Towing Single Axle Trailer

[HDU]

To me, it is all about practice and getting familiar with what ever type of trailer that you pull. Some are easier, some are more difficult, but once you learn the quirks and get a feel for the trailer that you are pulling, it becomes second nature over time.
I currently own about 8 different trailers, from small single axle utility, to triple axle boat and triple axle equipment trailers. All pull and back up differently from one another, but all are very manageable with practice.

I am a fan of more tires and more bearings per trailer just for the fact of failures, if I have a blow out or a seized bearing, many times I can remove the failed item, and utilize the other axles to get to a safe place where I can make the repair. Just my $ .02

[KenFitz]

We bought out first trailer in late August of this year. It’s a Coachman Clipper Cadet 16fb. Dry weight 2440. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing but took our time speaking with people about suggestions they would make. First we fell in love with our trailer when we first saw it. Is it small, yes. 16’ by 7’8”. Overall it’s 18 ft. One axle. We tow with a 2016 GMC Terrain AWD larger of the 6 cylinder they offer. We had the GMC before the trailer so we sort of tailored our choice to the tow vehicle because we bought it new and only had it for a year, we certainly weren’t going to change. We were very concerned about towing and were assured it wouldnt be the problem we anticipated.

So we bought the Cadet and made sure we had a WDH with anti sway bars. Our first trip was actually from the dealership in Northern VT to our home in Western Ma. It was four hours of up and down hill driving on a highway that seemed to be the main road from Canada south for all the commercial tractor trailers who blew by us like we were standing still. About an hour into our drive I started to relax a little and at the two hour mark we pulled over to a rest area to stretch and let our little dog do her thing. We both commented that we were amazed that the big rigs didn’t blow us side to side while passing. Anti sway bars do work.

We got back on the road in about 30 mins and had an uneventful remainder of the trip. Arriving home it all of a sudden became apparent that I would have to back into our single wide drive that curves to the right (left when backing). The drive is 165 feet long. I have to say that I’ve had utility trailers over the years from 12’ long down to 6’ then back to 8’. Ive never been able to back those dam utility trailers without stopping going forward backing again then stopping. Rinse and repeat as they say.

We have a two lane residential road in front of our house and I thought I would never get this monster (lol) 18’ trailer into the drive. To make it worse someone was coming up the street behind me right after I started backing. I had seen the YouTube video on the 6 o’clock hold on the steering wheel and decided to just go for it. Amazingly I made it half way up the drive in one shot before I thought it would be better to pull up a bit to straighten out. I waved to a neighbor who had been behind me in his car happy that I had cleared the road for him in one shot. On further backing we were dead straight in the drive and I was pretty proud of myself, then realizing it was pure luck.

That was our first trip and we had several more before we winterized. Trips up to Maine camping on the ocean several different weeks were the rewards for following our dream. So far no problems at all. Single axle, short and lightweight works for us. Looking forward to spring to get out on the road again.

Sorry I took so long to get to the point but I was reliving our fall trips in my mind. You guys have all been so helpful to me I hope as time progresses I can help out others just starting out.

[ligBryce]

Hello. I thought I'd throw out my recent experience as well. The photo shows my trailer and tv, which by the way is my first tt. I do have a light aluminum ATV trailer, but it doesn't compare to this one since I can see everything through my back window. I picked up my wolf pup (16bhs) in Omaha Nebraska and towed it across country back home to Northern Utah.
From gusty winds in Texas, freeway speeds or close to it (semi's would pass me every once in a while), up and down hills through Northern Arizona and on up to Northern Utah; the trailer pulled real nice. Somewhat choppy depending on the road type/condition, primarily because neither the truck nor the trailer were weighted down for the WDH I have; but that was only on occasion. The final test for me was to back it up my driveway, which by the way is not the best type of drive way to have. It's on a rather steep hill with the rv pad on the side of the house, so it required me to take it from an angle to avoid pounding the driveway with the tongue or taking out the tank valve dumps. Spending about 20 minutes to get it just right was fine by me.
So, I'm all in on this little single axle trailer. For me so far, it pulled quite nice, but of course that's without any double axle comparison. I can pretty much put it wherever I want to due to it's size.
Thanks

[pdqparalegal1]

It’s not so much the single axle that matters as the distance betweem the axle and the hitch. I had atrailer that was a besr to back up and severe sway on the highway. Read several articles on trailer ddesign. I cut the coupler and addrd 4’ to the toungue. Towed much better and really backed better
Compair a riding mower with a dump cart to a truck with a long boat trailer. World of difference. Mowers are almost impossible to back with any attachment hooked to them