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.
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Practice
makes perfect! |
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.
It all sounds complicated but below is a diagram to explain
the different stages of reversing with a trailer or caravan.
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. |
