Turning Radius for a 36' 5er

[elm_tx]

Hey all,

I'm back at it again with more questions. Thanks again for everyones feedback thus far. This question comes from a comment to one of my earlier posts. It was

"Watch out for that cul-de-sac.  You could find yourself trapped and forced to back out.  Park where you can drive around a block to get out."

I'm picking up a 36' New Horizon Ultra, pulling it with an '06 Chevy 2500 4x4 Short Bed Diesel. By my uneducated guess, I'm thinking total length will be around 42' - 44'. (Feel free to correct me if you know better.) The day I pick it up, I will need to pull it to the house, then the following day my other half and I will take it to storage(she has to work the day I'm getting it and I'll need a spotter to back it in.)

Here's the question: The cul-de-sac in question is 82' wide with one lamp post, do you know what the turning radius is for a setup like mine. Do you think it likely that I have enough space out there to turn it around and get straight with no cars in the way?  I can leave it at the entrance to the neighborhood, I'd rather not if at all possible. And it's a fairly long road to have to back out of.

Don't know if this would help, but if the cul-de-sac were a clock face, the entrance would be at 6:00, the top would be at 12:00 and the lamp post would be at 2:00. I would be parking it between the 5:00 and 2:00 positions.

As usual, I'm open to any and all opinions. I expect once I get this beast I'll find the answer to many of my questions really quickly, however curiosity is killing me in the mean time. Thanks!!!
Eddie

 

[elm_tx]

btw, I forgot to add, I will be installing a 16k Reese Slider hitch.

 

[N Smock]

I'm picking up a 36' New Horizon Ultra, pulling it with an '06 Chevy 2500 4x4 Short Bed Diesel. By my uneducated guess, I'm thinking total length will be around 42' - 44'. (Feel free to correct me if you know better.) The day I pick it up, I will need to pull it to the house, then the following day my other half and I will take it to storage(she has to work the day I'm getting it and I'll need a spotter to back it in.)

Ed

I have a 34ft as described in the catalog, it is 36 ft pin to bumper. Attached to the 3/4 ton extended cab GMC the overall bumper to bumper is 51.5 feet, so I think you will be about 8-10 feet longer than you think.  You may be able to do it but you failed to mention if the neighbors have mail boxes at curb, if so then you can't use the overhang to go over the curb to gain more space, the swing of the overhang might hit a box.

Nelson

 

[elm_tx]

Thanks, but no mail boxes along the street. It's a fairly new sub-division and someone thought it'd be a grand idea to place all the mail boxes in small clumps along the main route in and out of the area.

 

[MTRancher]

If your pickup will make the turning radius of the cul de sac then your camper will too although it will cut to the inside some. Presuming all the lamp posts and clumped boxes are on the outside of the circle my bet is the inside cut of the trailer will quickly negate any issue of hitting items on the outside of the circle with your overhang.
If you pickup won't make the turning radius of the cul de sac you still can probably do it, but then you'll be backing up once to jackknife the trailer some, and then overhang and items behind will matter; use a spotter and take you time. Sounds to me your neighborhood is a great practice spot if the streets don't have cars parked on them and you can practice taking corners and seeing where your trailer wheels track.
You'll get the hang of it. Don't get the camper to storage too quickly, take some time to practice, it'll make your trips much more enjoyable if you have confidence towing.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Here's the question: The cul-de-sac in question is 82' wide with one lamp post, do you know what the turning radius is for a setup like mine. Do you think it likely that I have enough space out there to turn it around and get straight with no cars in the way?  I can leave it at the entrance to the neighborhood, I'd rather not if at all possible. And it's a fairly long road to have to back out of.

You may to have to do some maneuvering to get turned around. As Nelson says, your rig will be 50+ feet overall and its over 8 feet wide as well.  Assuming to pull as far as possible to one side of the cul de sac, you have substanbtially less than 30 feet of available space to turn and straighten out.  And if you can't get almost straight, you won't be able to get the trailer to back in the oposite direction to turn around. So the question becomes whether you can make a full turn in 82 feet, without backing.  That's hard to prdiuct without having some expereince with the turning radius on your truck and it doesn't sound like a good bet for a newbie to try.    I would suggest backing it INTO the cul de sac until you get some more experience with the rig.