I have a very small single bike trailer. I put it behind my dually when it had the cap on it and couldn't find it. If I had to back, I would unhook it, move it, aim the truck, and hook it back up.
My wife and I just do not speak the same language when it comes to me instructing her. My brother (probably from getting screamed at by the same parents our entire lives) can practically read my mind. I taught him to drive a manual trans car in an hour, and taught him to ride my motorcycle in about 3 minutes. Then I followed him home; him riding my bike, and me driving his 5-speed Escort ZX-2 (which is a fun little shit-box, if you ever need winter beater). In fairness to my wife, I expect a lot from her, because I know she's intelligent and capable, and I have much fewer reservations about expressing my frustration to her than I would to someone I haven't seen birth two children. There's not a whole lot we "filter" from each other. With her, more than anyone else, I say what I'm thinking ...and when I'm trying to teach her something, I tend to think, "NO! DO WHAT I SAID! NOT WHAT YOU THOUGHT I MEANT! STOP 'TRYING' AND START DOING IT RIGHT!" I also acknowledge that 90% of the paragraph above is MY deficiency as a teacher, and little to do with her abilities as a student.
Oh, I fully realize that. But you just had to be there watching what was happening. Very akin to this...... Did give me some good entertainment as I took a break and was sipping on a Yeungling....
I think it's in the genes. I taught my son basic calculus in 1/2 hour, quite simple really. I must have spent 2 months coaching my daughter through algebra. Reversing a trailer is a math skill....I wonder if a math oriented female would perform this activity well????
I couldn't have wrote that better myself. She's smart (much smarter than me) but we learn things completely different. I can watch somebody do something and within a couple try's have it pretty much figured out. She has to read a book about it. Small trailers are more of a bitch than bigger ones. We've got a small utility trailer that you can't see behind a truck. I've found it easier to arc it into where I need it than trying to back it straight up. That way I can keep it in one mirror instead of playing whack-a-mole trying to guess which mirror it's going to show up in.
My girlfriend and I have been together for nine years. We have come close to splitting up three times, and all involved either backing or attaching a trailer. Everyone is different, but if her only experience is driving from exit to exit for short periods, I'd either get her some practice with a utility trailer or drive it there myself. It seems that the biggest risk with inexperienced trailer operators (gender neutral) is two-fold; not swinging wide in turns, and not planning ahead for tight spaces. Without you (or someone else) coaching the new driver through the tough parts, it's not a good situation. I recently agreed to loan my enclosed trailer to a buddy to move some furniture. After learning he was planning on hooking my 8x20 enclosed to the ball on his van's bumper, I decided I'd just help him with the move. I still have my trailer, and we are still on speaking terms.
I taught my wife to drive a standard many years ago and it wasn't pretty. We haven't had a standard in probably 15 years but my son bought one a while back and she had no trouble driving it. Trying to teach her to back up a trailer was useless. To be fair, it's a 4x8 single axle so it responds briskly.
Better. A little watering hole I visit time to time sits overlooking the river here. It also has a boat ramp next to it, a steep one. Sitting on the back deck in the late summer afternoons is a hoot. Few of us lean on the hand rails watching the alcohol induced boaters trying to put their boats on the trailer. Needless to say, it gets interesting. Even more so when the people up top offer, encouragement and advice. Or, when the Corps of Engineers is pushing water from the damn up stream. Current and drunk boaters at the ramp, that’s entertainment.
I grew up right by the ocean. While we didn't get must ramp entertainment (on an island). The moorings and dinghy dock we all sorts of fun. I once watched a guy bring his little zodiac to the small dock, twisted the throttle the wrong way and ran it up on top of the dock. Didn't spill his drink...haha I don't think I could teach my wife how to trailer. She could probably do it, but I would have a stoke by the end. I can't even take being a passenger with her...haha
When I was a kid we used to frequently get fries from the chip truck and go sit down at the boat launch while eating dinner. Great entertainment. This past summer my sister rented a cottage and I brought the boat up. Went to launch it with her boyfriend and on the way was telling him about all the great entertainment at boat launches. He'd never launched a boat before. Well I gave him one job. Hold the rope, don't even hold the boat or anything, just the rope from the dock. I launched the boat, and moved the car. When I stated walking back to the launch, there he was in his underwear, on the ramp in the water holding onto the bow of the boat. lol. I said "that's one way to do it". I guess as soon as I pulled out, the rope came unhooked from the bow, and the boat started drifting away. He stripped down and went out to get it. He said he had one job to do, and he did it. had a good laugh about that. The wife was going to launch it with me, but her having never driven with a trailer, or driven a boat I took the lesser of two evils. Good thing, as the wife would have just watched as the boat drifted away, handed me the rope and got back in the car lol.
Ha. No. But I did mention this thread to her, and said, "see, playing on forums is good for me." My wife doesn't leave a safe following distance. It drives me nuts. I've never had her try to back my trailer (4x8, so it's hard to see, and quick to turn back on itself), but I almost made her try after she made a smart-ass comment about my struggles to back the trailer around the corner in a one-way alley, while helping her sister move.
Hahaha. This thread is awesome. There is no such thing as my wife backing let alone backing up with trailer. At Mid-Ohio for one of the last super bike races they had there. Helping some friends and hanging out. After wards everyone was unwinding to the fullest. lol I had a golf cart I drug down with a little 5x8 folding gate trailer from like Lowes. Well, there was no way I was driving home and wife has never pulled a trailer. I said you'll be fine it's a little trailer. Load golf cart and climb in truck and not even paying attention, she puts it in reverse and starts backing up, 10 ft later I hear crunch. I knew exactly what happen. I started laughing she is freaking out. I said just pull forward and go. We get home she poked a small 3 inch hole in the plastic bumper. She told me she thought that if she backed straight the trailer would stay straight. HAHA!
You know Bob, to my embarrassment, that’s the second time I’ve been caught doing that here. I think Acree got me the first time. Public education...sigh.