Nine of the sites at Glacier Valley Campground are pull-throughs, so you have anywhere from 65 to 100 feet of driving straight ahead to get positioned. Piece of cake. Most sites, though, are back-ins that are from 50 to 100 feet deep – so you will need to know how to back an RV in.
Getting a trailer positioned in a campsite isn’t as scary as it might seem to the trailer-hauling novice. Here are ten steps to get your rig parked.
Step 1: Make your approach for backing your RV
Get as close as possible to the side of the road your site is on. By getting near the edge you will have more room when you make the cut. Sometimes you can choose which direction you want to come from when backing your RV; if you can, you probably want to make your approach so the site is on the driver’s side. That way you are not “blind-siding” it when you back in.
Step 2: Check out the site
Get out of your vehicle and do a site walk-around, because there is nothing like seeing for yourself what you are facing. Some of the things to look for are: Where is the firepit? How wide is the pad? Where is the electric pedestal? Are there tree branches that might be in the way? Do you need to move a picnic table?
Step 3: Roll down your windows
Roll the windows down on both sides of your vehicle so you can hear everything that is going on with your trailer as well as your spotter, if you have one. That’s because you will not always be able to see your spotter, so verbal signals are much more reliable than using hand signals.
Step 4: Adjust your mirrors
When you are backing a camper, use your mirrors instead of doing the old look-over-the-shoulder move. Besides, you probably won’t see much other than your camper when looking over your shoulder. Who cares what the front of the trailer is doing?
Once your mirrors are properly adjusted, keep the same amount of the RV visible in each mirror as you are backing up, which ensures the trailer is going in a straight line. It’s good to be able to see your trailer tires in your mirror. When turning the trailer, properly adjusted mirrors give you the best chance of monitoring your progress as you back up.
Step 5: Get a spotter
If at all possible, have someone spot for you as you back in. That person has to get out of the truck and stand in a place where they can be of the most help so he or she can monitor a certain obstacle you are worried about, or help in an area that is hard to see from the driver’s seat. Before backing in talk about where you want to end up so you are both trying to get to the same place.
When backing an RV, some of our most seasoned campers have walkie talkies for the driver and spotter to use. Walkie talkies are a small investment that can really help with the communications. You can get these short-distance radios at a number of places; just this week we saw an ad for a Midland X-Talker XT two-way radio with weather alert for as low as $29.99 at the low end, with varying models up to $89.99 (remember that you need two!) at Camping World.
Spotters can serve several purposes:
- Serve as a lookout for any pets or children who might run behind the trailer.
- Be your blind-spot monitor, standing on the side of the trailer that is not visible in your mirrors.
- Act as a guide about minor corrections need to be made to get into your spot.
- And, of course, to tell you when to stop once the trailer is in the perfect spot and you’ve finished backing your RV.
- DON’T YELL AT YOUR SPOTTER! This should have been the first tip. No matter how many times you have to pull forward and try again, stay calm. At our campground we certainly have heard some heated exchanges between drivers and spotters! We even had a sign that said “I’m sorry for what I said when you were backing in the trailer.”
Step 6: Put your hands on the bottom of your steering wheel
One simple technique to help with parking both towables and motorized RVs: keep your hands on the lower part of the steering wheel (as opposed to the 10 and 2 o’clock positions typically used when driving). The effect of this is that when your spotter tells you to go left—sometimes referred to as the driver side—you simply have to turn the wheel to the left.
If you hold the wheel with an unorthodox underhand grip it will snap your brain out of making instinctive inputs. Because of this, once you start reversing the only thing you have to remember is to move your steering-wheel hand in the direction you want the trailer to go. Need the trailer to start heading left? Move the bottom of the steering wheel left. And vice-versa. Easy-peasy.
