Solo hitching

Originally posted by john in idaho Put a dot or piece of tape on the exact middle of the trailer front wall so you can see it with your inside mirror.

Hmmm, I could see taking this one step further and emulating what those hitching systems do. Put a dot on the trailer and on your back window, so from your perspective as you look through the rearview mirror they line up perfectly when the ball is under the hitch (before the hitch is lowered). There may still be issues lining up the dot on the vertical axis if the hitch is higher than normal or if the trailer and TV aren't level with each other. The horizontal axis will be more useful. And it won't help with figuring out the Z-axis (distance), but the suggestion above about taking a mental picture will get you close on the Z. Maybe if you made both of the dots appear to be the same size when everything is aligned that will help you judge the distance.

I'm going to try this!

I like the dot on tv and tt never thought of that. Once in a while I have to hook up solo, so this sounds like something to look into.

How ever the dots are not perfect.  About every 5 or 6 times I must make 10 trips back to look at things before I can lock the ball.    The receiver that came with my '15 179 is a bit touchy.  You really have to check to make sure the ball is seated on top of the ball lock.

When all else fails, you look through the garage for scrap.
I used a piece of cardboard to make a tube to fit over the jack post.
I put a piece of styrofoam noodle into it.
Now I had something to aim at.


Next I clamped a 24" bar clamp onto my tailgate (with a 2x4 spacer).

When the end of the bar clamp touches the noodle, I'm in position.

But mostly I just use the outside mirrors and good estimation.