Seasonal Backing Disorder

Published: Thursday, May 24, 2018
By: Dan Armitage, Buckeye Sportsman Radio, www.buckeyesportsman.net

About this time each spring, I am reminded that my wife is what I call “reverse challenged.” That’s a PC way to refer to a condition that my wife suffers, along with thousands of other drivers, who just can’t seem to get a handle on steering any direction but forward. She’ll park a block away to avoid the backing segment of an easy parallel park job, and requires part of the lawn to back her Camry from the garage down our double-wide driveway and onto the street each morning. We don’t even discuss her role when it comes time to back a boat down a launch ramp: I get behind the wheel and she stands somewhere astern, giving hand signals that, if I could see the flailing, I’m sure would be as confusing as the directional advice she is trying to offer.

While Maria’s reverse “block” is a chronic condition, the inability to properly push, rather than pull, a boat trailer is a common seasonal disorder among Great Lakes boaters. The “challenged” condition usually crops up about this time each year following extended periods of trailering inactivity believed to be brought on by cold weather. The symptoms are exacerbated by being in the company of onlookers, especially if they include a spouse or in-law.

Over the years, there have been cures and crutches offered to individuals who are challenged when it comes time to back a trailered boat down a launch ramp. They include everything from specific hand placement on the tow vehicle’s steering wheel to visual aids like flags or mirrors and even audible warning systems that let the driver know when things are out of whack.

As someone who suffers seasonally from reverse driving disorder, a condition than often manifests itself on the first day of a spring vacation as I approach a foreign ramp with a brand new boat in tow, I know the cure for the malady. And, it doesn’t come in a bottle or swathed in bubble wrap ready to be bolted to the trailer or tow vehicle.

The Two-Step Program

It’s a two-step program that combines (1) practice with (2) patience. When I head south for the first boat tests of spring — after it may have been as long as four months since I last backed a trailer down a launch ramp — once I hitch up the boat and trailer, the first place I head to is the local high school or shopping mall. I choose the former if I’m alone, and the latter when in the company of my wife, so that she is not tempted to stick around and push the envelope of Step Two as I put the rig through its paces.

Only after I have learned the turning radius and blind spots of the rig in a large, open corner of a parking lot do I put the tow vehicle’s transmission into reverse. In that gear, I practice backing, turning and backing, and straight backing until I feel like I’ve got a handle on the rig.

The pre-launch practice session may seem like overkill if you’re simply breaking out your own Great Lakes rig that you have been trailering — and backing — for several seasons. However, a few times each year I find myself backing a brand spanking new rig into the water at a ramp that is new to me, and sometimes while driving a test tow vehicle to boot, so the dry run has become a part of my boat review regimen. I believe it has saved me some embarrassing, if not damaging, moments at the launch ramp, which usually outweigh the costs associated with setting Maria loose in a shopping center for the hour or so it takes me to become comfortable going both ways with a rig.

Backing Basics

The key to smart backing with a trailer is to remember that the tow vehicle is pushing — rather that pulling — the trailer. To get the trailer to back straight, you need to keep the tow vehicle lined up with it straight as well. When turning, the trailer always backs in the direction opposite that of the tow vehicle. To get the trailer from one point to another, you need to maneuver the trailer into the direction in which you want to move it, then follow it with the vehicle, be that in a wide arc or straight back. If space and ramp traffic allow when you approach a launch ramp, pull around the approach and then forward far enough so that your vehicle and trailer are lined up with the launch lane and you can simply back straight down the ramp.

Here are the four major moves to make when approaching and backing a boat and trailer down a launch ramp when a turn must be made at the approach:

1. Approach in reverse, keeping the trailer and vehicle close to the inside corner of the ramp.
2. Turn the wheel left so that the vehicle’s front moves toward the water and swings the trailer out and around the corner of the ramp.
3. Turn the wheel to the right and back slowly down the ramp as the trailer moves to the right.
4. Straighten the wheel to bring the tires in line with the vehicle and the trailer as it backs straight down the ramp.

Happy Boating!

This article first appeared in the Launch Issue (May/Jun) 2018 of Great Lakes Scuttlebutt magazine.

tags: Boating 101, Hauling

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