Blind Spots and Convex Mirrors
- Thread starter Danoff
- 32 comments
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Danoff
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- 34,222
- Mile High City
Ok, tried it today with the BMW. I removed and trashed the convex mirrors on the outer edge of my side mirrors and put new ones toward the inside. I then adjusted the mirrors out until I had no more blind spots. Here's what I noticed:
- I still would have had blind spots if not for the inside edge convex mirror. My side mirrors or central rear view mirror is not large enough overlap or even barely touch in terms of what they present. The convex mirror bridged the gap.
- The flat portion of my side mirrors were now only useful for one thing - detecting the presence of a car in my blind spot.
- I used to use the flat portion of my side mirrors to look straight back down the lane and judge the speed of an upcoming car. This now had to be done with the convex mirror or central rear view.
- The configuration works - I was able to see everything I needed to see.
- I don't like it, judging the speed of the traffic in the lane I'd like to move into is much more difficult. The bulk of my mirror was being used for one thing and one thing only - detection of a car in my blind spot.
- The point of reference for mirror adjustment is in the convex mirror, but it is difficult to use the little convex mirror to get the reference right because a good portion of my car shows up in it.
- I have gone back to using the convex mirror on the outer edge of my side mirror and using the flat portion to look straight back down the lane (with the edge of my car present). Not only do I get better coverage of all areas (I don't even have a blind spot two lanes over), but I have better judgement abilities and it is easier to tell that it's aligned properly.
- Without the use additional equipment (such as a convex mirror), the C&D/SAE method would indeed be the best solution. With the presence of a convex mirror, I find it to be suboptimal.
- 1,759
I don't have one because they look horrible and I have no trouble with blind spots. If you are just vigilant in keeping track of all your mirrors and the traffic around you, blind spots are not a problem.
