How to Back a Trailer

Preparing to Back Up Your Trailer

1. 
   Devise a strategy. ^[1] Recognize that backing up a trailer requires preemptive motion of the towing vehicle to move the trailer in the correct direction. A pre-planned route is required, keeping in mind the direction of the trailer, the direction of the towing vehicle, any object in the immediate vicinity of the driving path, and the relative motion between all involved objects.
2. 
   Practice in an empty space such as a parking lot. Buy some small orange cones to help spot you. Try learning with a long trailer, and then attempt a small trailer. Whenever you are learning be sure to take it slow. ^[2] Short trailers are more maneuverable and responsive, thus more difficult to reverse. Longer trailers are more forgiving of mistakes, but will take more work to get around a corner.
3. 
   Get a spotter. ^[3] A spotter may be helpful as another pair of eyes behind the trailer will be able to see things you (as the driver) cannot. You can even invest in a set of short-range 2-way radios. This will make communications a lot easier than yelling and/or trying to watch a spotter.

   1. The spotter needs to remember to look up! It's easy to become so preoccupied with obstacles on the ground that you forget to check overhead for tree limbs and wires. Always watch for leaning trees you may miss the base of the trunk just fine, but if that tree is leaning toward your trailer, it will take a bite out of your rig high up on the roofline!
4. 
   Adjust your mirrors. It's going to be very important that you can see behind you, since you're going backwards with a big rig attached to your truck. Make sure that the mirrors are adjusted so that you can clearly see the rear of the trailer. ^[4]
5. 
   Try to set yourself up so that you're backing up towards the driver's side of your vehicle. ^[5] You will be able to see the rig and the site much better in your driver's side mirrors and can also glance back over your shoulder and see the rear of the rig. If you need to drive a loop around the campground to be able to approach the spot on your left side, then do so!
6. 
   Place one hand on the steering wheel and turn your body and head to look behind you and at your trailer. Put place your right hand on the bottom of the steering wheel (6 O-Clock position). That way when you're ready to move you'll simply move your hand in the direction that you want the rear of the trailer to go! Try it! If you use this hand position, it will all but eliminate turning the wheels the wrong way while backing up.