Small Boat Voyages

Today I spent an hour or two making a trailer  hitching guide. Tarka has been in and out of the summerhouse this last couple of weeks and each time I hitch up there’s a frustrating period of misalignment, too far left too far right not forward enough too far forward it’s a real pain in the bumper.

Started with a standard 10mm thick towball drop plate that is sandwiched between the towball and the towball adapter of the removable towbar I have on the front of the car. I’m mig welding some scrap pieces of galvanised box section left over from the trailer mods earlier in the year directly onto the drop plate at a 45 degree angle.

So the idea is to approach the hitch carefully and upon contact see which way the trailer gets nudged. If it eases to the left, reverse a little and then go forwards steering right a bit. If it eases to the right, reverse a little and then go forwards steering left a bit. Repeat until there is no sideways movement at all upon contact which happens when the hitch in the exact middle of the vee. Then back just a tad and eureka! Perfect alignment. The other advantage is there’s no accidental running the hitch into the plastic bumper.

I added some wooden arms to extend the guide to take account of wider initial steering  errors. These are removable which allows the unit to be stowed away more easily when not in use.

I think this will save time where time critial occasions such as retrieving the trailer from the slipway after roping out. The guide will work whether the car is being driven onto the trailer, or if the trailer is being winched onto the car.

This has got me thinking about making another one that will assist with hitching on the main rear towball.

One enhancement is a spacer to ensure a slight overrun leaves the hitch directly over the towball.

The video below demos the new arrangement with the electric winch attachment I made a couple of years ago.