How to adjust your side mirrors

Elkins45

Elkins45

Joined
May 7, 2018
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Location
Northern KY
If Car and Driver is to be believed I’ve been doing it wrong for 45 years.

www.caranddriver.com

How To Adjust Your Mirrors to Avoid Blind Spots

Adjust the mirrors so far outward that the viewing angle of the side mirrors overlaps that of the cabin’s rearview mirror.
www.caranddriver.com www.caranddriver.com

For those of you who don’t want to click the link the gist of the article is that you should have your side mirrors adjusted so they pick up where the coverage of your rear view ends, which is far out enough that the side of the vehicle isn’t visible. I’m going to adjust mine farther out today and see how I like it.
 
This is correct. Most material on defensive driving mentions these mirror adjustments. As a rule you don't need to see the side of your vehicle when driving. You need to see what's in your blind spots, which is different.

When the side mirrors are adjusted properly, in addition to an object appearing in your side mirror as it goes off the side of the interior mirror, a passing vehicle should start to appear in your peripheral vision as it goes off the outside of the side mirror.
 
Elkins45 said:
If Car and Driver is to be believed I’ve been doing it wrong for 45 years.

www.caranddriver.com

How To Adjust Your Mirrors to Avoid Blind Spots

Adjust the mirrors so far outward that the viewing angle of the side mirrors overlaps that of the cabin’s rearview mirror.
www.caranddriver.com www.caranddriver.com

For those of you who don’t want to click the link the gist of the article is that you should have your side mirrors adjusted so they pick up where the coverage of your rear view ends, which is far out enough that the side of the vehicle isn’t visible. I’m going to adjust mine farther out today and see how I like it.
Click to expand...
I've been using this method for over 20 years. It drives my wife nuts because she constantly thinks I'm haphazardly changing lanes.

So here's how you initially set up the mirrors. Sitting in the driver seat doors closed. Driver side mirror: Place your ear against the window and adjust the mirror until you can barely see the side of your car. Passenger side mirror: Lean to the right placing your head in line with the rear view mirror and adjust the passenger side mirror until you can barely see the side of your car.

Then fine tune to your liking.
 
Seen that years ago, still don't like it today, despite trying several times.

Thing is, I move around a bit while driving. Sometimes I lean on the window, sometimes on the console, often anywhere between. So... if I adjust the mirror so it just avoids seeing the tail of the car when I'm centered in the seat, all I need to do is to lean so as to get the perspective I want, then I can lean elsewhere.

I still whip my head around before doing lane changes though.

On my Tundra I wound up adding some of those convex mirrors, those helped fill in some spots, even with those big mirrors I thought they really helped.
 
BMWTurboDzl said:
I've been using this method for over 20 years. It drives my wife nuts because she constantly thinks I'm haphazardly changing lanes.

So here's how you initially set up the mirrors. Sitting in the driver seat doors closed. Driver side mirror: Place your ear against the window and adjust the mirror until you can barely see the side of your car. Passenger side mirror: Lean to the right placing your head in line with the rear view mirror and adjust the passenger side mirror until you can barely see the side of your car.

Then fine tune to your liking.
Click to expand...

Exactly!!!

The worst part is, many car brands have mirrors that can not be adjusted far enough enough to be adjusted properly.
 
Elkins45 said:
adjusted so they pick up where the coverage of your rear view ends, which is far out enough that the side of the vehicle isn’t visible
Click to expand...
After driving class 8 trucks for 45 years, I always adjusted my mirrors to where I could see a small portion of the right rear of the trailers I was pulling as a reference point. Also at night the lower right side marker lights serve as a reference point as well. I still do this today in my personal vehicles. AFAIK i’ve never hit or caused an accident when coming back over after passing another vehicle.
 
supton said:
Seen that years ago, still don't like it today, despite trying several times.

Thing is, I move around a bit while driving. Sometimes I lean on the window, sometimes on the console, often anywhere between. So... if I adjust the mirror so it just avoids seeing the tail of the car when I'm centered in the seat, all I need to do is to lean so as to get the perspective I want, then I can lean elsewhere.

I still whip my head around before doing lane changes though.

On my Tundra I wound up adding some of those convex mirrors, those helped fill in some spots, even with those big mirrors I thought they really helped.
Click to expand...

Except doing this you are loosing the constant peripheral vision to see cars around you without even having to look. It’s amazing how much you can see in your peripheral vision when you pay attention to it.
 
I have mine to where i can see just a bit of the vehicle side and i tend to have them tilted a bit lower down to where I see little window glass.
 
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