| | Guide
to reversing while towing
Reversing
while towing a trailer can be a daunting task but like most things in life practice
makes perfect. Remember that to make a trailer turn in a particular direction
you have to make the back of the car turn in the opposite direction.
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Lets
say we want the trailer to turn in a particular
direction. If you had hold of the tow hook
and where walking with the trailer pushing
it backwards you would push the back of
the trailer in the opposite direction so
that the front would going the direction
you desired. If you now think of the back
of the towing car you need to make the back
of your car push the back of the trailer
in the same. You would turn the wheels of
the car to the opposite direction that you
wished the trailer to take. When you reversed
this would make the back of the car move
away from the direction you wished to reverse
to but that in turn would turn the trailer
in the desired direction.
However as you continue to reverse the car
would continue to increase its direction
away from the corner and therefore your
trailer would continue in the opposite direction
until the side of your car would touch the
side of your trailer. This is called jackknifing
and needs to be avoided. We need to take
off the lock to reduce this and then follow
the trailer in reverse. |
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Practice makes perfect! |
It all sounds
complicated but below is a diagram to explain the different stages of reversing
with a trailer or caravan.
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TOP
TIP: To steer in reverse, put your hand at the
bottom of the wheel. Moving your hand to the right
turns the trailer to the right, and vice versa.
If you run this sequence in reverse you can see
that its quite straight forward (Excuse the pun!)
when you are driving forward. You just need to reverse
every step of the procedure when reversing. |
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