Drive Too Steep

Heaven581

Member
Hi, this is my first post. We bought a brand new trailer yesterday and thought all of our old problems getting into our steep driveway were because our old trailer was low to the ground and everything on it was low with small tires.

Now that we have a new real size trailer we thought we had it made, the drive home from the dealer went perfect, TILL......we got to the driveway. Nothing worked the driveway was too steep and we couldn't get it into the RV pad my DH made. :( The rear stabilizers kept hitting and even if we take them off, I think the sewer stuff would hit next. We had all our neighbors helping us with board after board. My DH is gonna go buy more boards today and try to make stacks of boards that stay that way. Does anyone else have any ideas for us? What a bummer of a first day, LOL. Nice to meet you all, isn't it crazy what can bring people together? Hugs, Francy :)
 

jimtoo

Moderator
Re: We use hand signals, the mirrors and yelling.....

Hi Francy,

Hi gorr,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

You might be able to flip the axles to the under side of the springs if they are not already there. I'm sure other members will jump in with some help soon.

Enjoy the forum.

Jim M
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Francy, welcome to the forum. There are a lot of good ideas to be found here on this great forum.
I moved your post to its own thread in more relevant area and re-named it.
You should get some ideas from other members that have been down that road.

Peace
Dave
 

westxsrt10

Perfict Senior Member
Please fill in your rig profile info. There is a easy low cost way to add height to your RV. How many inches are needed to clear your driveway?
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
Just "blue skying" your problem, it sounds like you need something to bridge from the street level up onto the driveway far enough that the trailer tires can get onto it before the rear end hits. Something like a set of ramps that would take some of the initial angle out of the approach.
 

porthole

Retired
My driveway is steep and my trailer hits.

One way I can minimize it is to back in at an angle, but that has other issues.

What I did was to build up 2x10's using 10' 2x10's and 3/4" plywood.

I backed the trailer into the driveway until it hit, then pulled forward a couple of inches.
Then put the 2"x10"x10' board down behind the tire. From there I added scraps of 2x10 and the 3/4" plywood pieces to build up the gaps under the board.

This gave me enough room to clear my jacks.

I don't use this anymore as it got to be a pain lugging them around.

Now I use pieces of plastic, about 60" long and 12" wide. This is left over poly from my fresh water tanks.
I back into the driveway until the jacks hit, move forward until I have just enough clearance and then slide the plastic under the jacks.

From there I just "slide the jacks" up the plastic. Works great.
The poly is really slippery.

You didn't list your tow vehicle or trailer, that would help.
My truck has both air bags and an air ride hitch. What I also do when backing into the driveway is to dump all the air. This gives me an extra 2"+
 

scotteam

Member
I understand your situation as i had the same thing. The jack protectors or a frames hit and drag. What i did however it was costly but worth it. I altered my driveway knowing i will always have an rv and not looking to move anytime soon. it seems like the best choice for me but i dont know your situation
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
Something others have done is permanently mount dolly wheels on the rear of the RV that will roll with the RV picking up the rear when it scrapes.
 

aatauses

Well-known member
Not sure of your configuration, but do you have enough room to pull in frontwards, unhook and get your truck out?
al
 

BruteForce

Well-known member
Something others have done is permanently mount dolly wheels on the rear of the RV that will roll with the RV picking up the rear when it scrapes.

This is exactly what we had to do. We went to a local RV supply store and bought two heavy duty swivel wheels, welded a cross-beam (heavy steel) across the frame rails and mounted the wheels up. Now, when I backup (slightly uphill) into my RV pad, the wheels made contact. Its always scary to see two of my three axles come off the ground while those casters make contact -- but it only lasts for about 4 feet before all the wheels are back down.

Prior, I used to hit the spare tire and rear legs.
 

RanCarr

Well-known member
Our driveway goes downhill a little and then uphill to level out by the house. Our first two TTs were shorter and higher and not a problem. Our NT 28BRS dragged so we added more gravel at $180 a load :( to level out the driveway, but that didn't do it all and we would drag in campgrounds and gas stations. The only cure was to add huge monster dolly wheels to the rear of the frame or eventually damage or lose the bike-rack and rear of the TT. Now it rides on the dolly-wheels instead of the rear of the TT when the ground isn't level. The rear stabilizers and one front stabilizer were destroyed the first few times we went camping. We removed the last good one and now use the new heavier duty ones manually. They live in the cubby the rest of the time, safely out of the way. :)
 
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