How Do You Tow a Van and Trailer BACKWARDS?

I was headed up the mountain for a favorite dispersed campsite of mine, in my van and small cargo trailer. Naturally I was nervous about a certain muddy rutted area, an area that has been touch-and-go in the past. But it was unusually dry there last night, so I plunged in confidently. Over-confidently as it turned out. And you think hubris is an ancient superstition?

1. Don't make it any worse. When you start spinning, you might as well stop. If ground clearance is a problem, you don't want to let air out of your tires.
2. Be patient, be calm; which was more difficult here because there was no cellphone service. Wait for a local person to show up. In fact, they did. But I had to spend a night camping in muddy holes. Actually it was pretty flat, and absolutely quiet. I slept well. Try to see a disaster as an adventure.
3. I was essentially on a one-lane deadend road. No tow truck could get in front of me to pull me forward, the usual way of being pulled out.
4. Can you be pulled backward when you are pulling a trailer? There is nothing strong on the trailer to grab with a hook. You certainly don't want to put the tow rope around the axle or spring hardware. Even if you bolted a towing hook onto the frame rails of the trailer, the stress needed to move the van will be transmitted through the weaker trailer. Not good: the strength of the trailer frame is meant for the trailer only. (The van weighs twice as much as the little trailer.)

The local folks talked me into surrendering gracefully and accepting a ride into Gunnison CO. (Oh what a blessing it is to not be macho, proud, and stubborn when the time comes!) 

There was a good local tow-truck company, but they weren't part of the Coach-Net network. Nevertheless Coach-Net paid the local company cash to come out and get me. Isn't that wonderful? It was much better than sending a tow-truck from a metropolitan area four hours away. Local tow companies are not only closer, but they have experience with the bad spots on the road, in question.

So what did the tow truck driver grab onto, to pull both rigs backwards out of the muddy ruts? He didn't! He pulled me forward. But wait, you say, how can he pull you forward when the tow truck is behind the van + trailer?

This is the first time I saw a winch being used. He extended the winch cable from the tow-truck to the first big tree in front of the van, looped backwards to the van, and hooked up the usual way. Thus the 6 inch diameter aspen tree served as a (stationary pseudo-) pulley.

After three feet of towing, I was out of trouble. Maybe I should go back to carrying a "come-along", that is, a hand-operated winch. I might have been able to do this myself. Still, this is the first time in 18 years of full-time RVing when a winch made a difference. The individuality of "I am stuck" situations is perversely fascinating.

So here is the guy who always complains about overly-thick national forests, who was saved by the fact that there was a tree nearby. My goodness, what if this had happened in the sagebrush or desert? (The tow truck might be able to drive around the stuck vehicle if it just means trampling some grass or sagebrush, but what if a large cactus was blocking the path? Or big ditches on both sides?)

So what is the moral of the story, besides getting Coach-Net towing insurance? (Thank you, John and Susan.) Most of the risk is concentrated on the outbound trip away from the main road. Also, consider the advantage of camping with the front of your rig facing the main road.