RV Towing Tips for Fifth Wheels and Travel Trailers

When you tow a travel trailer or fifth wheel, you experience challenges that you will not encounter in a car or pickup when not towing.

Towing a travel trailer or fifth wheel is a responsibility that requires great care and safety. An accident while towing a travel trailer or fifth wheel can have much greater consequences than one in a small car.

Consider the following safety tips each time you tow your fifth wheel or travel trailer:

General RV Towing Tips for Travel Trailer and Fifth Wheel

• If you’re new to RV towing, take the time to practice towing your travel trailer or fifth wheel before driving on main roads. Most seasoned RVers recommend finding a large vacant lot and setting up some traffic cones to practice turning and backing.
• Never allow anyone to ride in the travel trailer.
• Before you leave on a trip, remember to check routes and restrictions on bridges and tunnels for potential clearance problems.
• Use the trailer hitch system the manufacturer recommends for towing.
• Drive at moderate speeds. This will place less strain on your tow vehicle and trailer. Trailer sway is more likely to occur as your speed increases.
• Avoid sudden stops and starts that can cause skidding, sliding, or jackknifing the trailer.
• Avoid sudden steering maneuvers that might create sway or undue side force on the travel trailer. Fifth wheels are less susceptible to side force sway but you should still be aware of the possibility.
• Slow down when traveling over bumpy roads, railroad crossings, and ditches.
• Make wider turns at curves and corners because your trailers wheels are closer to the inside of a turn than the wheels of your tow vehicle.

Parking a Fifth Wheel or Travel Trailer

• Try to avoid parking on grades. If possible, have someone outside to guide you as you park. Once stopped, but before shifting into Park, have someone place blocks on the downhill side of the trailer wheels. Apply the parking brake, shift into Park, and then remove your foot from the brake pedal. Following this parking sequence is important to make sure your vehicle does not become locked in Park because of extra load on the transmission. For manual transmissions, apply the parking brake then turn the vehicle off in either first or reverse gear.
• When uncoupling a travel trailer or fifth wheel, place blocks at the front and rear of the trailer tires to ensure it does not roll when the trailer hitch coupling is released.

Backing Up Your Fifth Wheel or Travel Trailer

• Put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel. To turn left, move your hand left. To turn right, move your hand right. Back up slowly. Mirrors can’t always provide the visibility you may need when backing up so have someone outside at the rear of the trailer to guide you.
• Use slight movements of the steering wheel to adjust direction. Exaggerated steering control will cause greater movement of the travel trailer. If you have difficulty, pull forward and realign the tow vehicle and trailer and start again.
• Apply the parking brake, shift into Park, and then remove your foot from the brake pedal. Following this parking sequence is important to make sure your vehicle does not become locked in Park because of extra load on the transmission. For manual transmissions, apply the parking brake and then turn the vehicle off in either first or reverse gear.
• When uncoupling a trailer, place blocks at the front and rear of the trailer tires to ensure that the trailer does not roll away when the coupling is released.

Braking While Towing a Fifth Wheel or Travel Trailer

• Allow considerably more distance for stopping.
• If you have an electric trailer brake controller and excessive sway occurs, activate the trailer brake controller by hand. Do not attempt to control trailer sway by applying the tow vehicle brakes as this will generally make the sway worse.
• Always anticipate the need to slow down. To reduce speed, shift to a lower gear and press the brakes lightly.

Acceleration and Passing While Towing Your Travel Trailer or Fifth Wheel

• When passing a slower vehicle or changing lanes, signal well in advance and make sure you allow extra distance to clear the vehicle before you pull back into the lane.
• Pass on level terrain with plenty of clearance. Avoid passing on steep upgrades or downgrades.
• If necessary, downshift for better acceleration or speed maintenance.
• When passing on narrow roads, be careful not to go onto a soft shoulder. This could cause your trailer to jackknife or lose control.
• To control swaying caused by air pressure changes and wind buffeting when larger vehicles pass from either direction, release the accelerator pedal to slow down and keep a firm grip on the steering wheel.
• When excessive sway occurs, activate the trailer brake controller by hand. Do not attempt to control trailer sway by applying the tow vehicle brakes as this will generally make the sway worse.

Towing Your Fifth Wheel or Travel Trailer on Downgrades and Upgrades

• Downshift to assist with braking on downgrades and to add power for climbing hills.
• On long downgrades, apply brakes at intervals to keep speed in check. Never leave brakes on for extended periods of time or they may overheat.
• Some tow vehicles have specifically calibrated transmission tow-modes. Be sure to use the tow-mode recommended by the manufacturer.

Check That Tire Pressure!

Trailer tires, which will have an ST in front of the size, should always be inflated to the maximum psi indicated on the tire. On a trailer tire you would always inflate it to the max psi indicated on the tire because trailer tires are built with a thicker sidewall to handle more vertical load.

If a trailer tire is under inflated, because of the thicker sidewall it will generate excessive heat and that is what leads to failure.

The recommendation is to always check tire pressure on a trip at every fuel stop. It’s easy if you use an Infrared Thermometer Temperature Gun. Just point and shoot to determine your tire temperature. Tires on the same side should be within 20 degrees of each other. Of course the sunny side will read higher temperatures.

If the tire temperature is not within 20 degrees of each tire on the same side, start looking for the problem. Usually when a tire is under inflated, the temperature will be higher on that tire.