On caravan mirrors

Geoff n Jen · Senior Member

On caravan mirrors

dazren · Guru

confuse yep ! your right Geoff and Jen bl--dy nightmare, on my Colarado i am currently useing the ORA type, they strap on the existing mirrors, but the mirror is on an extension arm, that can slide out they were a bit wobbly at first, but i put a piece of rubber under the fitting that screws onto the mirror and it is a lot more stable, the part i like about them is when you get to the destination, and you can just slide off the ext/mirror and leave the other part still attached and just slide the extension back in when your ready

You will probaly get other opinions, but you will find they all have some type of drawback, Rgs dazren

pricey43 · Guru

We accidently broke the mirror on ours, the other day. Thankfully Repco have replacement mirrors so it only cost us $45 instead of $115.

Firefly · Guru

We had the strap on mirrors but everytime a big truck went past they would collapse in to the car door. It was funny the first couple of times but after that....

We have the ones that strap down the door now, they are better but still a pain.

Rip and Rosie · Guru

Well, I love mine, well, sometimes I do.

I have the strap on truck mirrors which I find extremly valuable, even if it takes a bit of mucking around to set them just where I need them.

However, I always tighten all wobbly bits when I put them on.

The annoying bit for me is the strap which "sings" like a guitar string..... and its vibration took the paint off the doors of the new tug. I have just bought some seatbelt pads which wrap around and secure with velcro, to see if they might stop the hum, and cushion where it touches the car door.

Gerty Dancer · Guru

We got the clearview mirrors in frustration after all these kinds of problems with clip-on and strap-on mirrors. We also noticed that the straps stretched when they got wet in the rain, causing mirrors to hang loosely, needed to stop and re-tighten. Then of course they shrunk again when dry and damaged the bottom of the door from being too tight. GRRR!

justcruisin01 · Guru

Rip and Rosie wrote:
Well, I love mine, well, sometimes I do.

I have the strap on truck mirrors which I find extremly valuable, even if it takes a bit of mucking around to set them just where I need them.
However, I always tighten all wobbly bits when I put them on.
The annoying bit for me is the strap which "sings" like a guitar string..... and its vibration took the paint off the doors of the new tug. I have just bought some seatbelt pads which wrap around and secure with velcro, to see if they might stop the hum, and cushion where it touches the car door.

Any tie down strap that vibrates can be fixed by putting one twist in that section of the strap .

Ma · Guru

We have the same type as you Rosie and so far haven't had any major problems. The only thing was that the "butterfly" thingy where you tighten the strap broke and now we use pliers to tighten it.

dazren · Guru

firefly wrote

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We had the strap on mirrors but everytime a big truck went past they would collapse in to the car door. It was funny the first couple of times but after that....

We have the ones that strap down the door now, they are better but still a pain.

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To stop the mirrors foldind back when a truck goes past, i only notice it on narrow roads, when big b-doubles go past, and then it also depends on wind direction at the time

To stop this happening, i put a bit of duct tape around the part of the side mirror that folds back under pressure, and that eliminates the folding when the trucks pass.

But you know what, next to picking the right tow vehicle, i reckon picking the right tow mirror is the next worse choice. so i suppose we can only go with what we feel is right for us at the time

Cruising Granny · Guru

I use the strap on bar type of towing mirrors. I set up a brace with cable ties to hold the mirror in place and another tie from those straps to the mirror straps to stop it flopping back against the door EVERY time a truck goes past in the opposite direction.
The off-side, passenger mirror isn't a problem, but I also secured it just in case.
My strapping/cable tie set up worked all around Oz very successfully.
I used the long, strong sturdy cable ties. Trimmed the daggy ends off to make it neat.

valnrob · Guru

Geoff n Jen wrote:
Does anyone else find them next to useless?? what are we doing wrong?? we have tried the strap ons and now we have a set that have a brace down the door but really sometimes I think they are gonna cause an accident adjusting the stupid things. We obviously have the wrong ones again. Checked clearveiw - not available for a Holden/Isuzu yet.

we have a Holden Rodeo, have tried all sorts of mirrors and have come to the conclusion they are all useless. We have installed a rearview camera, (one the is on all the time). Great, can see what is behind your van at all times, we still have side mirrors to see down the sides of the van. Brought 2 camera's and one 7 inch screen, one camera on back of ute and the other on back of van. Handy to have camera on ute when not towing van as well.

Dellalan · Veteran Member

Sorry to hear you can't get the Clearview, th're the best. Before I got mine, I just relied on the rear view camera, which was also good, until a cop pulled me over in SA. I avoided the strap ons at all cost - waste of money.

Good travels Alan

Turtle · Veteran Member

Hi Folks

I have small van like camper trailer which is heighter than the Prado and wider I have used strappons (sounds naughty doesnt it) for yrs on both the Prado and also as a country courier driving a dual cab Rodeo with a big canopy on the back and never had issues unless a road train blew by and pushed my mirrors up against the drivers window.

I found I could get away without the passager side mirror as they had the fisheye type mirror standard on both the 2000 rodeo and the Prado, however we still use the passanger strappon on the Prado on long trips for reversing.

Do suffer minor vibration and movement but nothing that requires constant adjustment. They are easy to fit and remove and if one got stolen or damaged I wouldnt hesitate to replace with the same.

regards

Turtle

Cruising Granny · Guru

Camera alone is not acceptable, as it doesn't give a broad enough view of the road and traffic behind and alongside of you.
In fact I've heard of Police taking a dim view (pardon the pun) of camera alone, and issued warnings about getting mirrors attached.
It's in the tower's best interest to do everything they can to ensure they can have a clear view behind the van, while travelling and not just for reversing. In fact watching the traffic behind is more important. I don't care how you reverse your van.
It's a big issue with me, when I see vanners dawdling along the road, totally oblivious to the traffic conditions around them.
When an oversize approaches them from behind they don't have a clue, because they don't watch their mirrors, which makes life quite tricky for the truck driver negotiating around the caravan and tug.
Please get mirrors, AND use the bl00dy things! They are very important for your safety, the safety of your caravan and vehicle, and all the traffic around you.

Smokeydk · Guru

I had Aussie truck mirrors on my Pajero....and was told to remove them as they were to wide

I have there type....but have to use oky straps as FF said they get sucked in by passing semi's

http://primeproducts.com/25-xlr-ratchet-clip-on-tow-mirror-p-254.html

They can fit all size mirrors even the big Pajero ones

Gary · Veteran Member

Rip and Rosie wrote:
Well, I love mine, well, sometimes I do.

I have the strap on truck mirrors which I find extremly valuable, even if it takes a bit of mucking around to set them just where I need them.
However, I always tighten all wobbly bits when I put them on.
The annoying bit for me is the strap which "sings" like a guitar string..... and its vibration took the paint off the doors of the new tug. I have just bought some seatbelt pads which wrap around and secure with velcro, to see if they might stop the hum, and cushion where it touches the car door.

Hello R & R. I have those same mirrors and found the same thing with the humming. I didn't wait for any damage to the paintwork though. I simply placed a short occy strap around the strap of the mirror where it would otherwise touch the door and fixed both ends of it out to the mirror bracket to hold the strap firmly so that it can't vibrate in the wind. It stopped both humming and damage. The only minor drawback is that it temporarily curls the mirror strap into a vertical half-round shape at that point. That's not really a problem. Gary