Maneuvering aid

[guymi]

Vu en france https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hV3HiXjCAo
Bonne journée tout le monde
Michel

[Hamilton Felix]

Interesting! Probably a bit spendy, and it will want a good surface. But great for someone who is having difficulty dragging the trailer around by hand.

[swoody126]

a hitch on the front of the TV works quite well and is a whole lot cheaper

sw

[Tigris99]

my 12 yr old son could have done that for free. Or that teardrop is ridiculously heavy.

Cool idea but something much better justified for a trailer bigger than a child can push around. Spend that money on more camping trips

But cheap solution. removeable coupler set up using 2" receiver tube on each end of trailer.

Or even cheaper, hook a chain between trailer and TV.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Andrew Herrick]

I know that people with mobility or strength concerns sometimes have difficulty moving a small camper by hand. Another option is a Trailer Valet, which is essentially a tongue jack with a gearbox. It's pricey, but it makes moving a trailer extremely easy to do by hand (or a power drill).

[KTM_Guy]

Years ago we were camping with out popup at Sleeping Bear Dunes NP and an old lady had to be 80+ pulled in with a caned ham. She stopped by us and asked if I could back-in her camper for her. Of course I said yes, she asked if I would unhitch the car so she could drive around the area and before we leave hitch it back up. She was on a 3 month trip by herself.

Something like this would have been perfect for her. And she probably had the money to afford what it would cost.

Todd

[working on it]

• Maneuvering my squareback 4x8 into its' garage bay wasn't hard at first, with an under 100 lb tongue weight, while my knees and back were in better shape than now, 5-6 years ago. But things have changed. I considered buying a motorized trailer valet to solve the problem of stowing the TTT in the garage, but once again, I cobbled-together my own solution, not wanting to spend $300+ on a valet.
• My TTT tongue weighs 260+ lbs, so I can't lift it (or even slide the sand foot along on the ground) by myself, so I installed an 8" solid rubber caster wheel (swiveling) on my existing removable jack, in order to be able to turn it around in my mixed-surface (sand, gravel, road-base) driveway. I had already made a front receiver for my truck, using which I can then push the trailer "back and to the left" (quoted from the movie "JFK") into its' garage bay. Otherwise, I'd have to make an acute-angle turn to back the trailer in from the narrow crowned road, then another 100+ feet up my driveway, make a 90 degree turn, and finally back another 75 feet downhill. Much easier to drive straight in, and unhook, then back the truck past the trailer, and re-hook after turning the trailer.
• Since the added wheel made the jack too tall to install when unhooking, I added a sideways-mounted scissor jack to the tongue, to easily lift the tongue high enough for jack insertion onto its' pipe ring mount. The total cost for all the added parts was under $100, and takes me about 20-30 minutes to complete the operation, but I no longer have to get help from my wife or neighbor to swing the trailer around in the driveway, and to spot me when transitioning into the small 7'x7' bay opening. The front hitch on the TV is offset to the right, so I only have to line-up one side, for proper placement.
• jack became too tall after adding swivel wheel, making scissor jack addition necessary

• 

  tongue jacks & WD System.jpg (188.17 KiB) Viewed 870 times

  WD spring-bar is removed prior to stowing-in-garage procedure

• 

  front receiver re-engineered.jpg (123.3 KiB) Viewed 870 times

  $10 part, offset-mounting for better sight-line