Steep Driveway with Camper on Utility Trailer

[hkyfsh]

Just moved into a new place with a fairly steep driveway. Cant get the camper off to move into the garage so need to take it off on the street, put it on the utility trailer that I store it on and back the trailer up into the garage. I plan on strapping it down to the trailer, but wondering if the camper is very tippy. It would be really bad to have it fall forward when backing up the driveway. Anyone gone through a similar situation?

 

[Vic Harder]

can you use the turnbuckles or straps to hold it onto the trailer?

 

[hkyfsh]

Yes I would definitely tie it down with the turnbuckles if possible but at a minimum it would be tie down straps on the camper mounts.

 

[Dphillip]

My experience with unloading on a steep driveway: I tried the same thing with a small utility trailer and it was impossible to back up that small trailer with such a short trailer tongue. This was compounded by the narrow garage door opening I was trying to squeeze the camper into. I only had about 8 inches on each side of the camper and the door frame. The camper never seemed unstable on the trailer so that was not a concern. I now carefully unload my camper on the driveway and then lower it onto a wheeled dolly made from 2X4’s. I use the winch on my Jeep attaching the winch line to an anchor point in my garage to then draw the dolly and camper into the garage. I’ve recently purchased a portable winch to pull the dolly and camper into the garage.
It’s quite a process but you do what you have to do.

 

[OregonOzzy]

I had a similar situation. Moving a Hawk up a short steep suburban driveway into the garage. As Dphillip pointed out the short, low tongue made it almost impossible to go up the driveway in reverse. I was using a Harbor Freight (I believe 1200lb cap trailer). You can see from the pictures, it was strapped down using the camper eye bolts across the axles in a X-pattern. My driveway is probably at a 20+deg angle (you can see my neighbors in the pic, mine is even more steeper).

The hitch on tow vehicle (Toyota FJ) would bottom out. Luckily I was also working on a ’72 Land Rover at that time with a hitch both front and back. I hooked it up to the LR with a very low back hitch and drove it straight up. I happen to have a double deep garage so after a bit of Tetris, moved it around and got it situated properly. The camper did not slide off with the straps holding it on a plywood trailer decking.

For anyone using a similar trailer to move a camper on highway, I would never recommend the HF models. I had to move this contraption less than 1.5 miles from our HOA storage facility on side streets (25MPH) using the FJ and I have never felt more worried about losing the whole thing. The tires have way to soft sidewalls, at highway speeds, this thing would be absolutely dangerous. And the folded over tin basically gives no real structure to the trailer. Good luck and be careful!

 

[buckland]

I have my Eagle on a trailer for winter storage in the barn. I definitely would recommend putting some eye bolts and mounting with the turnbuckles. As I also have a 2" hitch bike rack I put a receiver on the front. good for bikes and winch as well but I like it as I then can move the trailer around in tight spots using the front ball hitch