I learned a thing 

"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion) 06/26/2018 at 00:03 • Filed to: None

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Today I properly attached a good sized trailer, drove around, backed it up, and unattached it. No lives were lost during the process.

This seems like an automotive milestone somewhere under “learning to drive stick” but above “doing donuts”

So I can do it, but it still makes me really uncomfortable. The Miata has ruined me for spacial awareness. Pickups are all fine, but other than that I really hate driving big vehicles now, especially the work rigs with no rear windows that rely solely on cameras. Nerve racking in the city, nerve wracking in parking lots. Thankfully one of the guys directly under me at work is an absolute wizard with all vehicles. He doesn’t even bother with the camera to attach the hitch, which seems impossible to me since the vehicle in question is a fullsize transit van with no rear windows.... But hey. I’m just glad there’s someone else I can have deal with that shit. Never leave sir, never leave.

As my boss always says, “sure you can try to do everything yourself, but that doesn’t scale well. As a manager you have to train others to do the work and delegate, delegate, delegate.”

Sure thing boss. Whatever keeps me from driving a fullsize van with a trailer through rush hour Seattle traffic on I5.

If you made it this far, take a look at our newest vehicle. After a hefty repair bill, it’s in good health and ready to start making some serious money. According to the company we bought the pressure washing gear at and some private sleuthing, this is likely the most capable pressure washing rig in Washington. Cool beans. Now we just have to not break it.

Tohru > AestheticsInMotion 06/26/2018 at 00:19

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If no lives were lost you didn’t do it right. Those pedestrians aren’t going to throw themselves under the tires for you.

Thomas Donohue > AestheticsInMotion 06/26/2018 at 00:35

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One of the best commercials ever.

ttyymmnn > AestheticsInMotion 06/26/2018 at 00:38

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AestheticsInMotion > Thomas Donohue 06/26/2018 at 00:40

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That was fantastic . Make commercials great again

AestheticsInMotion > ttyymmnn 06/26/2018 at 00:41

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Too British to handle 

shop-teacher > Thomas Donohue 06/26/2018 at 01:12

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That was such a great series of commercials.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > AestheticsInMotion 06/26/2018 at 01:31

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What are you pressure washing with such an enormous pressure washer?

AestheticsInMotion > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 06/26/2018 at 01:43

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All of the things. Massive residential work is the most common, with thousands of square feet in need of cleaning. We get some even larger commercial jobs from time to time. W e can run four accessories at once to have four guys working at the same time , each one at 1 6 gallons/minute, or one accessory o utputting... Uh. A lot. I can’t recall what the max is for this unit. It’s 100% overkill and we don’t actually know of any kind of job where that much power would ever be needed. We’ll never need to max out one pressure washer though, you can already cut deep into most surfaces with just 4 gallons/minute. With the 16 gallon/minute setting we can use surface cleaners that are 5ft in diameter and clean better than the average company using 2ft diameter surface cleaners.

Made an excel spreadsheet and long story short, this flatbed will on average increase jobsite efficiency by 8x over our already quite good 8g/m professional grade pressure washers. I hate pressure washing personally, and won’t actually be doing any of the work... But it’s still quite exciting.

functionoverfashion > AestheticsInMotion 06/26/2018 at 09:18

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functionoverfashion > AestheticsInMotion 06/26/2018 at 09:22

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Also, trailering is one of those things that definitely takes a while to get comfortable with. When I worked at a marina, I’d actually find myself planning and anticipating trailer space behind me even when I wasn’t towing. You start to look at intersections, driveways, gas stations, lots of things a little differently. I also got good at coming within an inch or two of the trailer ball when hooking up, never with a camera (we weren’t that fancy, and this was a few years ago now).

One of the first days on the job the previous owner of the marina told me to grab the 1/2 ton truck and hook up to a 35' pontoon boat. Then we towed it about 10 miles up the road to a horse barn where it was being stored, and I had to back it in through the door which was about 2' wider than the boat overall. I did fine because I’d done lots of trailering and backing, etc. before, but I think he wanted to see what I would do (and by that I mean I think he wanted to see me struggle, which I didn’t).

Urambo Tauro > AestheticsInMotion 06/26/2018 at 10:23

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I used to hitch up trailers all the time without having a backup camera, but it always took me 2 or 3 (or more) tries to line up the ball. Only nailed it on t he first try a few lucky times. I got to use a camera once, and it was mounted high up on the back of a motorhome- boom, instant bullseye.

There aren’t a lot of tips I can offer, it pretty much just comes with practice. But o ne thing that really came in handy was to keep my door open, and hang one foot out (automatic transmission, of course). S o when you walk back to the hitch and find that you have a few inches to go, you can use your foot hanging out the door as a reference point to back up just that much.