RE: [A/S] Any travel suggestions?

["Perry Joe Scudder" <perryjoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Candy,
I will plug in a tid bit from several years of towing a 34' Airstream
myself, and watching lots of other people park. We have gone on 5 extended
WBCCI Caravans, which gives you the chance to help people park a couple of
times during the caravan. 
The biggest mistake I see when people have trouble backing into their camp
site is their failure to pull forward passed the campsite far enough to get
their turn started properly. They stop with the back of the trailer very
close to the start of the camp site, and try and get the trailer to turn on
a dime. This will not happen, without getting your tow vehicle all jacked
out of shape. You then have very little control of where the back of the
camper will go, plus you start hitting things with the tow vehicle front
end.
Pull well passed the end of the site, then start the back of the trailer
moving in the direction of the entrance of the site on a nice slow curve you
can control. If you start to get all jack knifed, straighten up by pulling
forward, then work the trailer back into the site. If at all possible, learn
to use your rear view mirrors for 99% of your view of the backing process.
If you have someone help you, make sure they know if they can't see your
face in the rear view mirror, you can't see them. All the arm waving in the
world will not help, if the driver can't see it. My wife gets busy watching
the back of the trailer, and forgets to keep my face in the mirror when we
are getting into a tight spot. I just stop as soon as I loose her in the
mirror. She has learned to reposition herself to where I can see her before
she can get me to move again.
The other "learning by doing" is getting your trailer level from side to
side on the site. I see people work their selves to death trying to get
level on a "level site". All sites have small depressions and humps on them
that will throw off your side to side leveling process. They will also work
for you, if you will just take a minute and figure out what your trailer
needs to do in order to get level, then look at the small humps and valleys
on the site. Usually you can move forward or back just a little, or back up
a few feet, and pull to one side or the other of the site and be dead level.
I will guess I get level on 8 out of 10 sites with no added leveling
equipment, but I have plenty on hand for the other two times.

Joe Scudder
WBCCI 8624