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Old 04-29-2018, 05:17 AM   #21
XTeacher
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I started towing at 16, starting with a 2 horse trailer. My Dad, bless his heart, was a terrible driver, so I took over as soon as I got my license. My friends always made sure I was the driver before allowing their horses to enter my trailer!
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Old 04-29-2018, 06:17 AM   #22
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Got my chauffeur's licence ( now called class 1) at age 16 and got a job driving an 18 wheeler. Tractor had air brakes and trailer had vacuum brakes. Quite the challenge for a greenhorn kid. Roads in Northwestern Ontario at the time and still are very hilly and poorly paved. Obviously 60+ years ago safety standards were not what they are today. Went on to race cars so I did learn something from those earlier hairy days. Get your son to start with baby steps like around a parking lot to get the feel for the size of the rig. Then venture out on the less travelled roads around home with dad in the truck.
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Old 04-29-2018, 05:33 PM   #23
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Started out driving tractors and the assorted implements when I was about 9-10 around the farm. Did not tow a vehicle trailer until I was 23 and got my own horse and 3 horse bumper pull trailer in college. Since then, well, we now have an assortment of trailers that go various places.

As far as our kids, they will both learn how to drive with a trailer. At a minimum, the basics of how to tow, both bumper pull and gooseneck so they know the difference. We keep teasing our daughter that the new horse trailer is her first car so she needs to learn how to drive her own horse around when she gets her license.
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Old 04-29-2018, 06:15 PM   #24
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I was 17 during the late summer when I towed large carts full of freshly harvested almonds from a distant field to the huller operation owned by my best friends family. The carts were simple single axle affairs with sloped sides and a latched tailgate that swung open from the top for dumping the contents into a pit. It was a fun challenge to find the highest speed possible without the cart (mounded high with almonds) beginning to fishtail and slinging precious cargo onto the road. Once at the huller I would back the cart into an opening with less than a foot of clearance on each side. A great learning experience for towing and backing.
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Old 04-30-2018, 04:21 AM   #25
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My family had a 31 foot Holiday Rambler and a 1970 Plymouth Sports Suburban wagon. My mother did not like driving with the trailer, so at 15 I was drafted to assist my father when he needed a break. I was always supervised and can't say I remember much about issues with driving; I believe dad did all the backing on that first trip. My brother (4 years younger) never got a chance to pull a TT (my folks moved on to a 28 foot Winnebago but did not tow a car), but he did tow a boat trailer (with a Vega) also starting at age 15. My sisters were also too young for the TT, but did drive the motor home.
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Old 04-30-2018, 08:59 PM   #26
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Boy this has me thinking way back, I was probably 19 years old. My girlfriends dad loved too fish but hated towing,and couldn't back up straight too save his life, it just came natural too me I guess. Since then I've driven Fire engine's, Rescue's, tow truck's, and have been camping for 13 years.
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Old 05-03-2018, 06:09 AM   #27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hodgy View Post
.

I started towing when I was 10. It was a John Deere "D" with a 14 foot cultivator. 12 hours a day on the summer fallow of Saskatchewan.

.
Sounds familiar, my second cousin had a dairy farm and my first cousin and myself worked on it some summers. The farm was in WV and we lived in MD so my dad wouldn't let me drive the car (a 1960 Ford Falcon with "3 on the tree" stick shift) until I was 12, then only on the back roads in the mountains.
Anyway, nostalgia aside, If he's 20 and capable then the more experience he can acquire the better!
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Old 05-03-2018, 06:50 AM   #28
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Man that was a long time ago! I was a waiter at the last supper i started towing a year after that. Start them off young and teach them that there is no such thing as too slow when backing up. All the best
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Old 05-03-2018, 11:18 AM   #29
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Like several others, I started learning early because of being in a farm family. As soon as we (brother and myself) could reach the clutch pedal, we were instructed and then given jobs. Backing 2 wheel trailers came easily (won county championship back in the 60's) but backing 4 wheel wagons was much more of a challenge. Didn't start pulling a travel trailer until a few years ago but I am grateful for the past experience which makes getting it in and out of tight back-in spots relatively easy. I also cringe when I see ads for self parking and self backing vehicles-how can people learn to drive when the equipment does it for them?
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Old 05-03-2018, 11:37 AM   #30
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When I was 17 and still in high school, I got a job driving a tow truck for a local towing service. Almost immediately they had me out in one of the heavy duty wreckers towing commercial trucks (and cleaning up wrecks).

IMO, 16 is plenty old enough to learn. As others have suggested.... practice in a large open parking lot.
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Old 05-03-2018, 11:54 AM   #31
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Not sure age is a good gage for when someone should tow. If someone is a good driver and pays attention to what they are doing then I would say they are good to go.
I worked with a guy and he was letting his 16 year old daughter tow their horse trailer, I asked if he was crazed, she would be destroyed if she harm a horse. He said that part of growing up.
Sometime later he came in and said guess what the daughter did, I said what. She was accepted by Harvard University, I guess he was doing something right. He did not know she had applied.
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Old 05-15-2018, 09:29 AM   #32
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17 M932 with a 35' enclosed radio trailer and 15' generator behind it. Naturally I had "professional" training before trial by fire literally.
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Old 06-13-2018, 06:25 AM   #33
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My Daughter got her permit at age 14 and with in a week she was sharing driving duties with me taking the 22' Jet boat out to the river. The summer she turned 16 her and I drove to Arizona and back to Alaska sharing driving duties all summer doing college tours. That fall I let her drive my Blue Water boat which requires oversize permits back home for winter storage. Now that she is off on her own, there is many times she takes on the driving duties and I know of a few funny stories that she has where others have given up and let her park or launch their equipment.
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Old 06-13-2018, 04:59 PM   #34
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Started driving tractors at about 8 or 9. Driving my uncles 47 International pick up while picking up bales. 2 wheel trailers are easier than 5th wheelers. 4 wheel wagons took some experience to master. Towing RVs and boats for 55yrs.
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Old 06-13-2018, 05:01 PM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SAABDOCTOR View Post
Man that was a long time ago! I was a waiter at the last supper i started towing a year after that. Start them off young and teach them that there is no such thing as too slow when backing up. All the best
Funny quote. Think I will steal it
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Old 06-13-2018, 06:11 PM   #36
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I was about 18/19 when I started. My parents had bought a pop up, prior to that we had never towed anything. But while in the Boy Scouts I observed several adults at various times try to park our equipment trailer. Some were successful, some not so much. I didn’t realize it at the time but I was listening to them coach each other. There was no merit badge for trailering. So when my parents got the pop up, I had some pretty good knowledge but no experience. I’m not sure what trip it was, if it was our first trip or much later but my dad was having difficulty backing it in. It was taking forever and we all wanted to get on with the day and swim or something. After about 15mins I finally got frustrated and asked if I could do it. Couldn’t be any worse, lol. Hopped in, circled around to start fresh and landed that sucker and had it opened up in about 5mins. Zero actual experience at that point. A few times after that though, I too had difficulty for whatever reason and remember jumping out and just manhandling that pop up into place. Since then I’ve also towed my parents four winds boat, some rented wave runners, been a tow truck driver twice hauling all kinds of stuff.
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Old 06-13-2018, 06:21 PM   #37
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LOL, funny stories.
Like many farm kids, was driving and pulling stuff long before teenage years. Father purchased hand clutch tractors so our short legs wouldn't slip off the foot clutch and mow down a lotta stuff.
Spend many trips shifting gears on the old Fargo from the center seat.
Anyway, years don't determine ability to tow, skills and practice do.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
Will Rogers.
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Old 06-13-2018, 06:34 PM   #38
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I started at 8 driving tractors and towing farm trailers. I became an expert backing a 4 wheel, front steering farm trailer. My granddad taught me how to back and launch a boat when I was 9. Both of my granddad's were all about me diving in and doing it. For me backing is as easy as going forward. I am very thankful for my upbringing.
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Old 06-14-2018, 03:35 AM   #39
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Not long after I had a license, I was towing 20' landscaping trailers carrying 2-3 lawnmowers and other equipment. Pop-ups, boats, jet-skis, utility trailers and other TT's over the years. Thinking back, I believe the smaller trailers seemed more difficult to back up than the larger ones.
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Old 06-14-2018, 05:08 AM   #40
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It was 1970, I was 21 and I just came back from Vietnam and took a job in driveway construction driving a truck. I towed heavy equipment along with hauling asphalt and gravel. I also bought an old boat and towed it all over Pennsylvania and Ohio. I've owned many boats over the years and have also towed many trailers.
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