Basic hand signals like they use parking an airplane (if you've ever watched out the airport window). At night I hold a flashlight in my left hand pointed at myself and then signal with my right. The only flashlights we carry are headlamps so I wrap the strap around my hand so I don't drop it.
Hand signals are hard to type out but I'll give it a go (note that the double hand signals go to single hand at night due to the flashlight):
Hooking up the toad:
Light check is performed with me standing behind and to the left of the back end of the tow vehicle. John is leaning in and out of the driver's door working the lights and brakes and looking back at me. He can also be inside and watching out the mirror in bad weather. John turns on one signal and waits for my response to verify it is working.
- right hand signal means passenger side and left hand is driver's side (I'm standing so this makes sense, I am the tow vehicle - facing John)
- right hand up opening and closing like a sock puppet talking means the right / passenger side blinker is working
- left hand up opening and closing like a sock puppet means the left / driver side blinker is working
- both hands up opening and closing mean both are blinking - hazard lights
- two hands up, palm toward John means brake lights are working (same signal as "stop")
Second tow vehicle check is to verify the lock in of the tow bars. For this I stand on the passenger side so I can see the tow bars and the passenger side mirror where John's little face shows. He is in the driver's seat. DO NOT stand between the vehicles. At this point we've been in the toad to verify the ignition is set to accessory, the display panel is off so it doesn't suck power from the car battery, we are in neutral and the emergency brake is off. If we are using our brake assist, we throw that switch. When I give the signal, John pulls forward slowly until we are locked on and I walk and pace the vehicles watching the lock on levers for the tow bars.
- right arm with pointer finger out cocks up at the elbow then points to the front of the rig, this means "go" - start moving forwards slowly to lock on
- pointing toward the street/drivers side means turn that way
- pointing back at me, passenger side means turn my way
- left thumb up means left side is locked on
- right thumb up means right side is locked on
- two thumbs up means good to go - John stops moving, I check the house door on the way by, hop in the passenger seat and away we go.
Backing in - very similar - NEVER stand behind the rig.
- two hands up, palms out means STOP - fast "pounding" of those flat hands on an invisible wall means STOP NOW!!!! (John is really good at this)
- rolling the left arm toward myself in the air in a not so sexy "come hither" movement means back her up (John has already set the wheels to turn into the space)
- point to the rear of the rig and use to hands to "push" the back end away from me means turn harder to shift the tail away from me
- point to the rear of the rig and use hands to "pull" toward me means shift angle of tires to move tail toward me
- holding one arm up with finger pointed to the heavens and rotated like I am twirling a lasso means turn harder (combine this with the pushing or pulling motion first to indicate which direction you want the rig to turn if you need to angle a different way
- two hands with fingers pointing to the heavens moving forward then back means ease her back straight (no more turn on the wheels)
- "stop" signal followed by "go forward" signal (cocking arm then pointing toward front of rig) mean pull forward a little to try again or adjust
- as we near the stopping point (and well before we hit anything) I face him and hold my arms apart to indicate 3 more feet, 2 more feet, etc. and he eases back
- the "stop" signal (two hands up palms out) followed by one finger up means "give me a minute" - he puts the rig in park and waits until I return to his mirror view. I walk the back of the rig, check the picnic table side, double check branches, the alignment of slide to power post, etc. If I need to talk to John, I go to his window and we discuss any issues with placement. Then I return to either shift him to our agreed upon location or he shuts her down.
- two thumbs up, all is well, shut her off
I hope this helps. Note that I stop John before each major "jog." We backed into one difficult "Z" shaped site, at night, tight with trees and branches and passing less than 5 feet from the rig with open windows on a buddy site and they were totally shocked - they never heard us come in. That was one of our toughest sites to date.
