Many users of cars, trucks, and other vehicles employ trailers to haul items that are too large to fit into the vehicles. For example, owners of small boats typically haul them on trailers to water and unload the boats for use there. To attach a trailer to a vehicle, a user typically places a trailer cup attached to the front end of the trailer over a trailer hitch attached to the rear bumper of the vehicle and locks and chains the trailer cup in place. The trailer cup must be directly over the trailer hitch for the user to be able fasten it in place easily. Otherwise, the user has to move the trailer into the correct position, which can be difficult since trailers are usually manufactured at least partly of metal and can be heavy. Or the user has to reposition the vehicle, which can also be awkward and time consuming. It can also be difficult to judge the position of a trailer when a driver is backing a vehicle toward it, especially at night or when visibility is otherwise difficult. Because of these difficulties, more than one person may be needed to maneuver a vehicle and a trailer into proper position for attachment.
Therefore, mechanical guides for attaching trailers to vehicles are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,160 for Delcambre and U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,453 for Bell both provide folding vertical guide members, in different designs, for the rear of a carrier or boat trailer. Although these guides provide general orientation that may be useful in many circumstances, they are not precise guides and may still require the assistance of a second person to attach the vehicle and trailer. For example, they do not provide lights that would make the guides highly visible at night or when visibility is otherwise difficult. Nor do they have a probe-operated light to show precisely when a vehicle is in the right position for attaching a trailer cup to the Vehicle's trailer hitch. Moreover, they are not clearly designed for general use with any vehicle and any trailer.
Therefore, there is a need for a guide for attaching trailers to vehicles that provides a highly visible direction light and a probe-operated light to show precisely when a vehicle is in the right position for attaching a trailer cup to the vehicle's trailer hitch, so that the driver of any vehicle can attach it from most directions to any trailer without aid from another person.