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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
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Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit...
#8626248 - 07/12/08 04:58 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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So I'm working today at the airport watching the Cargo Gate for a company. Well, NorthWest just came down and dropped off a baggage cart full of shit that I had to bring in the building since I'm the only one here and it looks like rain.
I got hooked up and drove in the building and I'm trying to back this thing into a little space between a ground power unit and another cart. I suck so bad. I must have jacknived that thing about 11 times before I finally gave up and pushed it in by hand.
I'm such a spaz when it comes to backing things up.
I don't get it. I can parallel park fine.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Gumby
Fishnologist
Registered: 06/13/01
Posts: 26,656
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8626336 - 07/12/08 05:22 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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I suck a backing up too. The whole direction of turning the wheel reversing thing always fucks with me. I never back my car in, but I can parallel park just fine as well
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BoneMan
Shrimpin ain't easy
Registered: 02/09/05
Posts: 2,032
Loc: new new england
Last seen: 12 years, 4 months
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8626354 - 07/12/08 05:27 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Some people just can't back things up. Throwing a trailer into the mix makes it a lot more difficult of course. For some people, if you do it a few times you get a feel for it and it becomes no big deal to back trailers in between stuff. For other people, they just never get it.
My friend Tom can't even back his own car up. If theres a car blocking him from pulling straight into his usual parking spot (which is open but only accessible by backing in) he'll go park down the street someplace rather than just back into his spot. I can sense him getting nervous when a situation comes up where the obvious thing to do is to back in. But he gets all nervous about it and he'll go on his round-about way to find a place that he can just pull into.
It bugs me and I tried to make him back in once but his car ended up crooked as hell and four feet from the curb. He just left it like that too, because that was really the best he could do. He drives a Jetta too, same year as mine. I back in every chance I get, its so easy with a small car like that.
Backing up trailers requires a very delicate touch and you have to know which way the trailer is going to go when you're turning the wheel. Don't try to guess.
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TM
The Mind, The Many, The Music.
Registered: 06/11/02
Posts: 8,282
Loc: Under The Table And Dream...
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8626357 - 07/12/08 05:29 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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The trick is to steer from the BOTTOM of the wheel... Move the bottom of the wheel in the direction you want the trailer to go, and if it goes too far to chase, just pull straight forward a bit, instead of chasing it back and forth.
-------------------- ================================================ "Have some congratulatory drugs." - C. Montgomery Burns I'll probably always do drugs, so that just contributes to the addiction to The Shroomery... It's a vicious circle of bliss. TM™
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Ogre812
Padawan Learner
Registered: 05/25/08
Posts: 1,763
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Gumby]
#8626361 - 07/12/08 05:30 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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The key is to do it slowly. Also, you don't always have to be turning the wheel for the trailer to keep turning. It just takes practice.
-------------------- Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither, and will lose both. ~ Benjamin Franklin ~ "Let me tell you about a Porcupine's balls. They're small, and they don't give a SHIT!" ~Danny~
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Cubenisseur
Mad Props
Registered: 12/04/05
Posts: 1,392
Loc: Indian Land
Last seen: 13 years, 11 months
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: BoneMan]
#8626377 - 07/12/08 05:34 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Practicing where your not under pressure sure helps...also shorter trailers are harder to back up than long ones due to the speed at which they turn and not being as easy to see.
Good thing you were able to push it in Madtowntripper. That's not usually an option!
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Ogre812]
#8626385 - 07/12/08 05:36 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Ogre812 said: The key is to do it slowly. Also, you don't always have to be turning the wheel for the trailer to keep turning. It just takes practice.
This is what gets me. I can back up my car or any other vehicle by itself just fine.
But with the trailer, I look behind me and see that it needs to to turn. So I turn the wheel more than it's turned already, and the angle of the trailer just gets sharper and sharper. That makes sense that you don't need to turn the wheel for the trailer to turn. If the angle is there, it's going to get tighter the longer you drive.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Ogre812
Padawan Learner
Registered: 05/25/08
Posts: 1,763
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8626428 - 07/12/08 05:46 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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yup...and like TM said if you mess up just pull forward a little bit, and try again.
-------------------- Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither, and will lose both. ~ Benjamin Franklin ~ "Let me tell you about a Porcupine's balls. They're small, and they don't give a SHIT!" ~Danny~
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!
Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 193,665
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: TM]
#8626702 - 07/12/08 07:21 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
TM said: The trick is to steer from the BOTTOM of the wheel... Move the bottom of the wheel in the direction you want the trailer to go, and if it goes too far to chase, just pull straight forward a bit, instead of chasing it back and forth.
QFT
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Prisoner#1]
#8626716 - 07/12/08 07:24 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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I'm going to go try this right now.
Will report back.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!
Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 193,665
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8626726 - 07/12/08 07:26 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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you also need to learn to work those mirrors, most of the time a trailer will block your view of everything behind you
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Prisoner#1]
#8626744 - 07/12/08 07:33 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Nope, still can't do it.
The problem seems to be that as I back up slowly and try to turn, I get to a point where the trailer is no longer moving backwards, but is instead just pivoting closer to a right angle with the tug.
I'm not sure if a normal trailer works like this, but w/ a baggage cart the long tongue is directly tied to the front wheels of the cart, so moving the tongue turns the wheels. Makes it very easy to steer by hand from the tongue.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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TM
The Mind, The Many, The Music.
Registered: 06/11/02
Posts: 8,282
Loc: Under The Table And Dream...
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8626937 - 07/12/08 08:34 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Madtowntripper said: Nope, still can't do it.
The problem seems to be that as I back up slowly and try to turn, I get to a point where the trailer is no longer moving backwards, but is instead just pivoting closer to a right angle with the tug.
I'm not sure if a normal trailer works like this, but w/ a baggage cart the long tongue is directly tied to the front wheels of the cart, so moving the tongue turns the wheels. Makes it very easy to steer by hand from the tongue.
Therein lies your biggest problem!
The distance between the the hitch ball and the axle is EXTREMELY short (relatively), making even an EXPERT trailer-backer completely frustrated, not to mention that you have another axle in the rear... Those trailers are next to impossible to handle in reverse, even for a seasoned vet.
Don't feel bad, bud.. Go back a boat trailer and see how easy you do it!
-------------------- ================================================ "Have some congratulatory drugs." - C. Montgomery Burns I'll probably always do drugs, so that just contributes to the addiction to The Shroomery... It's a vicious circle of bliss. TM™
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 13 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8627033 - 07/12/08 09:00 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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I'm a truck driver. Backing up is second nature. Actually, I learned how to back up with a trailer as a teenager when I was working for my Dad's masonry company. I used to pull a small cement mixer around with a pickup and had to back it up all the time. The short wheel base (from the hitch to the mixers axle) made it very unforgiving to minute errors in judgement. It was a 'baptism-by-fire' of sorts into the world of backing up.
Nowadays I don't even think about it. And I never look over my shoulder at all. I always back up using my mirrors. I bet I could back a trailer through a slalom course easier then most people could pull the same trailer forward.
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8627048 - 07/12/08 09:05 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
ToTheSummit said: The short wheel base (from the hitch to the mixers axle) made it very unforgiving to minute errors in judgement. It was a 'baptism-by-fire' of sorts into the world of backing up.
I think this is my situation. The tongue is maybe 3 feet long, if that, from the hitch on the back of the tug to the front axle of the baggage cart.
I'm so inept!
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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perosiste
Overcomplicates shit for fun
Registered: 03/26/08
Posts: 1,030
Last seen: 4 years, 5 months
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8627056 - 07/12/08 09:07 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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if you really wanna have some fun try stickng a fifth wheel into a space barely longer than it is ending up perpendicular to the truck.( only try this with a flatbed).
I used to have to do that to make it difficult to steal the trailer after one of ours got stolen.
but yeah small trailers are a bitch.
-------------------- Risk Management will be the downfall of western civilization
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 13 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8627058 - 07/12/08 09:07 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Yeah, the shorter the distance from the hitch to the axle the more difficult it gets. But stick with it till you get the hang of it and you'll be backing up better then anyone you know before long, especially when you get back on a boat or camper trailer.
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 13 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: perosiste]
#8627070 - 07/12/08 09:09 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
perosiste said: if you really wanna have some fun try stickng a fifth wheel into a space barely longer than it is ending up perpendicular to the truck.( only try this with a flatbed).
I used to have to do that to make it difficult to steal the trailer after one of ours got stolen.
but yeah small trailers are a bitch.
The truck I drive daily at work is a fifth wheel lo-boy hauler. I stick that thing in all kinds of crazy places on jobsites. If it fits, I'll get it there!
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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ToTheSummit
peregrinus
Registered: 08/22/99
Posts: 9,126
Loc: Las Vegas
Last seen: 1 month, 13 days
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8627093 - 07/12/08 09:17 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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At work I pulled small air compressors around for a few years also when I was in my early 20s. It was a bitch because we pulled them behind box vans and you couldn't see them in the mirrors until they were jack-knifing way too far to one side. I always hated backing those fuckers up! PLUSEQUALS
-------------------- You invented the wheel....You push the motherfucker!!
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perosiste
Overcomplicates shit for fun
Registered: 03/26/08
Posts: 1,030
Last seen: 4 years, 5 months
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Re: Ugh, I Cannot Back Up With a Trailer for Shit... [Re: ToTheSummit]
#8627145 - 07/12/08 09:32 PM (15 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
ToTheSummit said:
Quote:
perosiste said: if you really wanna have some fun try stickng a fifth wheel into a space barely longer than it is ending up perpendicular to the truck.( only try this with a flatbed).
I used to have to do that to make it difficult to steal the trailer after one of ours got stolen.
but yeah small trailers are a bitch.
The truck I drive daily at work is a fifth wheel lo-boy hauler. I stick that thing in all kinds of crazy places on jobsites. If it fits, I'll get it there!
yeah backing one of those bitches is a talent given only to a few.
-------------------- Risk Management will be the downfall of western civilization
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