# Maneuvering With Long Wheelbase Tv.



## garyb1st (Dec 6, 2007)

My TV has a 172 inch wheelbase. Great for pulling the 28KRS down the highway. Not so great for backing it into my 35 foot parking space. The first time I tried it I almost bottomed out. Rather than risk damaging the jacks or stairs, I parked it on the street. Since then I've had the axles flipped and now have adequate clearance. I managed to back it in last Sunday but it took an hour. Hopefully with practice I can do it in 10 to 15 minutes.

I have two problems, side clearance on my blind side and the slope of the space where I keep it.

It slopes both from back to front, and from side to side. Last week I excavated the area and laid patio pavers where the tires go. Now there's only a 1 or 2 inch drop from side to side but I think that may be too much if I move the dinette slide out. I don't want to damage the stablizers by using them to raise the slide side of the trailer two inches. Also, I still have about a 1 1/2 foot drop from back to front which puts a lot of weight on the tongue. Tomorrow I'm going to redo the whole area and excavate another 6 inches or more to both reduce the back-front slope and level the pad.

The side clearance issue is my neighbors trees and carport. It's only an issue when I back in at an angle. I could back it straight in if I moved my driveway about 4 feet. However that's not in the budget yet. So I'm left with either backing in at an angle and maneuvering it back and forth until it sits squarely on the pad or building a ramp and backing over the curb.

I can build a ramp to bridge the gap but the curb only goes about 6 feet before being interrupted by a street light. So if I back it in over the curb, one side of the trailer will be going up 8 inches while the other side doesn't. All I can think of is the trailer rolling over. Not a pretty picture.

A second ramp would raise both wheels at the same time and keep the trailer level but then I would need to bridge the gap from the end of the second ramp to the sidewalk. So I have a few questions.

Can the side slide be moved out if the trailer is not level?

How much can I use the jacks to raise the slide side of the trailer?

How much can the trailer lean to one side before the trailer rolls over?

Is it normal for the tires on the back axle to be pointed in a slightly different direction than the front? I assume this occurs when the trailer is backed in at an angle. Also,will this weaken the sidewalls of the tires?


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

I had some major issues getting my Outback aside our house as well. I ended up buying a power dolly, and it made parking it a breeze. Saved my marriage too. 

















As for the slide, it depends how out of level you are. Just a bit, not a problem but to much and it will bind and the slide won't go out or back in.

The jacks are not for leveling they are for stabalizing. Use wood blocks under the tires for leveling side to side.

No idea how far it can lean, I wouldn't care to find out though.

Yes the tires will bend a bit, its not a great thing though. Try and moved back and forth to straighten them out when parked.


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## MaeJae (May 12, 2005)

It may help a little if we had a couple of pictures to see the area
you are parking the TT and maybe the street that 
you are coming from...









When parking my TT in the yard...and camping
I usually like to have it tongue "high" with
a slight tilt on the slide side.

Anything becomes easier with practice.
MaeJae


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## H2oSprayer (Aug 5, 2006)

I have a similar situation as you, being that we also have a bit of a drop in our driveway. Usually this is not a problem for us, except when we bring our camper home to wash it or provision it for a trip. I would think that as you are already planning on re-excavating the area, with a bit of thinking outside the box and few landscape blocks, you should probably be able to provide yourself with a location that is as level as possible. As it sounds like this is going to be your long term storage location, I would want it to be as level as possible with probably the most important being the side to side level. As pointed out above, the stabilizer jacks are just that, stabilizer jacks. They are not meant to raise the unit. In fact, Keystone has reported that frame damage can occur if the jacks are used in this manor. Just the thought of having to maneuver the rig for an hour is enough to stress me out. Time and practice is your best friend. Maybe one idea would be to find a parking lot that is empty and free of obstacles. Maybe take some dimensions of the area that you have to back into and draw out the same dimensions with chalk. By practicing backing into the spot in this way, you will be able to determine your turning points and hopefully get your time down to just a few minutes. As you can see from the photo's below, we have to use several blocks under the tongue jack as well as the stabilizer jacks to raise the front as high as we can. The first few times that I had to disconnect the camper from the Suburban, I was a bit, well, I guess that nervous would be a good word. I had a buddy hold onto the trip wire for the breakaway switch and had instructed him to yank it out should it start to move. That was four years ago. Although we are still a half of bubble off of level, we can slide the slideout out and cool the fridge with no problem. 

















EDIT: After viewing those photo's, and realizing how many times I have had to crank that tongue jack all the way up and then back down, I am wondering to myself, why haven't I purchased an electric jack yet? Humm.......maybe a quick run to the RV store is in order this afternoon.


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

I was wondering that too, Chris.








I bought one after our first trip. And we were parked on level ground!

Happy Trails,
Doug


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

garyb1st said:


> Is it normal for the tires on the back axle to be pointed in a slightly different direction than the front? I assume this occurs when the trailer is backed in at an angle. Also,will this weaken the sidewalls of the tires?


This is normal and expected. The trailer pivots around one set of tires and drags the other set around the corner. The appearance is VERY disconcerting. Do make sure you are properly inflated as you wouldn't want to peel the tire off the rim.

ST tires expect to be scuffed and dragged around corners. This is actually a design feature of the ST (Special Trailer) tire; they have stiffer sidewalls for this reason and to help with sway.

This quote comes from http://www.championtrailers.com/tire_art.html "(ST) Special Trailer tires are normally more expensive than (P) Passenger car or (LT) Light Truck tires because they are built tougher with more material and are more bruise resistant. This is necessary because most trailer suspension systems are stiffer and less sophisticated than automotive suspension systems. Consequently the tires must be capable of withstanding more ABUSE."

Ed


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## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

Ours sits at a pretty good angle and we've had no problem, I'm just really careful while hooking and unhooking. You can see the blocking I built so the jack can get the trailer level. It's just high enough to fit under the jack while hooked up. I also made two plywood strips that I back the trailer on to, the front wheels are up on a 2 x 8 which when the trailer is jacked level, the springs are compressed evenly.

Here's a little bit better picture of the blocking










Mike


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## MaeJae (May 12, 2005)

camping479 said:


> *<snip
> 
> snip>
> *
> Mike


I am freakin' freak....ing out just looking at that!!!


















































Are your stabilizers down?

MaeJae


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## bradnjess (Mar 25, 2007)

Here's my situation. I also have to back over a curb. When looking at the pic I would be backing in from the right side. The outside tires have to bump the curb that you see on the bottom left of the picture. Im not sure how high your curb is but my OB hasn't ever felt like it would tip.









This picture is with the OB in place. You can see the neighbors fence to the left. Backing in at an angle, once the tt is past the front corner of the house I start cutting and head straight back. While anticipating bring the OB home I was sure that fence was going to be quite the obstacle, its yet to get in my way. For reference the drive way is 12' wide and 13' from the side of my house to my neighbors.









The only issue to date with having to bump the curb when backing in is this. 









Its hard to see but right in the middle of the pic on the bottom corner of the tongue is some slight wear due to rubbing the EQ bars. Not a huge issue, just a good reason to speed up getting the apron widened. I hope this helps in someway. Its kind of cool to see everyones parking situation, lets see some more.

Brad


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## skippershe (May 22, 2006)

How's this for a squeeze? There's about 8" clearance between the boat and the Roo...


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## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

MaeJae said:


> *<snip
> 
> snip>
> *
> Mike


I am freakin' freak....ing out just looking at that!!!


















































Are your stabilizers down?

MaeJae









[/quote]








No stabilizers in front, just in the back so we can put the slide out. Been parking like that for 5 years and still hasn't gone anywhere



> Its hard to see but right in the middle of the pic on the bottom corner of the tongue is some slight wear due to rubbing the EQ bars. Not a huge issue, just a good reason to speed up getting the apron widened. I hope this helps in someway. Its kind of cool to see everyones parking situation, lets see some more.


I always take the wd bars off before backing into the driveway, takes the pressure off of them backing into our angled driveway. They're not necessary for the short trip backwards.

Mike


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## garyb1st (Dec 6, 2007)

Wow, thanks for all the pix. I don't think my area is any worse than what I've seen here.

Brad, my space is similar to yours. The only difference is the street light which gets in our way. For comparison purposes, on your first pix, it would be about 3 or 4 feet from the bottom left. That doesn't leave enough room for both tires to go over the curb at the same time. So backing straight in is not possible. Do you back over the curb? I definitely need a ramp or at least a few 2 x 6's if I back mine in. I'll try to upload a few pix tomorrow.

Dawn, that's an amazing feat. Can I hire your husband for a few lessons.

Mike, you've got much more pitch than we do. The way your Outback sits in your driveway looks great. We took the bars off before unhitching. After seeing the tension on the one side and the slack on the other, there was no way I was going to risk trying to undo the bar without straightening the hitch. I figured it was either another 10 minutes in the truck or possibly one less leg.

Ed, thanks for the link. I definitely don't want to peel the tire off the rim. Larger tires and wheels are on the wish list.

Chris, I had butterflies just thinking about hitching up. When I unhitched Sunday, it was dark and I didn't realize that the hitch block was not on level ground. When I tried to level the trailer the next day, the hitch began to slide. My worst nightmare was happening. I immediately stopped raising the trailer and screwed three 1 1/2 in screws into the block hoping they would prevent further slippage. Fortunately it didn't move anymore and when we hitched up tonight we did it on the first try. YEAH. If it weren't for the DW, I'm sure I'd still be out there. Oh, on the electric jack, I'm right behind you.

Steve, I like the power dolly but think I've got too much of an incline.

Maejae, no doubt in my mind. Practice practice practice.


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## skippershe (May 22, 2006)

Gary,

A neighbor of ours has to run over his curb to get his rv in and out, and I noticed he had some special rv ramps.
I just did a search and found these: RV Curb Ramps

Just an idea....

p.s., and yes, I will send my dh right on over if you need him


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## garyb1st (Dec 6, 2007)

skippershe said:


> Gary,
> 
> A neighbor of ours has to run over his curb to get his rv in and out, and I noticed he had some special rv ramps.
> I just did a search and found these: RV Curb Ramps
> ...


Thanks for the link. Seems like a reasonable price and they're pretty light. If I built wooden ramps they would probably weight at least twice as much and storage would be an issue.

I'll let you know if I need your dh. By the way, did you run that idea past him?


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