Backing a trailer into a campsite or a driveway is a different challenge from a wide-open parking lot. You're usually making a sharp turn, often around 90 degrees, from a narrow road into a narrow space, with trees, posts, picnic tables, mailboxes or parked cars close by. It's the kind of back-up where a good setup and a good spotter matter more than anything else.
This article covers how to plan the back-up, the difference between driver's-side and blind-side backing, how to work with a spotter, and the hand signals that make it easier.
Look before you back
Before you start, stop and look at the site. If you can, get out and walk it. You're checking for:
- Obstacles at ground level, like posts, rocks, stumps, fire rings, utility hookups and curbs.
- Obstacles overhead, like tree branches, which can catch the roof of a tall camper.
- The size and shape of the space, and where you want the trailer to end up.
- Where the hookups are, so you park with the trailer's connections on the right side.
- Room on the road for the truck to swing as you turn.
Decide exactly where you want the trailer to stop before you put it in reverse. A clear target makes every other decision easier.
Driver's side versus blind side
When you back around a turn, the trailer swings toward one side of the truck.
- Driver's-side backing means the trailer turns toward your side. You can see it through your window and in your left mirror the whole way around. This is much easier.
- Blind-side backing means the trailer turns toward the passenger side. As the turn tightens, the trailer disappears from your left mirror, and your right mirror only shows part of it. You're steering into a spot you can't see well.
Whenever you have a choice, approach the site so you can back in on the driver's side. That might mean driving past the site, turning around, and coming back from the other direction. A minute of extra driving can save ten minutes of frustration. When blind-side backing is the only option, a spotter becomes essential.
Setting up for a 90-degree back-up
A typical way to set up for backing into a site on your driver's side:
- Drive past the site. Pull forward along the road until the trailer's axle is roughly in line with, or a little past, the far edge of the space you're backing into.
- Angle away from the site. If there's room, swing the front of the truck slightly away from the site as you pull forward. This starts the trailer at a slight angle toward the space and gives you more room to turn.
- Stop with the truck and trailer fairly straight. A rig that starts badly bent is hard to control.
Then begin backing slowly, steering so the back of the trailer starts swinging toward the space.
Backing into the space
- Start the turn. With your hand at the bottom of the wheel, move it toward the space. The back of the trailer swings that way.
- Follow the trailer. As the trailer turns into the opening, start steering back the other way so the truck follows it around. This is how you stop the angle growing into a jackknife. See How to Avoid Jackknifing for why it matters.
- Watch both ends. The back of the trailer is heading into the site, but the front of the truck is swinging out across the road. Check that it has room.
- Straighten out. As the trailer lines up with the site, keep steering until the truck is straight behind it, then back in straight.
- Pull up if you need to. If the angle is wrong, stop, pull forward, and try again. There's no prize for getting it in one go.
Working with a spotter
A spotter is someone who stands outside and guides you in. A good spotter can see the things you can't, like the post behind the trailer's blind-side corner, or the branch near the roof. A poor arrangement, where the spotter stands behind the trailer shouting directions you can't hear, can make things worse. A few rules make it work:
- Agree on the plan first. Before you start, make sure you both know where the trailer is meant to end up.
- Keep the spotter visible. The spotter should stand where you can see them in one of your mirrors at all times, usually behind and to the driver's side of the trailer. If you lose sight of your spotter, stop immediately.
- Never stand directly behind a moving trailer. The spotter should stay clear of the trailer's path and never walk between the truck and trailer.
- Agree on signals. Shouting doesn't carry well over an engine. Hand signals are clearer, and a phone call or two-way radio works well too.
- Talk about the trailer, not the steering wheel. It's clearer for the spotter to point where the trailer should go and let the driver work out the steering, than to say "turn left," which can mean either the wheel or the trailer.
- Stop means stop. Any signal the driver doesn't understand should be treated as stop.
Simple hand signals
There's no single official set, so agree on yours in advance. A common, simple set:
| Signal | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Both hands waving you back, palms toward the spotter | Keep backing, straight |
| One arm pointing left or right | Move the back of the trailer that way |
| Hands held apart, then brought together | Distance closing; the gap is about as wide as the hands |
| Raised fist or crossed arms | Stop |
| Waving you forward | Pull forward |
Driveways
Backing into a driveway uses the same steps, with a couple of extra considerations. The street is public, so watch for traffic, pedestrians and cyclists, and use your hazard lights while you're blocking the road. The edge of the driveway is often a curb, a ditch or a lawn, so watch the trailer's wheels, especially on the inside of the turn, where they cut closer than the trailer body. And the mailbox is almost always in the wrong place.
If the street is busy, it can be safer to wait for a gap in traffic, or to have someone watch the road while you work.
Get out and look
Whether or not you have a spotter, don't be afraid to stop, set the parking brake, and get out to check. Truck drivers call it GOAL: Get Out And Look. A few seconds spent looking costs nothing. A crunched trailer corner or a broken tail light is a lot more expensive.
Practicing in The Trailer Parker
The Trailer Parker has a Driveway off a Narrow Street lot: a residential street with cars parked along the far curb, front lawns on either side of the driveway and a mailbox at its edge. You back the trailer up off the street and into the driveway, exactly the 90-degree turn this article describes. The other lots are good practice too, because they require a sharp turn into a space lined by obstacles. The Lot with Bollards has fixed posts at the corners of the space, much like trees or posts at a campsite. The Pedestrian Crossing lot sends people walking through while you back up, which is a good reminder to stop and wait. Hitting a pedestrian costs 40 points, more than any other fault.
Try setting up for a driver's-side back-up and, once you're comfortable, use the cab view so the trailer disappears from your mirror on the blind side. It's a safe way to feel why blind-side backing is so much harder.