Mirror Adjustment?

[Ran D. St. Clair]

Bear in mind, I am no truck driver….

I was coming back from getting the truck weighed and I decided to move to the right one lane getting ready to exit the freeway. I checked my right side mirror, saw nothing, put on my right blinker, and started to slowly drift over. I was just a few feet into the lane when this little red Geo Metro squirts into view in my right side window. Instinctively I jerked the wheel to the left and the truck swayed and wallowed back into my lane, where upon my next challenge was to keep it from overshooting into the lane to my left. It all settled out in a 2nd or two, and the little Geo went on his merry way as if nothing had happened.

So, I wanted to ask how you set up your mirrors.

In my car, where I have a rear view mirror, I set the left side mirror so I can move my head to touch the glass on the left side window, and see down the left side of the car. That way, when in driving position, the mirror sees fairly wide to the side and covers my blind spot. The range of vision on the right side is less, because I am farther from the mirror, but I set it to cover roughly the same blind spot. The center mirror fills in the back, and by turning my head side to side I can pretty much see everything for 360 degrees. Sometimes I get a little lazy about looking everywhere, but that’s not a mirror problem…

In the truck I have no rear view mirror. I do have the two great big vertical flat plate mirrors on either side, and I also have two convex dome mirrors below them. Seeing directly behind the truck isn’t an option of course (I don’t have a backup camera). I set the flat plate mirrors so I can just see directly down the sides of the box (straight back) on the edge of the mirror. I thought that was good enough to cover the blind spot, since they are such big mirrors, but apparently not on the right side.

The dome mirrors are for seeing up close along the sides of the box. I tried to set them up so I could see the front corner of the box (which sticks out well past the cab), since I early on discovered that I could easily hit things with the skirt that hangs down in that area. They also give me a good view along the side of the truck back to the rear tires and beyond (but are apparently useless for seeing little red Geo Metro’s).

So, should I push the big flat mirrors out to cover more of the blind spot? I can shift around in the seat some to see down the sides of the box when I have to. Perhaps that would be a better trade off?

 

[Bob86ZZ4]

I rely very much on those round convex mirrors. If you've got it adjusted right you should be able to see Geo Metros. Maybe you've not got it turned out enough? You should see just the edge of the cab on the inner most edge of that mirror I think. That will give you tons of sideways vision.

 

[Doc Weaver]

good advice Bob. I depend on the convex mirrors so much, that I miss them when I'm driving a car. I have bigger blind spots in my wife's Saab. I don't think she would let me put two big Dome mirrors on it.

 

[ed s]

Ran,
Don't beat yourself up over a near miss because some times we share the road with some real idiots. In IL last Sunday I ran into one of them. Love my air horn and I sure woke the three kids in the back seat up not to mention the idiot dad driving the car.

I too rely on my convex mirror before lane chages. I have side cameras but rely most on mirror. I have often wonder about the convex mirrors you can have installed at the front of the fender if they would help more in this case. I would think better view and les turning of head.

 

[volvoman]

we put hood mounted mirrors on both of our wreckers. i use the right hood one more than side spot on one wrecker. you can see all the way down the right side front about front tire to past rear of wrecker. wrecker is about 35 ft with wheel lift folded down. one wrecker the driver only wanted right side on his wrecker. that works good also. its a lot easier to see down drivers side.

 

[geofkaye]

...they will fool you if you think the other lane car is that far away....that is why they are called "spotter mirrors"....check the lane with the spotter and then when the lane is clear-or appear clear-then use the flats to make a lane change.....newbies always make the mistake of doing lane changes with the spotters....hehehehe...good for the wrecker business!.....geofkaye and the Rivercity Girlz....

 

[Ran D. St. Clair]

Truth be told, I probably could have seen the Geo in my convex mirror if I had looked. It sounds like I have a bad habit to break of looking only in the flat mirror.