I pulled the fifth wheel!

It’s been a while since I’ve trusted myself to pull something behind the truck. My first incident was my idea of being nice and picking up some landscape stone with the kids for my busy husband. Jack-knifed it in front of the house and left a nice jag on the rear fender. Ugh.

So several years later I did pull the Trail-Lite home from Maine through the hills of Pennsylvania and part of Ohio…umm..at night. On the way back from Wyoming, I pulled the Bullet across Nebraska and through Omaha in dense traffic in daylight and was pretty proud of my new ability. However, when we got the Passport, I absolutely refused because it was so long and wind could easily catch the tail (even though our Equalizer weight distribution hitch was awesome). My mind kept trailing to the brutal wind in South Dakota where we nearly lost a piece of skirting on the Bullet and got about 3-4 mpg going into the wind.

We’ve been watching YouTube like crazy trying to navigate how to hitch up and pull the fifth wheel compared to the travel trailer. (You know, because YouTube will help you to know exactly what to do the day you pick up your fifth wheel. Is that like staying at a Holiday Inn Express?) All the things to remember: height, width, tail swing, pivot points, etc. So I’d been noticing Jon’s wide turns and following the wheels in my side mirror to help keep track.

On the way home from a nearby state park, Jon asked if I wanted to pull the Cougar the rest of the way home. (I really wasn’t sure if he was just tired or being nice. What did he have for lunch? Ha-ha. We had planned on me driving the straight stretch home from the last state park, but had run into leveling issues and were running late for some appointments. I certainly didn’t need the added pressure then and we hadn’t discussed it since.) So…TODAY was no pressure and I took him up on it!

And I bet you are wondering how many signs and mailboxes I took out or other vehicles I ran off the road? Zero. Hallelujah! (Thank you to the semi in Van Buren that gave me some room. Not sure why the other vehicles felt the need to give me space–it was a normal size highway and I could see both lines in my mirros. Oh, well.) I honestly couldn’t tell it was back there unless we hit bumps or were pulling away from the stop sign or speeding up. Well, I guess that narrows it down…a bit (work with me here).

It wasn’t as nerve wracking as I thought it would be but mind you I’ve been trying to pay attention all this time. He did let me run it around a local church parking lot and he took over before we made it to the house where he backs it down our tree-lined driveway. But I SURVIVED! Hopefully there will be more chances to take it a step further in the future. Will I ever attempt to back it up? That is a good question. Subscribe to stay posted!