My dad was a horseman who owned two four-horse horse trailers. I was his backup camera. Whenever it was time to hitch the truck to one of the trailers, my job was to stand over the hitch and, with finger signals of ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘stop’ I would guide him slowly back until the hitch of the trailer was directly over the ball of the truck. I would signal him to stop and then lower the hitch and attach it to the truck. It was a well practiced process which always worked. With the trailer hitched travel was mostly in a forward direction. Sometimes, however, there was a need to back the trailer into a barn or around or between other obstacles. My reverse camera capabilities were then called again into action. I would stand behind and to one side of the trailer within view of the truck’s driver side mirror. Left, left, left, RIGHT, right, left, right, STOP I would signal with fingers and hands. My dad’s visibility was excellent with me covering his blind areas.
(c) 2018 Mitch Hanks, all rights reserved
As life became busier I wasn’t always able to be there to be his rear camera eyes. And finally it came time to leave home. What did he do then? I hadn’t given it much thought before we got into the business of solving backing visibility problems. Since a horse trailer is very heavy you can’t back up close to the hitch and then pull the trailer over to the ball. You have to line the ball up directly beneath the hitch. So I’m sure, in spite of my dad’s skill as a driver, that there was usually at least one or two trips back to see whether hitch and ball were aligned before the hitch could be lowered and fastened. And backing the trailer would require leaving the driver’s seat for a walk or two back behind to make sure nothing was back there and that obstacles were being avoided.
If my dad were alive and still raising horses today I would set him up with our new QuickVu 7 inch monitor and dual backup camera system. I’d attach one camera to the truck license plate for backing visibility and so that he could see the ball as well as a wide view of the trailer as he backed up. He would then be able – on his own – to back up to the hitch and line up hitch to ball every time. In addition to using it as a hitch camera he’d be able to use it as a rear view camera when he was pulling out of a parking lot or out of the garage to see what had wandered behind him.
I’d put a second camera on the back of the trailer. Whenever he needed to back up the trailer he would still take a walk back behind but could then back up with full visibility of the barn door opening. He could see the first stall door where he would usually stop to unload the hay. He could also use it along with the mirrors to change lanes or see what was going on behind the trailer while driving down the highway to get the next load. He may have preferred to mount the second camera inside the trailer so that he could check on the horses while driving to make sure everything was in order.
Although I would no longer be needed to serve as his backup camera, I would still enjoy sitting with him in the truck, talking about life, and driving off to the races or the hay fields or wherever he would be off to that day.