Driving or towing
Mirror, mirror on the RV: Understanding tail swing
By Russ and Tina DeMaris
Dec 28, 2009, 12:17

When the Brothers Grimm wicked queen asked, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is fairest of them all?" she didn't exactly get the answer she was looking for. So might be the reaction you could have, the fine day when you peer in the mirror of your motorcoach and see, alas! What used to be your pride and joy RV is no longer fair, having played havoc with a gas pump.

We understand one of the most common insurance claim issues involving RVs is not something you run into head on, nor that runs into you. It's those things behind us that seem to cause the greatest problems. Understanding and caring for what school bus driver educators call "tail swing" goes a long way to preventing those difficult run-ins.

The whole situation is summed up simply with an illustration: A teeter-totter, when one end goes up, the other end MUST go down. For a motorhome driver, when you turn the front of your coach to the right, the rear of the coach will go left. Depending on the length of your motorhome and the location of the rear axles, the rear of your motorhome can go many inches--even feet, away from where it began.

Here's an example: You've parked your motorhome next to the curb at the dump station. You begin to pull away from the curb, turning the front wheels of the motorhome to the right--pulling away from the dump station. But at the left rear--driver's side rear corner--your motorhome may actually drift over the edge of the curb and swing toward whatever happens to be many inches on the inside of the curb. That "whatever happens to be" on the curb could be a light post, a water pipe, or perish the thought, some other RVer whose not paying attention to you. The results can be costly, even life threatening.

What's to be done? USE YOUR MIRRORS when making a turn, even when pulling forward. Particularly when maneuvering at fuel stations and in parking lots is this critical. Knocking over a fuel pump can really create problems; knocking over an elderly person with a walker will ruin more than just your whole day. As fine as "back up cameras" are, they probably won't show you the rear corners of your rig. Again, use the mirror.

This may require adjusting the side mirrors to see "down low" where you don't expect something to normally be. But just riding "up and over" the curb can jostle your rig around, not to mention potentially causing tire or wheel damage. So hit the adjustment switch (if you have one) and scope the mirror down to see the corner of your rig where you might encounter a problem, that is, making a right turn, check the left mirror carefully, and vice versa.

As you get more experienced with your RV, you'll have a better feel for tail swing. But don't let that cause you to lose your sense of caution. Make it a habit to check your mirrors whenever cornering your motorcoach. Similar caution should be exercised by trailer towing RVers.


© Copyright 2003 by YourSITE.com