Towing A Travel Trailer With A Truck

Towing A Travel Trailer With A Truck

Towing a travel trailer looks simple to some but for those first-timers can be a little scary if you are new to towing your very first trailer for the first time.

First, selecting the right truck for your towing needs is paramount. Ensure that your truck’s towing capacity matches or exceeds the weight of your travel trailer.

In this article of Towing A Travel Trailer With A Truck, we hope to share with you things that will help prevent you from learning the hard way.

How To Hitch The Trailer Properly	How Do Trailer Brakes Work
How Much Does Your Trailer Weight	How High Is Your Trailer
How To Turn Your Trailer	Backing Up Your Trailer
Going Up Hills With Your Trailer	Trailer Sway

How To Hitch Your Travel Trailer

If you are not driving one of those brand-new trucks that now has the camera right at the trailer hitch location, the first step is to have someone guide you to the trailer with your truck.

Having someone guide you to the trailer will save you the hassle of getting out of your truck multiply times to see where you’re at with the trailer hitch ball meeting the trailer coupler.

Before you begin, make sure you have a plan in place so you can both communicate with each other so you are both doing what is expected with hitching your trailer with your truck.

The first thing I would tell them is to not get directly behind the truck you are backing up with to the trailer, have them at the side of the truck in your viewing so you know where that friend is.

When you begin the process of backing up your truck have them use some kind of hand signals to let you know when to stop or adjust the alignment of the truck with the hitch and trailer to connect.

Make sure you can see them clearly without any obstructions in the way of seeing them looking behind or in the driver’s side trailer mirror on your truck.

Ok, now once you are about 6 inches away from the trailer with your truck, get out of the truck or have your friend raise up the coupler of the trailer so you can proceed to backup to the coupler without causing any damage to the trailer or truck.

Now you can proceed to back up the truck so that the truck’s trailer ball is aligned perfectly to the trailer coupler tongue and once the ball is under the coupler then have your friend tell you to stop once you into position.

When doing this make sure you and your friend are using extreme caution and doing this technic very slowly when you’re backing up, if you’re not aligned properly then pull forward and do it again until you are aligned with the ball of your truck and the coupler of the trailer tongue.

Now once you are into position, make sure the truck is in park, and the emergency brake is on before you proceed to hook up the trailer to your truck.

Ok, the next step in hooking up the trailer is to lower the trailer tongue with the trailer jack so the coupler is ready to be connected to the ball of the truck.

Make sure the trailer latch of the trailer tongue is in the upright position so when you lower the coupler it will rest onto the ball of the hitch of the truck properly.

With the coupler fully resting on the ball of the truck hitch engage the latch or place it in the closed position and make sure you fully engage the safety pin or latch lock into its proper place to make sure the trailer latch will not open unless you remove the pin or lock.

The next step is to jack up the trailer tongue to see if the trailer tongue comes off the ball of the truck, if it does repeat the steps until it does not, you can also move the trailer tongue back and forth if you can do a test as well.

If everything is correct then the trailer tongue is seated correctly with the ball of the hitch on the truck.

The next step is to install the safety chains in the crisscross pattern that are underneath the coupler to the hitch locations of the truck, reason to crisscross them is if for some reason the coupler comes disconnected from the truck the coupler will be cradled by means of being caught by the safety chains with the coupler from the trailer.

Make sure each safety chain that you use on that coupler is rated to exceed the load of that trailer and also make sure the safety chains are not touching the ground from the trailer tongue or truck hitch.

Once the trailer tongue is connected safely it’s time to retract the trailer jack in its proper safe position so it won’t cause any damage to the trailer, truck, or pedestrians.

Now it’s time to plug in the trailer wiring harness, make sure you have enough free play so when your making turns that you won’t cause any damage to the wiring harness, but make sure it’s not touching the ground with too much free play in the harness.

Ok, now that you have this done it’s time to check to make sure the trailer wiring harness is working properly.

Have your helper or friend check to make sure all the lights are working on the trailer, right-hand signal, left-hand signal, four-way flashers, and reverse and brake lights.

If for some reason you are having a problem with any of the lights to the trailer have an electrical tester to make sure your wiring harness is connected properly from the trailer to the truck.

How Do Travel Trailer Brakes Work

Your trailer does have brakes with it, but without having a brake controller installed they are not going to do anything for you in slowing down the trailer with the trailer breaks.

The electric brake controller is a device that is used to send a signal through your wiring harness to apply the pressure you have set it for to help stop you from your truck and trailer without really having your truck do all the stopping power.

With this break controller, the power comes from your truck or tow vehicle and goes to your trailer so this will reduce the wear and tear of your brakes on your truck or tow vehicle so it will make for a better stop.

Without the brake controller on your trailer, you will no doubt will lock up your brakes and tires on your trailer and can cause accidents or have your trailer flip on its side doing so.

Make sure you have the brake controller setting that will match the trailer and load size.

Begin by making sure you’re selecting the gain level and the sensitivity level recommended by the manufacturer.

Then, do a test for the brake controller and brakes.

If more gain or you need more sensitivity is needed, adjust accordingly.

How Much Does Your Travel Trailer Weight

Ok, now that you are going to tow a travel trailer and you’re probably asking the question can my truck tow it safely then these are some steps you can take to find out.

If you already own a travel trailer and you looking to find out if your truck can tow it safely first thing you can do is open the driver’s door of your truck.

This will tell you on the door jamb sticker what your truck is rated for payload, tire size, and towing capabilities for the size of a trailer you’re going to tow.

If you just bought your travel trailer and you still haven’t picked out a truck to tow it along then I would differently start with making sure your truck is rated at a large rating of what the GVWR of what that travel trailer is rated for.

The reason I suggest this as some people will run to the dealership buy a truck that they think will tow the trailer and don’t think of everything they are going to add to the trailer.

Once you start to add things like clothing, kitchen supplies, food, and everything else you need to take on the road you can add another couple thousand pounds in no time.

If you have a fifth-wheel trailer they are considered to weigh a lot more than the same length as a trailer that is connected to a trailer hitch.

So if you have a fifth-wheel trailer make sure you have a truck that is able to support a fifth-wheel trailer as they can weigh a lot more pounds.

How High Is Your Travel Trailer

If you are shopping around for a travel trailer today most travel trailers today are around 10 and 11 feet in height and in rare cases you can get them at 12 feet high with the bigger ones like park models.

Most of the time the larger the travel trailer the higher it will be but most fall under that 10 to 11-foot mark.

When you are traveling along in your travels you have got to be aware of the fact will your travel trailer travel under things like bridges and overpasses on your journeys with ease of going under.

So knowing the exact height of your travel trailer is something you should know and know well so when the time comes that you can pay attention to those low bridges and overpasses that will come your way.

It’s also something you have got to take into consideration as well, most travel trailers come with air conditioning units, rack, and antennas as well that will give you more height to think about.

So before you take your first journey on the road make sure you measure the tallest point of your trailer by including those extras that are on top like I listed above.

How To Turn Your Travel Trailer

When towing a travel trailer you must remember you are a lot longer, heavier, and need more room to turn a travel trailer.

When you have added everything to it also like all the added stuff you need to take with you on the road it’s also going to turn and feel heavier than when you first got it empty.

You are going to be required to have a more turn radius to compensate for the length of your travel trailer especially when you’re going to make right-hand turns.

When it comes to right-hand turns towing a trailer you know it’s going to require you to take up a little more room to make the turn without hitting anything on the corner from the trailer crossing over the curb.

If towing your trailer, and making any turns whether it’s a right-hand turn or left-hand turn you have also got to consider trailer sway as this can cause your trailer to take up more room on other lanes.

If you haven’t already done so and you’re new to towing any travel trailer you should practice somewhere like an empty parking lot to get accustomed to turning and even learning how to back up your travel trailer.

Backing Up Your Travel Trailer

If you have not taken the time in learning how to back up your travel trailer then you just may be in for a very frustrating and even embarrassing time.

I would again start out at an empty parking lot somewhere or if your yard at your place is big enough to learn how to do so.

If you don’t have a big enough yard to practice then go to the nearest empty parking lot and do some learning on how to back up a travel trailer.

I would begin with backing into one of the empty parking spots first by slowing taking your time by first going straight back into the empty spot.

Then once you get comfortable with this, then I would try doing the swooping technic.

With the swooping technic, you are going to dive by the spot that you want to back up into and turn your truck to the opposite side of the spot in a u-shape pattern until the back of the trailer is just aligned with the spot you want to back up into.

If done correctly you can then back up into the spot while steering the truck back into the spot for your trailer.

So if you are new at backing up a trailer for the first time you can also ask the folks at your dealer that you bought the travel trailer from some tips that they can suggest to you as they will know exactly how to help you along.

Going Up Hills With Your Travel Trailer

The first thing to do when getting ready to tow your travel trailer uphill is to shift down to the lower gear so you’re ready to start your climb up the hill or grade.

This will also prevent your truck from jerking back and forth when you start the climb up the hill from the transmission looking for the lower gear.

Once you start to begin your climb up the hill you may also notice your truck begins to slow down some depending on what kind of horsepower and torque your truck has.

If you notice a separate lane for slower moving traffic then by all means switch over to the lane to allow others to pass you.

Monitor your gauge cluster carefully in case your truck is showing signs of overheating, if this happens turn off your air conditioning until you reached the top of the hill.

If for some reason the engine is really starting to overheat pull over to the side of the road and place the truck in park and you can also let it idle a little faster if you apply the fuel peddle to increase the RPM’s as this does work to cool the engine off a little faster.

Now comes the time to descend down the other side of the hill or mountain you just went up if that is something that has to be done on your travels.

Just before you start to do your decent slow down enough so you can again take a lower gear as this will give you the opportunity to use the engine to help you slowly go down the hill and also remove your foot from the fuel peddle.

Make sure you are not riding the brakes as this will cause the brakes to overheat and not function properly when the time comes when you really need them.

The best way to use the brakes coming down a hill is to apply them in intervals and what we mean is apply them until you are under the speed limit then let off the brakes for a few seconds and repeat this process as you go along.

My tip to you is to never ride the brakes coming down a hill find a lower gear, apply your brakes in increments as riding your brakes will cause them to overheat and not work, and then you will have yourself a runaway truck and trailer.

Trailer Sway

Trailer Sway is when you have your travel trailer going side to side at a certain speed of travel and can lead to your travel trailer in a whipping action.

This whipping action can be increased as the speed of the travel trailer increases.

How you can prevent trailer sway can be done by following some of the steps below.

Step 1. Follow the proper manufacturer’s recommendations to the size of the trailer your towing.

Step 2. Slow down and monitor the speed you are traveling at as this will reduce trailer sway.

Step 3. Monitor your tire pressure before, during, and after you are towing your trailer as underinflated tires will also cause trailer sway from your tires not being at the right pressure.

Step 4. If all possible do not make any unnecessary sudden maneuvers with your truck while traveling at a speed.

Ways that you can control trailer sway in case you encounter it is by following these steps.

Step 1. Lift of the fuel peddle and do not hit the breaks unless you’re in danger of hitting something.

Step 2. Keep a tight and controlled grip on the steering wheel until you get the truck and trailer under a safe zone of not having any more trailer sway.

Step 3. Pull over to a safe place to check all your hitching adjustments, tire pressure on your truck and trailer, and look to see that all the weight you hauling is balanced properly.

When in doubt make sure you are checking everything twice or even three times when it comes to towing a travel trailer.

CONCLUSION

Towing A Travel Trailer With A Truck can be a lot harder than you think.

You have to know how to properly hook up a trailer to a truck hitch safely and know the technics so it has to be done with no error in judgment or things can go wrong fast.

Towing a travel trailer or any trailer has to be done with all the safety tips in mind like how much is your truck rated to tow, how heavy is your trailer, knowing how to make sure your trailer brakes are working properly, and know what the proper technic is to go up and down a hill safely.

You should also know how to back up a trailer correctly and know the process of making those dreaded right-hand turns on your travels down the road.

When it comes to trailer sway you got to know how to prevent it and also know how to control it if it happens to you on the road.

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