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Something different.

1K views 21 replies 11 participants last post by  horseluvr2524 
#1 ·
#5 ·
I've gotten better over the last few years. When we bought our first RV trailer, about 30 feet, my husband had gone back to work, before the end of the vacation so myself and the kids drove down out of the mountains. We stopped at a park for the night without pull-throughs and a really tight space at the bend in the road was the only one left. We had to back that beast up.

After about half an hour of trying to get it right, my then 14 year old son offered to do it for me. He did it perfectly on the first try. I guess he didn't inherit that gene from dear old mom!
 
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#6 ·
I have trailered for years and am pretty good at backing up but I learned to do it by looking back over my shoulder. Now with age I find I can't turn around to see and have had to TRY to learn to back up using the mirrors and I just get everything backwards.
It's a great source of merriment and entertainment for Hubby. He's a farmer and great at backing all sorts of complicated machinery.
 
#8 ·
AHH well, German engineering-all you need is a Volkwagon!
Speaking of which, on my visit to the place of my birth, (Germany),about some 8 years ago, I was blown over by what is used to haul a horse trailer!
Would love to see that Volkwagon pull here out west, once snow hits those mountain roads!
Nope, the 3/4 ton diesel 4 x 4 rules here!
 
#10 ·
Goose necks also make it much easier. Since I do all the hauling, I am better then hubby, in hauling either the bumper pull stock trailer we still have, and use to haul hay, and the goose neck
I do recall though, my early episodes. Once, hauling ahorse to the Spruce Meadows booth, I got into the wrong area (stabling), and where the gate is closed at the one end, 8 AM sharp
Those Spruce Meadows volunteers during the Masters are anal,and he would not open that gate, 3 minutes past the hr, inspite of my tears, so that I had to back a long,long ways, around corners, past part
parked trailers, trucks and rigs, all worth way more then mine!
 
#12 ·
I could back my old 2 horse bumper pull pretty well....add slide-in camper to the mix and my abilities flew out the window. Was trying to back in between 2 trees to get in the camping spot and trying and trying. Of course a helpful gentleman came along and offered to do it for me and of course I let him have at it. He gave up after about 30 minutes and I eventually got it in the spot myself. Sometimes it just took me a while using the trial and error method. LOL

I always unloaded my horse(s) and tied them to the hitching rail first so that they didn't have to suffer through it.
 
#13 ·
Neither of my parents could drive, they didn't want to. I learned from a driving instructor but had no vehicle of my own.
So, in my twenties I worked for a woman and had to trailer her hunters to meets. I was fine until one day, with three horses up, a long wheel based Land Rover I ended up in a cattle yard and had to turn around between two barns in mud.

It took me forever, the cattle in the barns thought it was feed time and were bellowing - I am sure they were laughing just as the horses were in that advert. I jack knifed several times, broke both rear lights and admit, to relieve my fripustration, threw mud at the cattle.

That was it, I practised every day after that until I got it right.
 
#14 ·
One time I was taking our house trailer to a campground for the weekend and they did not have drive through lots so I had to back this big trailer into it's place. I pulled up and looked the spot over, had to miss a couple of trees and the campfire so was not the easiest job. The fellow across the lane brought his chair out and said something to his wife (I can just imagine what he said) and sat down to watch the show.
I started my back up and only had to pull ahead once to straighten out and got it back where I wanted it. I got out of the truck and looked over at him and said "How was that?" He laughed and said it was ok.
Another time Sis and I took a mare up for breeding, it was early spring and the yard was muddy and very tight quarters for getting turned around. I was taking the mare into the barn and the owner asked Sis if she wanted him to back the outfit around for us. Sis said"Oh no she can back around anything no problem". If I had been there I would have said yes.
With a little cussing and swearing I did manage it.
 
#15 · (Edited)
not until you have spun out on a mountain snow packed road, had the truck brakes fail to hold you and had the trailer then pull you and the truck backwards, do you really find the futility of trying to steer!
In that case, it was a clump of trees, just growing a few feet down from where that trailer pulled us over the bank, that saved us After turning at right angles, in spite of my efforts, then dropping over that edge, did I come to realize that there are times, where no matter how well you can maneuver that truck and trailer, you are SOL !
 
#16 ·
We had gone to some Hunter Trials and there had been torrential rain overnight so vehicles had to park on the estate road. Come home time I was walking back to our trailer when I saw a man trying to turn his trailer into a gateway of the walled garden. I saw he was going to catch the trailer on a tree stump and called out for him to stop.
I walked to his vehicle and before I could explain he cussed and swore at me and threw me his keys saying, "You women always think you can do better so prove it!" I have missed out a few adjectives.
I took his keys, got into the drivers seat, his poor wife was apologising profusely, drove the rig forward, came back shunted forward again then back amd it was facing the right way.
I got out, dangled his keys in front of him and said, "Some women can drive."

My friend had driven her vehicle and trailer so I was surprised when she handed me her keys. I asked whey and she said after watching me turn I could do the same with hers.

The art is, as soon as the trailer starts to turn you straighten the wheel so it doesn't jack knife.
 
#17 ·
Yes, but does not work, trust me, being pulled backwards down a mountain road, with the brakes not holding, and the trailer thus pulling the truck. Add snow packed to the equation. I tried to steer, but the truck had powered out ie died
You aren't going to steer that baby, and I was wondering a which point I should bail, and leave the horses to their fate.
 
#18 ·
I enjoyed that video, and thanks to you all for sharing your stories. I am trailering novice. I'm completely comfortable going forward, I'm ok with tight turns, and I can just about go straight while backing up if I do it very slowly. But if I have to turn the trailer while backing? forget it. I know in my head how it's done, but I just can't seem to make it work, I get all confused and end up going the wrong way. Particularly if someone is watching!
 
#22 ·
LOL. Glad I'm not the only one with one of those.

A couple months ago I finally got to go back to self care. I was doing barn chores and DH was fixing the wooden slow feed boxes. I told him it felt just like home again (barn home I mean) hearing him cuss over those boxes! :lol:
 
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