Thanks for watching, I really appreciate it. If you like these vids, hey, give me a like. If you want to see more, hit that subscribe button, and if you want to join the DASH OffRoad Community and support future video's check out my Patreon page. www.patreon.com/DASHOffroad .It helps me continue to make great content just for you guys. Thanks, David
I know I commented a couple of years ago when I bought my caravan but just wanted to say how helpful this video is. I keep coming back to watch it before I take the van out for a refresher. Thanks.
I was in the states and was taught ..Hold both of your hands at the bottom of the steering wheel and while looking at the mirrors look for the trailer and if you want to turn the rear of the trailer to the left turn your steering wheel to the left and the trailing will move to there, if you want the rear of the trailer to go to the right move the steering wheel to the right with your hands on the bottom of the steering wheel ..
Yeah. If you want to reverse straight, put your hands at the top of the wheel. If you want to turn in to your driveway, or a site, put your hands on the bottom of the wheel. That's just to start the turn.
Thank you, thank you and thank you 🙏 This really helped me for someone who is just getting into reversing a trailer. I went from noob to a confident driver.
Thank you so much for this video, it is the best I have come accross. Before watching this I was so anxious about reversing my wee van as I am a newby. Your clear instruction has helped me enormously and I have come ahead leaps and bounds and no longer nervous. The tip re the mirror and too much van being the way one turns the wheel was gold 😊 you have a new subscriber
your video was a great help and showed how to dealing with the width (or lack of) of a real neighborhood street - a parking lot demo is not the same thing. thank you, Joan
Haha only have a little 6x4 box trailer and you almost had me out there reversing the thing just for the heck of it, need the practice. Knew about using mirrors only but I've walked away with a couple of other tricks I can do.
Very good Video I Towed for 40 years as a Carpenter the best advise is do not turn your head around,which you state in your presentation. In my case it was not until i had x-rays of my spine and found out that my 1&2 where fused from birth,I just had to use my mirrors. What a luxury to have electric mirrors,I don,t know whether it is the TI-L mirrors but the vision is brilliant. I like your work.
I hear you Barry. At the moment I have a fractured C7 in my neck. Its recovering steadily. I take the brace off to record video's and do a few naughty manoeuvres but rely heavily on mirrors when reversing. Thanks for watching!
I love your work, lots educational and just fun stuff. You have a good balance with a little (interesting and useful) bits about your business and lots of community support - perfect. In this case I started watching this one because the teaser image seemed to imply it would be tips for the navigator. So I wanted my wife to watch it: stand where you can been seen (getting better), sensible hand signals/useful directional words, tips for the navigator on how a van and car can move especially off road in tight places. Hmm - maybe time for more structured teaching on my part, then video it and post myself. Anyhow, I agree with everything you said so all good. PS. I recently ordered the Y62 underbody protection from you (was supposed to arrive yesterday, so I should get it soon), looks to be a good design with access holes for servicing. No way would I risk having to remove protection plates for each service, plus what a hassle and expense (while I do dealer servicing on the new car) that would be.
Thank you for the great visual lesson also explaining the positioning of the mirrors during the reversing process along with which way to steer when backing the van and keeping it in a straight line. When looking for the apex while backing into a driveway which way should the tow vehicle’s wheels be turning into the apex?
Good vid, had a couple of reversing disasters this week. My question is how to identify the ’apex’ of the reverse to know when to start the counter steering to prevent the Jack knifing.
The whole reverse thing is counter intuitive as it's the opposite of what you would do. Reversing is easy in a straight line with a van once you realise this. As I have just bought a van so really zero experience here, what I need to know is how to reverse into a site or drive way. I realise you turn the wheels the opposite way to start to kick the van in the right direction but what I want to know is how far should the rear of the van be past the site so it goes in between say two white lines. I have been practising this in car parks and am not to sure how far past the site I need to be so the van slips in between the two white lines.
@dashoffroad Great videos. We usually reverse our food trailer, in a straight line to within 1-2m of a tree. We recently purchased a new trailer where the serving window is on the opposite side. This means the tow bar now has to be near the tree. Do you have a video on how to reverse a trailer where the tow vehicle nearly jack knifes so you can remove the vehicle, and still be 1-2m from the tree? Any guidance would be great.
You cant believe how many arguments ive had with the better half..one thing id like know is...can you reverse uphill driveway with the van levellers on..those things that you put on the towbar that make the van level..an what size tyres do you need for a 21.6 ft van..16 inch
I'm learning to reverse a little caravan. Very hard to see a short one and apparently there's no towing mirrors to fit my car mirrors so I feel blind. Very hard to concentrate on what you're saying with the music going.
Easy... If you want the van to go straight back? Looking in LH Mirror and seeing more of the van? Pull Left hand down on the steering wheel 😊 Looking in RH Mirror and seeing more of the van? Pull Right hand down on the steering wheel 😊
Thanks for sharing.. My delema is, ive got a new larger van (23ft) and have to reverse it up a bit of a hill on the drive. But our road is a little narrow,,,So do i still stay in the middle of the road to start my approach,?
Im not trying to scare people but try to keep from making sharp turns with trailers with more than 1 axle. The forces put on your trailer frame from side loads on the tandem axles actually causes frame damage. Your trailer frame is made of poor quality steel and as thin as 1/8th inch steel to keep it as light as possible . The most expensive of the trailers the 5th wheels have the same problem, The 2 I-beams that run the length of the trailer are kept vertical by Crossmembers . Those crossmembers are where the cracks in the frame occur. The tremendous stresses will actually rip the web of that beam on one side and push the crossmember through the other side over time. My frame did that and it basically showed the damage that occurred when backing and then pulling out of a camp site to the right. The I beam was actually leaning about 5 degrees which would eventually try to collapse destroying the trailer . 5th wheels usually break spring shackles or springs but some splits can occur about 1" above the bottom flange . Also 5th wheels suffer frame breaks in the Gooseneck transition from the storage bay. Inspect your frame for rust colored streaks 3 feet before the front axle all along the I beam through 3 feet behind the last axle . And also springs and shackles . You may prevent a lot of heart ache or save lives. Be careful not to overload an already overloaded frame. But I do advise you make long radius turns forward and backward. I had 7 really bad breaks that I had to weld up and reinforce .All that popping and cracking sounds when backing into a camp site was not the hitch making noise, Just look at how your tires and wheels destort / lean in different directions when backing in to your next camp site on pavement . Good camping and inspect your frame once a year.
Great tips! Do you have any suggestions for getting your steering wheel back to the neural position (where the front wheels are in line with the rear wheels) so you can go straight back?
Mate video content is good but get the volume leveled... You can bearly hear you talking so I turn it up then the music comes on 500x as loud and i need to turn it down, same on most your videos... Overbearing music tracks is what ruins a video.
Practice, practice, practice.. I tow a tri axle trailer behind my ute and can put it just about anywhere. Practice around safety cones or something that won't damage your set up and make a few mistakes.....5 hours of practice will stop the frustration.
A spotter of some sort? You need to agree on the method of communication, be it phone, two way radio, or hand signals. Spotter needs to advise where the back of the van is, and where the other side of the car is, so you don't ruin the garden, or take out the letter box that you can't see. And also when you might be approaching a jack knife situation.
I appreciate the video, but … no1 - always have a spotter ! I am alone, I travel alone. So unless there is some stranger, who happens to be where I am and is prepared to help, I reverse on my own! I would really love for some one to give some tips for “lone reversing”.
Backing a caravan is just too stressful for me. I have practiced in car parks but that is a lot easier where you are not going to hit anything and little consequence if you get it wrong. The stress of becoming the village idiot to audience who watches you getting horribly wrong can be too much to bare. Sometimes the caravan is going kind of the right direction but the front of the car is about to hit a fence. Now you are stuck, if you drive forward the caravan might hit the fence and if you keep going back the car will probably hit the fence. The crowd grows bigger and there is no shortage of opinions of how you got yourself into this mess. At this point you wish the ground would open and swallow you, the car and that bloody caravan up. Then comes the most humiliating experience when a Good Samaritan offers to take over. You step out the car and he somehow magically gets it out of the impossible spot you put it in and backs the bloody thing in like he is backing a Yaris into the spot that looked like the size of a postage stamp. You thank him, he says no worries you’ll get the hang of it and I think if only that wasBacking a caravan is just too stressful for me. I have practiced in car parks but that is a lot easier where you are not going to hit anything and little consequence if you get it wrong. The stress of becoming the village idiot to audience who watches you getting horribly wrong can be too much to bare. Sometimes the caravan is going kind of the right direction but the front of the car is about to hit a fence. Now you are stuck, if you drive forward the caravan might hit the fence and if you keep going back the car will probably hit the fence. The crowd grows bigger and there is no shortage of opinions of how you got yourself into this mess. At this point you wish the ground would open and swallow you, the car and that bloody caravan up. Then comes the most humiliating experience when a Good Samaritan offers to take over. You step out the car and he somehow magically gets it out of the impossible spot you put it in and backs the bloody thing in like he is backing a Yaris into the spot that looked like the size of a postage stamp. You thank him, he says no worries you’ll get the hang of it and I think if only that was true. My dream of driving with a caravan in tow off into the sunset is not what I thought it be because of my inability to grasp the principles of backing. My dream of driving off with a caravan in tow into the sunset is not what I thought it would be all because of the stress caused my inability to grasp the fundamentals of backing.
Wow. There are some great courses out there where you can get some training on reversing a caravan. That person that makes it look easy only does so because they have done it many times. Repetition is the key. Just keep practicing 👌
Thanks for watching, I really appreciate it. If you like these vids, hey, give me a like. If you want to see more, hit that subscribe button, and if you want to join the DASH OffRoad Community and support future video's check out my Patreon page. www.patreon.com/DASHOffroad .It helps me continue to make great content just for you guys. Thanks, David
Mate, that tip of steering towards the side mirror that you can see the side of the caravan in is genius. That's all I needed. Thanks.
I know I commented a couple of years ago when I bought my caravan but just wanted to say how helpful this video is. I keep coming back to watch it before I take the van out for a refresher. Thanks.
Thank you so much. I’m glad it was able to help 👌
I was in the states and was taught ..Hold both of your hands at the bottom of the steering wheel and while looking at the mirrors look for the trailer and if you want to turn the rear of the trailer to the left turn your steering wheel to the left and the trailing will move to there, if you want the rear of the trailer to go to the right move the steering wheel to the right with your hands on the bottom of the steering wheel ..
Yeah. If you want to reverse straight, put your hands at the top of the wheel. If you want to turn in to your driveway, or a site, put your hands on the bottom of the wheel. That's just to start the turn.
Thank you, thank you and thank you 🙏 This really helped me for someone who is just getting into reversing a trailer. I went from noob to a confident driver.
Thank you so much for this video, it is the best I have come accross. Before watching this I was so anxious about reversing my wee van as I am a newby. Your clear instruction has helped me enormously and I have come ahead leaps and bounds and no longer nervous. The tip re the mirror and too much van being the way one turns the wheel was gold 😊 you have a new subscriber
Great to hear, good on you 👌
Fantastic tip on reversing really helped me back my van.
your video was a great help and showed how to dealing with the width (or lack of) of a real neighborhood street - a parking lot demo is not the same thing. thank you, Joan
Very comprehensive explanation. Thank you
Great advice,thank you so much.Keep up the awesome work.This is going to help me greatly learning to reverse my new van on my own.👍🙌🏻
Haha only have a little 6x4 box trailer and you almost had me out there reversing the thing just for the heck of it, need the practice. Knew about using mirrors only but I've walked away with a couple of other tricks I can do.
Thanks for making this video. Got a solo trip with the teens coming up, never towed and this made a lot of sense.
Big thank you - simple clear and concise - to the point explanation
Good instruction Dash ... short and to the point
Very good Video I Towed for 40 years as a Carpenter the best advise is do not turn your head around,which you state in your presentation. In my case it was not until i had x-rays of my spine and found out that my 1&2 where fused from birth,I just had to use my mirrors.
What a luxury to have electric mirrors,I don,t know whether it is the TI-L mirrors but the vision is brilliant.
I like your work.
I hear you Barry. At the moment I have a fractured C7 in my neck. Its recovering steadily. I take the brace off to record video's and do a few naughty manoeuvres but rely heavily on mirrors when reversing. Thanks for watching!
I love your work, lots educational and just fun stuff. You have a good balance with a little (interesting and useful) bits about your business and lots of community support - perfect.
In this case I started watching this one because the teaser image seemed to imply it would be tips for the navigator. So I wanted my wife to watch it: stand where you can been seen (getting better), sensible hand signals/useful directional words, tips for the navigator on how a van and car can move especially off road in tight places. Hmm - maybe time for more structured teaching on my part, then video it and post myself. Anyhow, I agree with everything you said so all good. PS. I recently ordered the Y62 underbody protection from you (was supposed to arrive yesterday, so I should get it soon), looks to be a good design with access holes for servicing. No way would I risk having to remove protection plates for each service, plus what a hassle and expense (while I do dealer servicing on the new car) that would be.
Thank you for the great visual lesson also explaining the positioning of the mirrors during the reversing process along with which way to steer when backing the van and keeping it in a straight line.
When looking for the apex while backing into a driveway which way should the tow vehicle’s wheels be turning into the apex?
I would turn away from the apex and then chase it up
It’s so hard to see it in your mind’s eye, thanks for the reply!
Good vid, had a couple of reversing disasters this week.
My question is how to identify the ’apex’ of the reverse to know when to start the counter steering to prevent the Jack knifing.
I think practising in a car park can help with that. And go with a spotter.
Great clip,well done.
Thumbs up for the Milenco mirrors
Great video, thanks for sharing!
My tip for reversing: If your hand is at the bottom of the steering wheel, the trailer will turn in the direction of your hand. - Cheers
Exactly how I do it
The whole reverse thing is counter intuitive as it's the opposite of what you would do.
Reversing is easy in a straight line with a van once you realise this.
As I have just bought a van so really zero experience here, what I need to know is how to reverse into a site or drive way.
I realise you turn the wheels the opposite way to start to kick the van in the right direction but what I want to know is how far should the rear of the van be past the site so it goes in between say two white lines.
I have been practising this in car parks and am not to sure how far past the site I need to be so the van slips in between the two white lines.
@dashoffroad Great videos. We usually reverse our food trailer, in a straight line to within 1-2m of a tree. We recently purchased a new trailer where the serving window is on the opposite side. This means the tow bar now has to be near the tree. Do you have a video on how to reverse a trailer where the tow vehicle nearly jack knifes so you can remove the vehicle, and still be 1-2m from the tree? Any guidance would be great.
That would be an advanced reversing vid from what it sounds. Let me have a think about it
If you’re looking over your should turn with the top of the steering wheel, if using your mirrors use the bottom of your wheel. It’s easy.
You cant believe how many arguments ive had with the better half..one thing id like know is...can you reverse uphill driveway with the van levellers on..those things that you put on the towbar that make the van level..an what size tyres do you need for a 21.6 ft van..16 inch
I haven’t really used them, but can’t see why not
Great video and advice.👍🏻
I'm learning to reverse a little caravan. Very hard to see a short one and apparently there's no towing mirrors to fit my car mirrors so I feel blind. Very hard to concentrate on what you're saying with the music going.
My car is a Jeep Cherokee and my van is over 8 ft wide have big wide towing mirrors but still have trouble seeing behind me when reversing
Easy... If you want the van to go straight back?
Looking in LH Mirror and seeing more of the van? Pull Left hand down on the steering wheel 😊
Looking in RH Mirror and seeing more of the van? Pull Right hand down on the steering wheel 😊
It was of interest to but I couldn’t really see very well in the mirrors as you had it in the bottom left of screen
Thanks for sharing..
My delema is, ive got a new larger van (23ft) and have to reverse it up a bit of a hill on the drive. But our road is a little narrow,,,So do i still stay in the middle of the road to start my approach,?
Yes
How's go if the ac is on heat ?
Thank you!!!!!
Im not trying to scare people but try to keep from making sharp turns with trailers with more than 1 axle. The forces put on your trailer frame from side loads on the tandem axles actually causes frame damage. Your trailer frame is made of poor quality steel and as thin as 1/8th inch steel to keep it as light as possible . The most expensive of the trailers the 5th wheels have the same problem, The 2 I-beams that run the length of the trailer are kept vertical by Crossmembers . Those crossmembers are where the cracks in the frame occur. The tremendous stresses will actually rip the web of that beam on one side and push the crossmember through the other side over time. My frame did that and it basically showed the damage that occurred when backing and then pulling out of a camp site to the right. The I beam was actually leaning about 5 degrees which would eventually try to collapse destroying the trailer . 5th wheels usually break spring shackles or springs but some splits can occur about 1" above the bottom flange . Also 5th wheels suffer frame breaks in the Gooseneck transition from the storage bay. Inspect your frame for rust colored streaks 3 feet before the front axle all along the I beam through 3 feet behind the last axle . And also springs and shackles . You may prevent a lot of heart ache or save lives. Be careful not to overload an already overloaded frame. But I do advise you make long radius turns forward and backward. I had 7 really bad breaks that I had to weld up and reinforce .All that popping and cracking sounds when backing into a camp site was not the hitch making noise, Just look at how your tires and wheels destort / lean in different directions when backing in to your next camp site on pavement . Good camping and inspect your frame once a year.
Good tips. Thank you.
Great tips!
Do you have any suggestions for getting your steering wheel back to the neural position (where the front wheels are in line with the rear wheels) so you can go straight back?
My car shows this on the reversing camera
@@DASHOffRoad that is a great feature!
Mate video content is good but get the volume leveled... You can bearly hear you talking so I turn it up then the music comes on 500x as loud and i need to turn it down, same on most your videos... Overbearing music tracks is what ruins a video.
Practice, practice, practice.. I tow a tri axle trailer behind my ute and can put it just about anywhere.
Practice around safety cones or something that won't damage your set up and make a few mistakes.....5 hours of practice will stop the frustration.
Helpful. 👍
A spotter of some sort? You need to agree on the method of communication, be it phone, two way radio, or hand signals. Spotter needs to advise where the back of the van is, and where the other side of the car is, so you don't ruin the garden, or take out the letter box that you can't see. And also when you might be approaching a jack knife situation.
NEVER NEVER have your spotter behind your caravan when reversing . It is a dangerous practice and people have been killed.
Thanks mate, your volumes are all over the place though
Soz
I appreciate the video, but … no1 - always have a spotter !
I am alone, I travel alone. So unless there is some stranger, who happens to be where I am and is prepared to help, I reverse on my own!
I would really love for some one to give some tips for “lone reversing”.
Backing a caravan is just too stressful for me. I have practiced in car parks but that is a lot easier where you are not going to hit anything and little consequence if you get it wrong. The stress of becoming the village idiot to audience who watches you getting horribly wrong can be too much to bare. Sometimes the caravan is going kind of the right direction but the front of the car is about to hit a fence. Now you are stuck, if you drive forward the caravan might hit the fence and if you keep going back the car will probably hit the fence. The crowd grows bigger and there is no shortage of opinions of how you got yourself into this mess. At this point you wish the ground would open and swallow you, the car and that bloody caravan up. Then comes the most humiliating experience when a Good Samaritan offers to take over. You step out the car and he somehow magically gets it out of the impossible spot you put it in and backs the bloody thing in like he is backing a Yaris into the spot that looked like the size of a postage stamp. You thank him, he says no worries you’ll get the hang of it and I think if only that wasBacking a caravan is just too stressful for me. I have practiced in car parks but that is a lot easier where you are not going to hit anything and little consequence if you get it wrong. The stress of becoming the village idiot to audience who watches you getting horribly wrong can be too much to bare. Sometimes the caravan is going kind of the right direction but the front of the car is about to hit a fence. Now you are stuck, if you drive forward the caravan might hit the fence and if you keep going back the car will probably hit the fence. The crowd grows bigger and there is no shortage of opinions of how you got yourself into this mess. At this point you wish the ground would open and swallow you, the car and that bloody caravan up. Then comes the most humiliating experience when a Good Samaritan offers to take over. You step out the car and he somehow magically gets it out of the impossible spot you put it in and backs the bloody thing in like he is backing a Yaris into the spot that looked like the size of a postage stamp. You thank him, he says no worries you’ll get the hang of it and I think if only that was true. My dream of driving with a caravan in tow off into the sunset is not what I thought it be because of my inability to grasp the principles of backing. My dream of driving off with a caravan in tow into the sunset is not what I thought it would be all because of the stress caused my inability to grasp the fundamentals of backing.
Wow. There are some great courses out there where you can get some training on reversing a caravan. That person that makes it look easy only does so because they have done it many times. Repetition is the key. Just keep practicing 👌
The music is really distracting😔
Thanks for the video and tips, much appreciated. Noticed your video at the beginning of this reverse camera advert on Facebook fb.watch/v/avTyi7MHK/
Yes I have seen this too. I have not given my permission 🙅♂️