I’m a very visual learner, I appreciate imagery that conveys an idea. When thinking about a maneuver I need to do in the RV, I often imagine looking down on it from above. But RVs don’t handle like the family car, particularly in tight spaces and moving around obstacles. One very noticeable difference is the off-tracking of the rear tires. The rear tires don’t follow the same line as the front tires, like they are riding on a track. Instead the rear wheels follow a path with a much smaller radius than the front wheels. If you’ve ever clipped a curb with the back tires of your car while driving through a tight parking lot you have experienced this first hand. The solution to dealing with this is to guide the front tires through a wide enough path that the rear gets pulled along the course you want them to take, avoiding any obstacles. The RV Geeks have an awesome video showing this phenomenon.
While doing this, one of the other things you need to be mindful of is “tail swing.” Picture that the RV is pivoting around the rear axle when it turns. The steering of the front wheels defines how much the vehicle pivots, whether slightly as on a curve in the road, or severely, as in making a right turn at a stop sign. When the front of the RV turns to the right, the back of the RV, behind the rear axle pivot point, “swings” out to the left. Cars do this too but it isn’t too noticeable because the rear bumper is fairly close to the rear wheels. On our Bounder the rear bumper is over 13 feet behind the center of the rear axle, that’s a lot of tail hanging out there. When the tail swings, it can hit an object behind you that you thought was no longer a concern. Gas pumps are one of the most common targets. After parking the rig up close to the pump island, if you try to turn sharply away from it, to get to the gas station exit perhaps, the back bumper of your RV will swing into the pump.
Watching out for your tail swing is a constant thing, especially when driving in town. While driving the other day I thought of a visual aid to make it easier to manage. I like to think of my RV as the head of one of the creatures in the Aliens movies. They have these long heads with their nimble neck in the middle. When they turn to face a new direction the back of their heads swings in the opposite direction. Perhaps the reason those Xenomorphs were so angry is that they kept banging their heads in those small air-shafts or into each other; just like a rookie RV driver banging into lamp posts and gas pumps. I don’t know if I’m the first to use this image when driving my RV, but it’s helped me immensely when making turns. And I haven't hit a gas station pump yet!