Save A Marriage and Hook up that RV

September 7, 2001 - Have you ever asked for anyone’s help when you were trying to hitch up your vehicle to a trailer? Or how about once you’ve already got that trailer attached and you just need to back up your combo into some small campsite or driveway? Hugo Jackson has, and it’s been quite a challenge. Especially between he and his wife.

"I haven’t done much research," Hugo says, "but after our first summer of RVing I’m pretty sure that tricky trailer maneuvers are probably the number one cause of divorce." And Hugo is speaking from experience. As he says, "It’s obviously human nature that the person driving the vehicle has to get angry and exasperated with the person giving directions." Hugo calls it "driveway rage." He also says that the only good thing about "driveway rage" is that it promotes quiet vacations. "By the time you’ve hooked up your trailer and are ready to go nobody’s talking to each other any more."

But Hugo found a way to hook up his trailer, and save his marriage, and have a happy vacation, all at the same time. That’s thanks to the XCam2. Hugo has a video camera that doubles as a video monitor because of its LCD screen. So he bought a short patch cable from Radio Shack, and plugged his XCam2 Receiver into the video input of his video camera. Then he plugged both of them into his car’s 12-volt accessory socket. (This works great because both the XCam2 and his camera work on 12-volts.) Then he hooked up the XCam2 to the battery pack. "All that remained was to apply Velcro to the back of the battery pack and the back of my truck," Hugo says. "Voila! Turn on the video camera, turn on the battery pack and aim the camera at my hitch." That’s all it took. Now he can hook up his trailer the first time, every time... well almost every time.

"This setup is a modern miracle for backing up a trailer into a tight space too," Hugo says. He no longer has to ask somebody to stand behind the trailer and shout instructions. That means his wife as well. "I just pass them the XCam2 and ask them to stand behind the rig and point it at the trailer." And as he sits behind the wheel, he can look over at his video camera’s monitor and see exactly what he’s doing and how close or far away he is. "And if I do make any mistakes I only have myself to blame," he says. Which is good news for his wife.

He can now park, and pack his trailer with much more efficiency, which he wasn’t able to do without the XCam2. "The time I used to spend arguing with my wife is now spent showing the setup to an amazed bunch of fellow RV vacationers," he says. This is obviously a much better way to spend his time.

Now he wants to buy a small LCD television set so he can have a dedicated monitor for his trailer needs. Then his next project is to install an XCam2 on the back of his trailer so he can watch the traffic behind him.

It’s always good when a simple little thing like the XCam2 can save a marriage, and restore domestic tranquility, and save time while trying to park all at once. Hugo definitely got his money’s worth out of that purchase. And his wife agrees.

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