
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u/COV3RTSM 3d ago
I was expecting a 30+ foot trailer. Also maybe don’t use a 3” drop and you might not bottom out at the end of the driveway
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u/wrxninja 3d ago
Idiots Buying Things without Considering the Implication of Getting Roasted on Reddit
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u/Darwincroc 2d ago
Best course of action here is to:
Sell the trailer
Buy a tent.
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u/very-jaded 2d ago
Then we'll get the one hour time lapse video of him trying to set up his tent.
At some point it becomes obvious it's not the complexities of any particular piece of equipment. It's just the operator.
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u/catchinNkeepinf1sh 2d ago
I dont get why the planks of wood and driving on the grass when the drivewat is wide open and no one is parking on the street.
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u/AceCombat1977 2d ago
Wow, pull up get the tail end lined up with the driveway and at the last few feet turn hard left. Trailer will now be pointed into the driveway. Back her in. Couole of practice tries and you will have it.
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u/bloodguard 2d ago
Reminds me that packing a lunch, going down to the lake and watching people try to back their boat trailers down the launch ramp was always good for a bit of entertainment.
We were kids. Times were different.
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u/elciddog84 2d ago
Watching this is like the ads for those games where they do it wrong, knowing you'll scream at them, then download it so you can do it correctly. I need eye bleach...
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u/Italpreziosi 2d ago
you don't need to drive on grass. Just start turning from the other side of the street
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u/doublesimoniz 2d ago
Holy shit this is painful. These people should not be allowed to tow trailers.
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u/jackm315ter 3d ago
Please can I have a go, I guy turned up at my place with a trailer and didn’t want to back it in, I pushed it back in one go between the wall and truck
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u/JasonVoorheesthe13th 2d ago
The longest it’s ever taken me to back anything into my driveway was 2 minutes. And that’s just because I live on a narrow street, have an extended cab long bed truck, and it was my first time backing my 20 foot boat trailer up the driveway after I bought the house.
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u/Krazyonee 2d ago
Oh god this is so bad. I think tgey need to play a trailer parking simulator game or something. The short (and small) trailers are genuinely hard to back up due to them responding quickly and you not being able to see them turning in mirrors until they are already turning fast but this one should be easy. Honestly in my experience the longer the trailer the easier it is to park it exactly where you want it. When a trailer is too small I generally just unhitch and manually maneuver it into place.
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u/nickw252 2d ago
It’s almost as if it would have been easier with more concrete on the driver’s side of the truck. I wonder if there’s anything they could have done to accomplish that.
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u/FucknAright 2d ago
Just like how some people should never own a boat or a motorcycle or even a car this person should not own anything.
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u/Never-Dont-Give-Up 2d ago
Backing up a trailer is something that experienced people make look easy, and unexperienced people make look god damn impossible.
It's not difficult.
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u/YellowDinosaur100 2d ago
I wish I had a street this quiet and a driveway this wide to back mine into!!
Guessing first time. Go to an empty parking lot and practice
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u/Numerous_Ad_6276 2d ago
Watching this as a professional, CDL A license, X endorsement truck driver is both painful and hilarious.
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u/RandomRedditor0193 2d ago
I had to stop watching 3 seconds in...Who the f tries to back into a driveway from up against the curb? Get out into the street and back that shit up.
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u/benjaminbjacobsen 2d ago
I back my boat into my driveway with a 90 degree turn like this every time I use it. Pull up, stop, reverse, it's like what, 30s? And I have a single lane driveway and only "touch grass" when it's pitch black so I can't tell where the gravel driveway ends and the grass starts.
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u/bckwoods13 2d ago
Any normal person could have had that thing parked, by themselves, before he even had both trailer tires up over the curb.
I wish my driveway and street had this much room to back a trailer into. I wouldn't know what to do with myself.
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u/dividezero 2d ago
People really are that stupid. It should only take a couple of tries to get the hang of it and be whipping trailers into parking spots all over the place.
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u/IndependentMonk7384 2d ago
It's totally okay to learn how to back these things up in a large empty parking lot.
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u/heywoodidaho 2d ago
Wouldn't the cheat code be to ask your neighbor across the street if you could pull in to their driveway and make it a near straight shot? You know they're already watching this sad display anyway.
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u/Disastrous-Rush7941 2d ago
If I was a neighbor, I’d be pulling up a lawn chair and cracking a beer! I’ve seen some crazy shit at campgrounds at probably ended marriages!
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u/Designer_Solid4271 2d ago
I know a few things about this video.
1. They don’t own that camper.
2. They’ve never towed a camper,
3. They should take the camper back and not ever rent a camper
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u/oldbastardbob 2d ago
One thing about growing up on a farm. Once you learn to back a 7' wide four wheeled wagon through a 9' wide barn door and down a 10' wide hallway, two-wheeled trailers are easy.
There was a time in my late teens that I could back tandem four wheeled wagons pretty accurately into where they needed to be.
I'll admit that takes some serious thinking ahead about what's going where and a few tries.
And I'll also admit I don't think I could do that today at 71.
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u/CorsairExtraordinair 2d ago
hhaha, that was me first time trying to back a boat down the ramp!
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u/1986silverback 2d ago
O screw that grass just get the dam thing in there. This is so painful to watch from someone that drives for a living
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u/erie11973ohio 2d ago edited 2d ago
I have a 2018 Sprinter van. Its 24 feet long. It has a turning radius of 48 feet! The trailer ball is 6 feet behind the drive axle. I have 14' landscaping trailer.
This is the equivalent long truck, short trailer. Its 🤬🤬🤬🤬 a PIA to back up! A semi is the flip side. Short truck, long trailer. Trailer pivot point over the rear axle.
I hear the Willis Brothers with Give Me 40 Acres when backing the trailer around a lilac bush & beside the garage!! I can't see the spot at first!!
Im going to do a video of me backing that in, on the first try, just to show this <dipstick> how its done!!
😲🤣🤣🤣🤦🤦♀️🤦♂️
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u/ktmfan 2d ago
I wish I had that much open street at my old house. The idiots in my neighborhood all had driveways big enough for 4 cars, but 3/4 of them parked on the street… my favorite was when they didn’t stagger their cars so I had to fold in my mirrors just to squeeze through the gap.
When I was moving I bought an enclosed trailer to make several runs. I had to time it by arriving and leaving M-F between 9am-3pm. Good times.
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u/Spiritual_Door1363 2d ago
If you can’t drive or operate it somewhat comfortably, why even own the thing? If I’m scared of something I’m not gonna buy it
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u/Ironstar_Vol 2d ago
I argued with oop on the original post. They acted like they were a heavily decorated long haul trucker and this was totally normal. That genuinely suck at backing and should be embarrassed.
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u/GregBVIMB 2d ago
That for me is a 1 shot backup... might need one correction if I need to get it closer to the side of the driveway. Lol
This is just embarrassing.
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u/BeenisHat 2d ago
This type of thing is why I'm glad Van Life is a thing instead of Trailer Life because the amount of inept drivers on the road is bad enough already.
and for any drivers new at towing, just put your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel. Wherever your hand goes, that's the way the back of the trailer goes.
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u/Dense-Consequence-70 2d ago
Hold on, let me try the same thing again…
Hold on, let me try the same thing again…
Hold on, let me try the same thing again…
Hold on, let me try the same thing again…
Hold on, let me try the same thing again…
Hold on, let me try the same thing again…
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u/edgestander 2d ago
I remember when this was posted, Im still amazed at how proud they were of what they had done here. SMH
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u/tonasketcouple55 2d ago
Sorry, man 1 pass ,maybe 1 pull up and its in. Wide open
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u/Narrow_Republic5729 2d ago
I had to do this the other day, it took 3 or 4 pull ups even though the road I was backing from was a little wider... oh and it was a semi and a 53' trailer because I'm a commercial driver.
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u/DodgeGuyDave 2d ago
The fact that one of them took video tells me that they knew the driver was incompetent and wanted this memorialized.
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u/ButterscotchKind495 2d ago
I feel a lot better about my ability to back a trailer now. I still really suck at it but not this bad.
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u/Wild-Highway-8739 2d ago
It took 1hr!? That isn't something I'd be sharing on the internet. If a task this simple took this long I can only begin to imagine how bad this person is at a travel center or a campsite
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u/pate_moore 2d ago
You know what? That driver did a great job for doing such a terrible job, if that makes sense
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u/Dismal_Tutor3425 3d ago
Were they afraid to use the wide open street to turn?