LV Naturist
Senior Member
As the title says, BEWARE of the tail swing in tight places!
Audrey and I spent the weekend at a Thousand Trails campground in Palm Desert CA. The campground was very tight with palm trees in the worst locations imaginable. The campground itself was okay, nothing special, but it is NOT big rig friendly. Had we known this we would have never booked a spot there. I pride myself on my ability to maneuver the 5'er in seemingly tight quarters but even I had a heck of a time getting in to the space. On a side rant, Thousand Trails (we got a 1 year free membership when we bought the 5th wheel) campgrounds are first come first served. You cannot reserve a specific spot. There were many small campers and camper vans set up in huge pull-thru's. People, leave those for people who need them... Anyway, as we were leaving, I was trying to make a right hand turn to exit the campground. I positioned myself as far left as I thought I needed to be, pulled forward as far as I could, and started my turn. I was so close to the tree on my left, I has to back up a little, cutting my wheels to the left to keep the trailer positioned. As you can see from the tire marks in the pics below, I still darn near hit the tree on my right. As we pulled forward, a fellow camper started flagging us down. Yep! My tail swing hit a parked car on my left.
Of course, we were very apologetic and gave them my insurance information. We also filed an insurance claim as soon as we arrived home and forwarded this on the the other party. He was very understanding, although a bit upset (who could blame him). He told my wife that this happens often in this park because it is so tight. What really scared me was the fact that I didn't hear or feel the impact. Had the other camper not stopped us I would have never known I hit somebody. If I do something to damage your property, I want to make it right. This could have easily been an unintentional Hit and Run! That scares the bejesus out of me!
If you look closely at this pic, you can see how close my tires were to the tree on the right. Also, look on the ground in front of the tree on the left and you'll see marks where I turned my wheels from hard right to hard left to back up a bit.
You can see how close I was to his car when I started my turn. I should have paid more attention to how far left I was, but at the time, I was more concerned about the trees.
The damage to his car is significant, unfortunately.
Very minor damage to the left rear corner of my Momentum.
Just another pic to show the perspective.
Lesson learned, when in such tight areas, have someone walk me out and keep an eye on clearances.
John
Audrey and I spent the weekend at a Thousand Trails campground in Palm Desert CA. The campground was very tight with palm trees in the worst locations imaginable. The campground itself was okay, nothing special, but it is NOT big rig friendly. Had we known this we would have never booked a spot there. I pride myself on my ability to maneuver the 5'er in seemingly tight quarters but even I had a heck of a time getting in to the space. On a side rant, Thousand Trails (we got a 1 year free membership when we bought the 5th wheel) campgrounds are first come first served. You cannot reserve a specific spot. There were many small campers and camper vans set up in huge pull-thru's. People, leave those for people who need them... Anyway, as we were leaving, I was trying to make a right hand turn to exit the campground. I positioned myself as far left as I thought I needed to be, pulled forward as far as I could, and started my turn. I was so close to the tree on my left, I has to back up a little, cutting my wheels to the left to keep the trailer positioned. As you can see from the tire marks in the pics below, I still darn near hit the tree on my right. As we pulled forward, a fellow camper started flagging us down. Yep! My tail swing hit a parked car on my left.
Of course, we were very apologetic and gave them my insurance information. We also filed an insurance claim as soon as we arrived home and forwarded this on the the other party. He was very understanding, although a bit upset (who could blame him). He told my wife that this happens often in this park because it is so tight. What really scared me was the fact that I didn't hear or feel the impact. Had the other camper not stopped us I would have never known I hit somebody. If I do something to damage your property, I want to make it right. This could have easily been an unintentional Hit and Run! That scares the bejesus out of me!
If you look closely at this pic, you can see how close my tires were to the tree on the right. Also, look on the ground in front of the tree on the left and you'll see marks where I turned my wheels from hard right to hard left to back up a bit.
You can see how close I was to his car when I started my turn. I should have paid more attention to how far left I was, but at the time, I was more concerned about the trees.
The damage to his car is significant, unfortunately.
Very minor damage to the left rear corner of my Momentum.
Just another pic to show the perspective.
Lesson learned, when in such tight areas, have someone walk me out and keep an eye on clearances.
John
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my turn from the hard road into our gravel road not only dropped off about 3-4", but downhill also! Talk about sweating bullets...I was pretty nervous to say the least. So, my neighbor, who also has a camping trailer told me to call him when we were about 10 minutes or so from getting home and he would come up and put another set of eyes on the turn in for me. I had my wife Peggy watch the trailer swing by the mailboxes, Rick watched the bed rail clearance on my truck, and I watched both the front of my truck so that I didn't put it over the sloping down hill and off the side of the road...and I also watched the left trailer tires to make sure I wasn't going to run over the water meter main boxes. Very slow movements, stop and get out and look, move a little more and check with Peggy and Rick. We actually made it in with about 6' clearance from the mailboxes, the bed rails had 3 1/2 - 4", and I kept at least 3 - 4' away from the water meter stuff. Whew....all that worry for naught!
