jvp

Not exactly "track" or "racing", but tangentially-related. Thanks to the very bad influence of a certain Poor-sha, I'll have a new Featherlite 3182 trailer within the next couple of weeks. The challenge is: parking it at the house. There's literally no way to back it into my driveway because there's not enough room to turn the truck and trailer around on my road. Not without driving over my (poor excuse for a) lawn or worse: my neighbor's lawn.

So my thought is this: drive the truck w/trailer attached down my driveway and park. Back car off trailer and leave it momentarily. Detach trailer from truck, and pull truck into garage (to get it out of the way). Use dolly to pivot the trailer 180º and then push it backwards into its resting spot.

The thing is: there's some unpaved ground that I'll be traversing with the trailer. So I'm kinda thinking I want a powered dolly, even though the trailer isn't that heavy when unloaded (~1500lbs, or there abouts). However, of course: powered dollies are a lot more expensive than free-wheeling ones. What are folks' thoughts? Will I be struggling trying to push/pull an empty trailer over unpaved ground? Should I opt up for the electric dolly just to make it easier on myself? They're about a grand, all in.

rbl

Doubt you will be pushing the trailer at all.

Put a ball on the front of your truck. It is easy and how I used to put my airplane in the water on the trailer at the float pond for summer.

Kubs

I put a large 3/4" bolt (about 3" long) in the back of my riding lawn mower frame and lower my trailer on that to move it around. I have plenty of room to back mine into my driveway with the truck, but my wife doesnt like the trailer to be seen from the street. I use the tractor to tow the trailer into the back yard and park it behind the garage when not in use.

jvp

I appreciate the replies.

1. I can't put a ball on the front of the truck as it won't do any good. There's no way to get the truck on the OTHER side of the trailer once I pull in, without driving across my lawn. And I'd still need to physically turn the trailer 180º.

2. I also don't have a lawn mower/tractor; someone else does my lawn for me. ;-)

amtronic1

Used lawn tractors are cheap and really handy when you have it sitting around - it can be used to move the trailer, tow the car around w/o starting it, liquor store runs, etc.

.

rbl

Can't be that difficult.

Stop before your driveway, get the car off loaded. Unhook and re-hook the trailer on front of truck. Push it down the road and park it. Un-hook, back up and put truck in garage. Go get car, relax and have a beer.

SIMPLE

jvp

It is when the road isn't that wide. How am I to unhook and re-hook the trailer? How am I supposed to turn the trailer around so that it's facing the other direction? And then how do I get my truck to the other side of it? The assumption you're making is that my road is wide enough; it isn't. It's barely wide enough for 1.5 vehicles.

It's not that simple. :-)

hungryhippo

Does the trailer jack have a wheel on it? My aluminum trailer is very easy to push around. Put some plywood over the unpaved surface.

Bill Dearborn

I think the hitch on the front of the truck will work. If your road has enough room for a vehicle to pass by the trailer while it is parked on the road then all you have to do is pull past your driveway. Disconnect the trailer turn truck around and hook up trailer again. Take Vette off trailer and park in garage and then push the trailer into your driveway with the truck (it won't take any more room than if you drove in with the truck dragging the trailer). Pushing the trailer with the front of the truck gives you more control over the trailer direction since you can swing the tongue through a larger range of motion and you can actually see what you are doing. In fact you could probably wait to take the car off the trailer until you were closer to the garage and just back the car into the garage. That way you shorten the amount of time you need to park on the street.

Bill

Supercharged111

We have a trailer dolly at work. It's worse than useless on anything other than clean, dry, level pavement FYI.

rbl

I don't think you're trying ... I could do it easily.

jvp

Thanks for the replies folks. I apologize for not describing the situation properly. Let me try again.

The road is barely 1.5 cars wide. Two vehicles CAN NOT pass by one another without one of them going off-road. On either side of the road it's a choice of: heavy woods, or: someone's lawn. This isn't a public road, it's a private, dead-ended road. My driveway is at the very end of said dead-end.

You're not driving a pickup truck by the trailer. Not without driving into some trees, or driving into someone's yard and trenching it up. It doesn't matter how good you think you are at it, you're not accomplishing it. It's physically impossible to do so. You're off-roading at that point.

The road Ts into a major roadway. Bear that in mind.

One choice would be to follow in the 'footsteps' of our garbage truck who, unfortunately, has to stop traffic on the aforementioned major road so that he can position the big truck to back down our road. The benefit he has, if there is one, is that he does this early in the morning before traffic volume has picked up. There's just no place on our road for him to turn that truck around. It's impossible without destroying property. The problem with this choice is that by the time I come home from the track in the afternoon, traffic volume is a LOT heavier. I'm going to make a ... um.. lot of enemies by stopping my rig on the major road to then back onto my 1/4 mile long road.

Not happening.

The next choice is to drive forward down my 1/4-mile road to my driveway. But then I'm left with the problem of trying to turn the trailer around. Which, hopefully I've described properly: wouldn't be possible without off-roading and trenching up one of my neighbors' lawns.

Gordy M

If that is the case your only choice is to get an aircraft or trailer dolly. The run from $1500-2500 for what you want. Most are run off of batteries.

rbl

You still don't get it. Stop on the "major road" PUSH your trailer down your skinny road with your truck that has a ball on the front. When it is all done the trailer is facing the correct direction and your truck is between it and the "major road".

I pushed my airplane half a mile to the float pond twice a year ... just not a big deal at all.

Good luck.

Racingswh

I second this. Seems to be the most reasonable solution with the least amount of damage to the neighbors lawn.

You could however put a ball on the front of the truck and:

Pull down the street with trailer hooked up

Get almost to your driveway

Stop and unhook the trailer

Pull in driveway.

Back out of driveway with front of truck facing trailer

Hook front of truck to trailer

Back up truck and trailer past your driveway

Put truck in drive and turn the wheel in the appropriate direction so back of trailer goes into driveway

Unload car and put in garage

Push trailer the rest of the way in

If you can not do that you can not get the trailer in your driveway using a truck whether you are going backward or forward which I do not believe. 1 1/2 car widths wide is plenty of space. If that is the case you need to get a 0 turn trailer pusher or whatever.

jvp

I do get it. You don't. That's not happening during rush hour. I'll have a half-mile of very upset drivers and likely the attention of the local constabulary because I'm eating up a lane of traffic and screwing things up.

rbl

LOL ...

edge04

find somewhere else to store your trailer

bigmackloud

What was the verdict on the lawn tractor? You could pick up a used older mower w/o the deck for a few hundred dollars. Probably cheaper than the electric trailer dolly. And certainly cheaper than renting a storage facility spot for your trailer.

You might even get into lawn mower racing!

Bob K

I have a Quad with a hitch ball. It isn't something I'd tow with, but for jockeying around the driveway it works fine.

If you want the toys, sometime you end up getting other "toys" to help with those toys.

Bob K.