Luckily, my first vehicle was a nearly 18 foot long 1982 Mercury Grand Marquis. It was embarrassing to drive as a 16 year old. Especially with it’s beige paint job and toxic exhaust, but looking back it was a wise choice for a teenager’s first vehicle. Made of mostly metal with plenty of car between me and the road, it was a sturdy thang, just like me.
My mother and grandfather taught me how to drive his long four door Cadillacs in the parking lot of the local community college before I bought the Mercury tank I called Bessie. We practiced parking in all variety of ways including the daunting parallel using my mom and grandmother as cones. Brave or crazy seems to run in the family. This is why I can parallel park my pick-up trucks like a boss. I’m grateful they made me practice these skills.
It wasn’t too tough to translate those skills into parking this big rig I now call Home, but I did need some instruction and practice. Luckily for me, when we stopped over in Locust Grove, GA I got to practice backing an open trailer in driveways and moving it around. I also got some sage advice from someone who’d been doing it for years.
After dozens of campgrounds and dispersed camping sites in a variety of terrain, I’ve learned a lot about backing my 35′ travel trailer into some tight spaces. Here are a few of my tips for dropping your RV perfectly into a campsite:
- Even after a long haul when you’re hangry and just want to get set up, taking it slow is your best friend. There’s no rush to get into your site. If you go slow and don’t have to correct often, you’ll build positive muscle memory that will make you a better parker in the future. If you’re in a populated campground, you may even block the road from time to time. Most campers will understand and find another way or wait patiently. They may even offer to help you!
- The ol’ standby, GOAL: Get out and look. Nothing beats getting out to look at the space to decide where you want to go and how to do it. If you’re parking by yourself, as I often do, get out and look as much as you want! You can never GOAL enough.
- If you straighten out about 6 feet when backing up by pulling forward in the direction your rear points, it’ll be easier to position your rig exactly where you want it and prevent jack-knifing. You should do this before your rig is at a 90 degree angle to your tow vehicle.
- Practice by challenging yourself. My favorite person to compete with is old me. Sometimes, the campground will pick a site for you, but sometimes you have the run of the place. If you pick a tougher site to get into to practice your skills, you’ll improve quicker. There are tons of paved and dirt parking lots around the USA that are easy to practice moving around and parking, too. Go spend an hour practicing in one and you’ll thank yourself!
- Don’t be afraid to pull out, drive around the loop and try setting yourself up in a better position to start parking. People might watch you-especially if it’s a pull-through-just like they watch others park and set up, but who cares!
- Don’t be afraid to ask the campground for a more easily accessible site or to look for easy pull up, all around, and out dispersed sites. Even a place as popular as Disney World’s Fort Wilderness Resort was able to give us a different spot that was easier to get into after we found it impossible to park in our assigned site. This was after they’d accommodated a person who was assigned the site before us because they also found it impossible for rigs of our size to back into.
Of course, I’m no expert driver, just a “hell driver.” These are a few of the things that have helped me. They might help you, too! As in nearly everything else, confidence is key. You have to believe you can do it. You have to do it to become good at it.
Needless to say, this lifestyle on the road has given me a renewed respect for semi-truck drivers, road trains, and any large load haulers who park with precision and maneuver narrow trails in out of the way places.