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I've heard a few full timers say it's always a good idea for both the husband and wife to know how to drive the rig and both to get practice occasionally if they aren't the main driver. The main example was the husband getting sick and the wife having to take over otherwise they would stuck in one place until he felt better.
My wife learned to drive with the TT in tow reluctantly as well. She knew she needed to get some practice in driving with our rig in tow, but whenever I would ask she would just say "I'll do it later". She doesn't even like driving my truck around town, doesn't mind the freeway or open road, but doesn't like parking it (leaf spring Super Duties have the turning radius of the Emma Maersk) , so putting a trailer behind it makes it that much worse for her.
Anyhow, on one of our trips we arrived at our first campground and I jumped out to go pay for the site....and realized I didn't have my wallet; it was in my jacket I left on the back of the couch at home. As we were planning on moving to a boon docking site the next morning she would have to drive to that site and then back home Sunday two days later. She did great driving it through a small town the next day and even had to "parallel park" it on a side street so I could go buy a new battery (whole different story). She drove it up the hill to the next boon docking site along a windy dirt road and we got it set up.
Unfortunately we somehow ended up with a swarm of bees harassing us within an hour of getting setup and as my wife is allergic we decided to break camp and head back to the first campground. I thought the dirt road we were on was a big loop that headed back to the main paved road. I was correct, but you first had to climb from 3,000 to 6,000 feet on a dirt road. We finally came out onto the paved road to find ourselves staring down a 3000 foot decent at 12% back down into the valley below. She asked what to do and I told her to just put it in second gear and it should be fine. She did fine and remembered all the advice over the years about not riding the brakes and keeping the speed under control. She was very happy afterwards to have gained the experience and now doesn't hesitate to drive when I get tired as long as we aren't in the middle of a big city. Of course the short 90 mile drive home on Sunday was a piece of cake after that!
As far as backing, even before this most of the time she will back up the rig while I direct, for some reason things just go much smoother with her driving and me directing.
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2006 Jay Flight 29BHS
1999 F350, XLT, 4x4, 6.8L V10, AT, CC, LB
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