The simple solutions to leveling your trailer side to side, and backing into just the right spot really depend on having a spotter outside the car.   Not having that separate set of eyes on my solo trip I chose some solutions that are a little more complex.

IMG_20150617_190224Level and Chocked – A simple solution to leveling your unit side to side is a set of blocks under one wheel.  Lay them out, back up onto them, and there you go.  You can do this solo, it just means getting out and taking a look a couple of times, and maybe pulling forward and back more than once.  I’m sure with practice this would become more efficient.  But I ended up with a solution that you use after you park.  This device slides under the tire and jacks it up, serving as a wheel chock at the same time.  Yes, it is big and cumbersome, but it also gives a lot of fine control that you don’t get with blocks.  I found that I could tolerate a little side to side slope, especially when I wasn’t bothering to unhook for the night.  But when I ended up somewhere with a big slope, or for a couple days, it made cooking and other such tasks much easier with things all level.

TrailerStuff_001Looking back – I really wanted to be able to see what was right behind my trailer, so I could back up with confidence.  The Jeep’s radio got replaced with a head unit that accepts multiple video inputs, and I had a camera mounted on the rear of the trailer by the license plate.  This was so sweet pulling in late at night in pouring rain.  I was able to back into a small site in one or two passes without ever getting out of the car.  Really a perfect solution for this problem.  I do wish the camera wasn’t so wide angle sometimes.  I would be nice to use it like a rear view mirror when on the freeway.  But cars have to get pretty close before they show up as more than a couple of pixels.  On the other hand, wide angle is great for the primary purpose of backing into place.