When we first bought our caravan the previous owner threw in some 'strap on' extended mirrors. Basically, they were worse than useless. The angle they fixed on at meant that, as Katy has described, you could not see the caravan through them at all, and also the straps did not do up tightly enough to stop the mirror from shaking at motorway speeds.
I left them on to look the part until we had got the caravan home, but straight after that they went in a skip and we bought a pair of Milenco Aeros. These screw to either the top or the bottom (whichever you prefer) of your car's mirror casing and can be adjusted pretty much anyway you need to get the right visibility.
The one note of caution I would give is that the screws need to be done up as tight as you phyiscally can. Leave them finger tight only and there is a possibility that - for instance - one of them may fall off into the inside lane of the M6 with no possibility of retrieving it. (Not that this ever happened to me, you understand ... )
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Quote: Originally posted by SamandRose on 29/6/2020
When we first bought our caravan the previous owner threw in some 'strap on' extended mirrors. Basically, they were worse than useless. The angle they fixed on at meant that, as Katy has described, you could not see the caravan through them at all, and also the straps did not do up tightly enough to stop the mirror from shaking at motorway speeds.
I left them on to look the part until we had got the caravan home, but straight after that they went in a skip and we bought a pair of Milenco Aeros. These screw to either the top or the bottom (whichever you prefer) of your car's mirror casing and can be adjusted pretty much anyway you need to get the right visibility.
The one note of caution I would give is that the screws need to be done up as tight as you phyiscally can. Leave them finger tight only and there is a possibility that - for instance - one of them may fall off into the inside lane of the M6 with no possibility of retrieving it. (Not that this ever happened to me, you understand ... )
You are not the first to say that strap-on mirrors are useless and it leads me to wonder why? I have been using them for years, on 3 different cars, and I have found them great. Maybe they suit some cars and not others? The view they give me is fine, I can see the caravan side, I can see past it and see anything about to overtake, and I haven't had any problems with vibration. They strap on very firmly too, and being rubber the straps grip well. The only problem I did have was that the original straps weren't quite long enough for my X Trail, although they had been fine on the previous two cars. Easily solved though as longer straps were readily available for peanuts.
Personally I would rather use these than the clamp-on type as I am wary about how easily they might come off, and not sure whether tightening them hard could damage the mirror casing. My mirrors also have a larger mirror area than most of the clamp-on ones I have seen, which I prefer.
Very mixed feelings about those emergency retention straps/cords. Whilst I'd rather not lose my mirror if the clamps worked loose, I don't fancy it battering all kinds of hell out of the side of my car while it dangles in the slip stream on end of strap/cord until I can safely pull over to refit mirror, that could be quite a few miles!
Think overall I'd rather loose a £20 mirror than have a £300-£400 bill to remove dents and repaint my door! Even if you got a fixed penalty fine for not having a towing mirror, it'd still be cheaper than repairing the door!
In a couple of years use and many thousands of miles, can't say my Millenco clamps have ever looked like they were inclined to come loose.
The clamp pads are rubber faced and quite grippy, and the clamp screws exert more than enough force.
As to strap on mirrors, my current car mirror shells don't really have a flat or bulbous section in the middle, they taper all the way from inside to outside edge, I was concerned that any movement would loosen straps sufficiently for them to just drop off, so I favoured the clamp on edge of shell type.
So what I didn't say at the beginning was, I had ordered mirrors on Amazon for my first towing journey to take the caravan from outside my house up to the seasonal pitch. Luckily, the day before I was due to tow I opened the box and like the newbie I am, it contained ... only one mirror! I went back online onto Amazon to order another one but it was going to arrive too late, so I made an emergency purchase at Halfords, click and collect of two new mirrors. And these were the rubbish ones that gave me either zero view or too tight a view.
Today after all your help and my independent research, I dug out the original single towing mirror from Amazon and low and behold, it is a much better mirror. It is adjustable (ball and socket) and has a much larger surface with a magnified section and a regular section. It's still strap on, but actually I don't think that was the problem, it was the non-adjustable nature of the towing mirrors themselves that was the issue. So now I just need to go back on to Amazon and buy another single mirror to match the one I have ... and ditch the rubbish ones from Halfords.
Yay! I am learning so much and one day I will be as knowledgeable about caravan-life as I am about camping-under-canvas-life!
Quote: Originally posted by Monty15 on 29/6/2020
As to strap on mirrors, my current car mirror shells don't really have a flat or bulbous section in the middle, they taper all the way from inside to outside edge, I was concerned that any movement would loosen straps sufficiently for them to just drop off, so I favoured the clamp on edge of shell type.
I think that may back up what I said about suiting some cars and not others. My car's mirrors taper slightly, but not enough to be a problem. The straps on my mirrors are adjustable so one is just slightly tighter than the other because of the taper. As they are rubber they grip anyway. I have never had even a suggestion of them slipping on any of my cars that I have used them on. I can see though that if a car's mirrors have a severe taper that could be a problem.
I have been using the 'Suck it and see' mirrors for a few years, these attach to the car mirror glass by powerful suction, they are then adjusted by the mirror controls. Used them with our Shogun and now with our Mokka. One convex and one flat glass, just need to swap them round for continental towing. Easily adjusted when changing different size drivers.
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Topic: Towing Mirrors don`t help (help!)
