I talk to my wife !

[mic15130]

Hi,

I don't know how you do in US when you want to park in reverse by night. On my motorhome I have a rear camera but I often ask my wife to guide me and it's not always easy to hear. I do not know if your wives are the same in U.S. but I often had difficulty understanding his actions (right - no, other right - stooooop - too late ....).  I bought a pair of walkie talkie and now we have no problem to understand us. (For safety, when I don't hear talk I stop immediately)

 

[Ron_CA]

Sounds like a good idea to me. A lot harder to see hand signals at night Mon Ami.

 

[kjansen]

Hi,

I do not know if your wives are the same in U.S.

I think they are the same all over the world.  Gotta love them!

 

[NY_Dutch]

We rarely need to park the rig after dark, so I rarely need a guide, but when I do we just use our cell phones for clear communications.

 

[Lowell]

I love my wife but I find her directions to be confusing to say the least.  I never take her along anymore when I  go to pick up my TT from storage,  I can get the ball centered much quicker without her help.  And when backing into a camping space,  she doesn't understand that if I can't see her in my mirrors, all the her hand motions are meaningless. Not sure if even walkie talkies would help.  I need instructions like, "the trailer needs to be 1 ft left".  What I get is " it needs to be over".  Oh well, we always manage somehow. ;D

 

[wecoyote]

We rarely need to park the rig after dark, so I rarely need a guide, but when I do we just use our cell phones for clear communications.

We were considering getting walkie talkies but never thought of the cell phone idea.  I could just put my phone on speaker and she can back me up talking on her side.  Great idea!

 

[donn]

That's the way we have operated for years.  Don't see her, don't move.  With a little practice we can place the trailer exactly where it needs to be. FRS radios have been a great investment.  We have also used them when we are camp hosting to keep in touch when one of us out in the park working.

 

[tvman44]

FRS radios are great, but cell phones are better because both can talk at anytime unlike walkie talkies.  Either could save your marriage.

 

[bucks2]

We use the headset method which allows us to talk back and forth without pushing buttons, or having something slide off the ledge. It works great for us and I can make comments about all the "helpers" who know just what we should be doing. If you're one of those and you see my wife laughing you can bet I've made some smart aleck comment about you knowing better than we do about where or how to put our rig into the spot.

Being able to talk is a real benefit for the tight or unusual spaces.

Ken

 

[Frizlefrak]

Wifey is my spotter, and I trust her 100%.  So far, nothing scraped, banged, dented, knocked over, bleeding, etc.  ;D

Walkie talkies help a lot.

 

[Dragginourbedaround]

We use walkie talkies. I like that both of us can't be talking at the same time.

 

[BruceinFL]

I love my wife but I find her directions to be confusing to say the least.  I never take her along anymore when I  go to pick up my TT from storage,  I can get the ball centered much quicker without her help.  And when backing into a camping space,  she doesn't understand that if I can't see her in my mirrors, all the her hand motions are meaningless. Not sure if even walkie talkies would help.  I need instructions like, "the trailer needs to be 1 ft left".  What I get is " it needs to be over".  Oh well, we always manage somehow. ;D

Wait a minute! Are you also marriue to my wife? Is she a bigamist?

 

[inscop]

Walkie talkies are a great idea.  If I had them on my second trip out, I would still have electric steps that are straight.  They still work after running over a BFR (two of the words are BIG and ROCK) after a little coaxing from a come-along, but they look kind of like this: 

My wife, whom I love dearly, is a bit inexperienced in directing, not to mention she is ESL (English Second Language), and to top it off, I'm deaf in my left ear.  The day the BFR jumped under my rig, she was trying her best to help me get turned around in an empty camp site.  I have to accept at least half the blame.  This could have all been avoided with a set of WTs.

They also come in very handy when she is driving her car and I am in the rig.  (We don't go far from home, so we haven't had to tow yet, plus she usually shows up at the camp site after she gets off work.).  I just clip the radio to my seat belt near my only good ear, and off we go!  It is very nice when I need to change lanes and she can reassure me that it is safe to do so.  You can also put the channel you listen to on a placard so other RVers can talk to you.

 

[rebelsun]

We were considering getting walkie talkies but never thought of the cell phone idea.  I could just put my phone on speaker and she can back me up talking on her side.  Great idea!

As long as when she says "turn right" she means right, and not "well maybe left"......
I almost took out the service post one evening at dusk, when backing my MH and bike trailer into our campsite, because she meant the trailer had to go to the right, which meant I had to turn the steering wheel and the motorhome to the left to accommodate the turn....
I had to get out of the seat, walk around to the back, to see for myself what she meant, when she said "turn right".  Once I had the visual in my mind, I knew what I had to do to park it without hitting the trees, or the electrical/water service post!

 

[rebelsun]

I do not know if your wives are the same in U.S..............I think they are the same all over the world.  Gotta love them!

Agreed, and that's one way to look at it...but if I had killed my first wife, I'd be out of jail by now!

 

[fastrak100]

I notice all these comments are from the driver perspective. Perhaps you should swop roles and try and direct effectively. It's not easy getting that rig in exactly the correct spot, when you have to direct a deaf idiot, with the reaction time of a glacier, who obviously does not understand straight forward English, behind the wheel. Though I must say I am not that deaf.

 

[Mavarick]

Yea, we are in the Walkie Talkie camp also because they work great when you don't have a cell signal. They also work well when you are travelling with other rigs. The DW can share the WT and talk between rigs without using the cell.

 

[OLDRACER]

Whenever space is tight or needs maneuvers, my wife slips behind the wheel and I stand outside and direct her. Over the years we have developed quite an economy of motion, I use one index finger, describing circles to explain which way I want steering wheel turned, or to direct back or forward, but never both. She stops if I am not directing, and both hands up means stop right now.

Once I was ready to do this and because of sun angle, my wife was not visible from where I stood. A park employee asked if I wanted to get in and he would direct me. I sad "No, it has auto park" and I commenced to make motions,  he could not see, and the MH backed up, adjusted and stopped properly.

It took about 30 seconds before he figured it out, but the look on his face was priceless, and we both had a good laugh, he was a good sport.

But for me it beats verbal directions

 

[Simon and B]

I love my wife but I find her directions to be confusing to say the least.  I never take her along anymore when I  go to pick up my TT from storage,  I can get the ball centered much quicker without her help.  And when backing into a camping space,  she doesn't understand that if I can't see her in my mirrors, all the her hand motions are meaningless. Not sure if even walkie talkies would help.  I need instructions like, "the trailer needs to be 1 ft left".  What I get is " it needs to be over".  Oh well, we always manage somehow. ;D

I'm yer wife!  (Well, not actually, but ... )

Please give me a vocabulary for directing you!!!  I have no idea what words I need to say to you so that you will move the trailer the way it should go!  Clearly the ones I've been using aren't working ...

 

[Marsha/CA]

This is a fun conversation.....   I'm also "the wife".  My husband and I use hand signals no phone, no walk talkies.  I tell him which way to turn the wheel and how much to turn it to make the angle we need to get parked.  I think it also helps that I drive the coach, so I know how it handles.

Help your wives understand what you need to get the job done.  We have some dear friends that didn't work out a plan, he screams at her and she then just walks to the side and stands there....a bad situation.  He ends up being the guy that everyone watches take a hundred tries to get into his campsite.

Marsha~