Tip For Saving Your Marriage

[2psnapod1]

I think that many of us are the same in that when we arrive at or depart an RV park the husband drives the truck and backs it into place while the wife :angel: navigates from outside the vehicle...usually back by the rig. Unfortunately, it's not always a pretty scene. Probably lots of yelling back and forth, hand signals/gestures (and not necessarily nice ones!), tempers flare ...inability to hear each other causes even more tension. (Please don't tell me that we are the ONLY ones this happens to!?!

I have the solution!! RV Headsets! We saw these at the Tampa RV Show last January and had to have them! We finally used them and they are as awesome as I remember! We didn't raise our voices once...the neighbors didn't all come out to see what was going on and we weren't ready to choke each other by the time we got hooked up to head back to Montgomery today! JOY!

http://www.rvheadsets.com/ They might be a bit pricey for some...but they are SO very worth it! What's even better...is they work wonderfully with hearing aids!! Try 'em...you'll LOVE 'em!!

 

[ihsolutions]

We have come up with an even better solution. When we arrive at a new CG, I drop off the wife and our young children at the campground or other area AWAY from our campsite. Then, I go park, detach, level, etc the unit and by the time she gets back 15 minutes later, I'm relaxing with a cold beverage in my hand!

It takes me a couple extra minutes to get backed in with no guidance (some in-and-out of the truck to check things) but it's FAR better than the alternative...

 

[Sandpirate69]

I used to do what ihsolutions does. But, with blue tooth in the truck & the wife with her earpiece from her iphone, we communicate great. No more argueing on who starightened out the rig with the correct hand signals. Then comes the cold beverage in my left hand, with the remote to my 32" LED tv, in the storage area, in my right hand. WOW technology is amazing. By the way I have gotten in trouble for the not-so-nice hand gestures, call it frustration. Thats my excuse.

Just want make an addition to this post. Now I have my 5 year old daughter repeat what mom says via the truck speaker, therefore now I have surround sound. Now I can't say "what ?". LOL

 

[jjriker]

Another vote for the bluetooth in the truck and phone solution. We used it, and it worked great!

 

[pegmikef]

. . . and then what will I do for my arrival entertainment?

 

[TravelTiger]

Another solution: Pull-through sites only! LOL! (We've decided this is best for us, until we get the hang-of-it, backing.)

E

 

[2psnapod1]

Another solution: Pull-through sites only! LOL! (We've decided this is best for us, until we get the hang-of-it, backing.)

E

But...if you unhitch you still have to back the truck up to hitch back up again!!

 

[Paul & Nan]

And we find the hooking up easy. I, taking life in my hands, stand square behind hitch and truck and eyeball. If DH is off a hair I signal with hand which way. When he is square on I move to left and do minute adjustment of trailer up or down, when all is good I give him a fast wave of hand to come less than slow, a tiny wave for easy, hand up to stop if I need to adjust RV. This works so well for us. Guess you have to see it, but it has saved a lot of fuss when hooking up anyway. Nan

 

[Joy & Jeff]

We are both old soldiers so we have the hand signals (good and not so good) down pat but have recently started using our cell phones too. No Bluetooth in the truck but the speaker phone works well in giving directions and sometimes colorful comments and suggestions.

 

[TravelTiger]

We've gotten really good at the hitch/unhitch. We each have our jobs and do really well at doing them efficiently.

The backing, well, we're better, but not always. We recently used our phones with the earplug/speaker function, to help us talk through trying to back our rig into the driveway. It takes at least 3-7 tries, or until we give up. It's a bit of a challenge, because we are on a cul-de-sac. You'd think that makes it easier, but the driveway isn't at a right angle to the road. There's lots of room to get it wrong from the beginning, and only one true path to get it in right... we're trying not to go over the curb, through the grass, hit the brick mailbox or the big metal transformer box, and try not to go up into the neighbor's yard trying to swing the truck around...did I mention that yard belongs to DH's boss? ;-P HOA says we're not supposed to have a trailer at our property more than for loading/unloading, so that's why we haven't perfected it yet. (Mostly we stay on the street to load/unload).

Fun times.

E

 

[shawna]

Ahhh - I love this thread.
Guess I'm not the norm. I drive my truck/trailer while my boyfriend rides shotgun and directs me for backing up and parking. We have it down to a science now. Telling him that gesturing more wildly does not make me understand any quicker really helped.

It was pretty stressful at first. The first time we did not chock the wheels and the trailer started rolling - It skipped up onto my back bumper.
I was in the truck with my foot still on the brake. I started yelling "Chock the tires! Chock the tires!" By bf Thought I was crazy and said "Are you nuts? The trailer is moving!! I then yelled for him to put a piece of wood under the tire. Apparently he though chock = chalk.

 

[JeremyN]

I really like this thread too.

I will also admit that it was a little rocky for my wife and I at first, but she has gotten to be a really good spotter! And I even have both my 13 and 6 year old helping out too. They are also getting really good. In fact, on our last trip, I had my 13 year old do all the work of getting the trailer ready to go. I backed the truck up to the hitch (with his direction), and when I was lined up, he did everything else. That included putting up the jacks, un-chocking the tires, etc. He pretty much did it all.

I had always done everything by myself, but then one of my neighbors at a campground said something to me. In conversation one night, he asked me if my family would be able to get the camper home if something would ever happen to me when we are camping. I said, probably not. They probably wouldn't really know how to get the trailer ready to be towed home. From that night on, I have been slowly teaching my 13 year old to do everything. He is actually really good at it now!

 

[TXTiger]

I am single and travel alone. My left hand can't understand the signals given by the right hand lol lol lol so I just get in and out of the truck a lot. I have gotten good at hitching up but the backing in part still needs work

 

[ParkIt]

. . . and then what will I do for my arrival entertainment?

rotfl - same thing with me

I am single and travel alone. My left hand can't understand the signals given by the right hand lol lol lol so I just get in and out of the truck a lot. I have gotten good at hitching up but the backing in part still needs work

Finding an empty parking lot at night using the line helps a lot, I even bought a couple of cheap cones for blindside backing and turning. The only downside is explaining it to a local police officer as to what you are doing (ask me how I know this)