RV Toads, Motorhomes, Tow Cars

I’ve been backing up trailers for many years and it is second nature to me. I never get frustrated EXCEPT when I need to put my boat in the water. You see, when we put the boat in the water, it is best that you have one passenger in the boat, and one in the vehicle to backup the boat. Well, my wife doesn’t “drive the boat” so she backs the boat into the water for me .. hehe.

This is very frustrating especially when sudden stops can make you fall out of the boat or get your hands tangle in the cable that you use to release the boat.

At last I found a way to teach anybody how to successfully back up a trailer.

1. Place one hand on the bottom of the steering wheel.

2. While backing up, if you need the trailer to go left, then move your hand to the left. Right is right, left is left.

As long as you keep your hand on the bottom of the steering wheel, you should be able to master backing up any trailer in no time flat.

Here’s what happened when I tried to backup this rig :

I have successfully backed up this rig for 100 feet to unload the trailer. This is very tricky unless you are backing up straight; Once the accordian starts to squeeze, you can pull forward a few feet, then back up again. The photo above is a trip that I took with my wife from Denver to Sturgis bike week. I was paranoid that the bike was going to fall over even though I sinched up the straps as tight as I could. Oh how I wish I had a backup camera where I could monitor the status of my Harley Davidson FLHT on the back of the trailer.

Here’s what I did :

Purchased a backup camera system from Best Buy (on sale for $249.00) and brought it home. After unpacking the box, I realized that this is not an easy task : The kit actually included a new rear-view mirror with a little screen in the corner of it. The wiring requirements were extremely complicated, including a connection to the vehicles wiring harness so the video would display only when the truck was in reverse. ok… I packed that thing back into the box and headed to Best Buy for a refund.

Then it struck me : What about a webcam ? I could sit my laptop next to me in my truck and mount a camera on the back of the fifth wheel. The only trick was to get a very long USB “extension cord” so I could connect my laptop to the cam thirty feet behind me.

I bought an ethernet to USB converter for less than 10 bucks and I had some leftover CAT 5 ethernet cable from a few years back. I ran the ethernet cable from the back of the fifth wheel underneath all the way to the front of the fifth wheel (keeping the cat 5 concealed). Notice in the picture, you can see the wire running up to the back window of the fifth wheel. Then I simply ran the cable into the cab of my truck through the back window (window still shuts fine) and pluged directly into my laptop with a ethernet to USB converter.

I was able to keep a close eye on my bike all the way to Sturgis. The only thing I would suggest is to wrap your ethernet connections with electrical tape so the moisture can’t get in. My cam lost connection when it rained on the way back.