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Old 27th September 2017, 13:08   #76
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

I am not sure if this is belongs to this thread. Mods, please feel to move this to the appropriate thread if it does not belong here.

The question I have is: While it is raining, rear view mirrors and the outside of the windows of both front doors get wet with droplets of water, making it difficult to look out clearly. While it is easy to clear the windows by rolling them down and up again (the rubber beading helps in wiping them clear), the droplets of water on the mirrors are harder to clear. While one can clean the mirror on the driver's side using a tissue, it is tough to clean the one on the passenger's side, if one is driving alone.

Are there any suggestions to handle this?
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Old 27th September 2017, 13:29   #77
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

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Originally Posted by swissknife View Post
While one can clean the mirror on the driver's side using a tissue, it is tough to clean the one on the passenger's side, if one is driving alone.

Are there any suggestions to handle this?
Try RainX or a water repellent, so the water droplets slide away easily. It's the best fix I've found so far!
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Old 25th August 2019, 11:03   #78
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

So folks, I have an update on my post

I have decided to abandon this method. And no, it is not because of the learning curve in getting used to it. My rationale is far more weighty:

I find that by adjusting the mirrors in the manner specified eliminates blind spots. You can actually move to the next lane easily by checking just the mirrors.

What fails for me is situational awareness.

By setting up the mirrors this way, one loses the sense of what is happening behind. I have been surprised by a fast moving car suddenly appearing at my side about which I had no awareness as it does not show up on my wing mirrors.

That is dangerous and hence I have decided to go back to adjusting it so that I can see what happens in the back in relation to my car's edges and check over my shoulder before merging
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Old 25th August 2019, 14:39   #79
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

Yes, the view in the mirror needs to be related to the car, to give us perspective and positional information.
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Old 25th August 2019, 15:42   #80
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

While I set my ORVMs to give a small view of the sides of my car, I have two blind spot mirrors that give the view of blind spots that would otherwise not be visible. These are pointed a bit downwards to help while parallel parking as well. To increase the view of the IVRM, I have a clip on mirror that gives me B-pillar to B-pillar view.
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Old 25th August 2019, 15:50   #81
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

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Originally Posted by swissknife View Post
While I set my ORVMs to give a small view of the sides of my car, I have two blind spot mirrors that give the view of blind spots that would otherwise not be visible. These are pointed a bit downwards to help while parallel parking as well. To increase the view of the IVRM, I have a clip on mirror that gives me B-pillar to B-pillar view.
This is interesting. Do you mean you have two extra mirrors over and above the stock mirrors?

Can you post the pictures of these extra mirrors with their mounting method? And how much did it cost you?
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Old 25th August 2019, 16:04   #82
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

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Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat View Post
This is interesting. Do you mean you have two extra mirrors over and above the stock mirrors?

Can you post the pictures of these extra mirrors with their mounting method? And how much did it cost you?
Yes, these blind spot mirrors are attached to the OVRMs. They are not expensive and are fixed using two side adhesive tapes. A search for blind spot convex mirrors on amazon.in would throw up many such. I have fixed them a little more to the outside and pointing down to give a view near my rear wheels. I shall share a picture later, if so required.

Note: I do not have any link to the seller or the product.
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Old 26th August 2019, 14:46   #83
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

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1. So how does one establish the frame of reference using the side rear view image? I cannot see anything which specifies how you determine (sub-consciously of course, we are not sitting with scientific calculators on our laps) where you are with respect to the vehicle being shown in the rear view image. Please note I am not recommending keeping a setting that allows you to see the rear windows and perhaps the B pillar!

2. Many of the vehicles do not allow such a wide open position of the side rear view mirrors! I cannot count the number of times I am exasperated because of the narrow opening range offered by the car rear view mirrors. (or perhaps they expect me to sit just 1cm away from the steering wheel )

3. I will try this style and definitely report my findings. Currently my setup is such that I see a sliver of my car's tail on the rear view. That helps me find an anchor.
1. It is not really required. And one learns to live with it.

2. True, the main offenders in most cars are the driver side rear mirrors which actually need to open up more compared to the passenger side mirrors because of the sharper angles involved.

3. My finding after 4 years is that you don't need to see any trace of your own car in the rear view mirror. In case you want to use the mirrors for reversing and parking, please adjust them accordingly or tilt your head to see your car's image but for the usual forward driving you need to have as wide angle of view as possible.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sridhu View Post

What fails for me is situational awareness.

By setting up the mirrors this way, one loses the sense of what is happening behind. I have been surprised by a fast moving car suddenly appearing at my side about which I had no awareness as it does not show up on my wing mirrors.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom View Post
Yes, the view in the mirror needs to be related to the car, to give us perspective and positional information.
Sridhu and Thad, I was of the same view as yours and as stated above I felt uneasy, but the feeling goes away in few days AND you get more situational awareness because of larger coverage of view of the surroundings.

Quote:
Originally Posted by swissknife View Post
The question I have is: While it is raining, rear view mirrors and the outside of the windows of both front doors get wet with droplets of water, making it difficult to look out clearly. While it is easy to clear the windows by rolling them down and up again (the rubber beading helps in wiping them clear), the droplets of water on the mirrors are harder to clear. While one can clean the mirror on the driver's side using a tissue, it is tough to clean the one on the passenger's side, if one is driving alone.

Are there any suggestions to handle this?
Try rubbing soap / shampoo on your mirrors. That should reduce the surface tension so that water droplets are unable to form (water will simply trickle down without forming "beads").

By the way, you can use the same trick to get anti fog mirrors in your bathroom Just wipe some soapy stuff on the mirror before turning on the hot water.

Last edited by khan_sultan : 26th August 2019 at 16:10. Reason: as requested
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Old 26th August 2019, 15:28   #84
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

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Originally Posted by alpha1 View Post
Sridhu and Thad, I was of the same view as yours and as stated above I felt uneasy, but the feeling goes away in few days AND you get more situational awareness because of larger coverage of view of the surroundings.
It is one of the things I was taught by excellent instructors that I stick with. It not only provides a frame of reference but also helps in judging distance and parallelism to other things. I'll stick with being able to see just a little of the car side in the outside mirrors and a little of the back seat in the rear-view mirrors.

One situation I use the outside rear-view mirrors like this for is in an passing almost-touching situation.

More mirrors... would work. Like how big trucks seem to have mirrors pointing everywhere! Maybe... so would a 360-degree camera display, although that would take new learning to relate to the physical world outside.
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Old 27th August 2019, 14:06   #85
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat View Post
This is interesting. Do you mean you have two extra mirrors over and above the stock mirrors?

Can you post the pictures of these extra mirrors with their mounting method? And how much did it cost you?
Here are a few pictures taken as close as possible to my eye level (I am actually tucking my head in the IVRM picture).
Note: These photographs were taken when the car was parked.
Attached Thumbnails
Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors-bpillartobpillar-view.jpg  

Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors-rhorvm.jpg  

Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors-lhorvm.jpg  

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Old 7th November 2019, 08:56   #86
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

These are good ideas for eliminating the blind spots in our own car. I do check the mirrors (IRVM and ORVM) for the blind spot checking. I set the ORVMs to reflect little part of the car to give me a sense of the relative distance of the vehicles approaching from behind. This gives a better sense of perception then spreading the ORVMs in full. This is more helpful in city drives where bikes and autos tend to leave only a few inches of space between their vehicle and mine.
However, we need to keep one thing in mind. We may have eliminated the blind spot in our car, but that does not guarantee that everyone else has. I might be overtaking a car which has not taken care of blind spot. I may get into their blind spot and can be in a bad situation. This happened with me recently when the car I was overtaking suddenly changed the lane almost hitting me. Later that guy told he did not see me in the mirrors and I had to set the mirrors for him on the road. It's safer to honk and try to come out of the possible blind spot ASAP. It might be good to check if you can see the driver in his ORVM, if you can see him, means he also can see you. Otherwise, assume you are in his blind spot.
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Old 4th December 2019, 15:33   #87
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

I have gone through posts over this topic and youtube videos as well, now i came across a new way to set the mirror. I have got used to setting the mirror with the part of my car occupying 20% of it in the horizontal. Will give this method a try, over weekends when traffic is less.
The videos over youtube, have varying instructions on what we need to see in the vertical axes of the mirror, 20% sky remaining 80% road. Any suggestions on this for both outerside mirrors?
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Old 4th December 2019, 15:55   #88
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

No matter how you adjust mirrors, there will be always blind spot between the mirror's field of view and your field of view when you look into ORVM.

During my driving training in Germany, the training instructure completely hidden a car in the blind spot and demonstrated how crucial is to look over shoulder while changing lanes or turning.

Also during exam, it is the most important point how do you monitor your blind spots. If you miss to look over your shoulder then it is sure that you are failed immediately during exam.

I find in India we do miss this crucial point completely. Even the best driver in this forum may not be aware of the importance of looking over shoulder into rear door windscreens during turns. We solely rely on mirrors.

Last edited by sushantr5 : 4th December 2019 at 15:56.
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Old 4th February 2020, 18:26   #89
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

I had read this post earlier, but had my apprehensions trying it out. However, I gave it a try today.

1. At a signal, there was a car to my left and slightly behind. In my left mirror, I could see the right mirror of the car. I cannot see my own car in left mirror without tilting my head. Is the left mirror setting right?

2. I think it will take time and experience to gauge distance between object or vehicle in the left mirror while driving.

3. I have not year taken acute left tursn into small roads, this is one place where I am afraid of not seeing my own cars edge.

4. I have seen some YouTube videos where they suggest in the upper 1/3rd of the side view mirrors one should be able to see the horizon / sky. Any logic here? Why to see what is behind and high up, I don't understand.

5. With the mirrors set as described, in small roads of bengaluru I can see the footpath and buildings in both mirrors. I don't need to see them. So, for guys driving in small roads, can we have side view mirrors adjusted to show the edge of the car. In my daily drive of about 25km, 16km is in small roads.

7. If the side view mirrors are set properly, what should we be seeing ideally in the upper 1/3rd and lower 1/3rd of the mirror? I mean how to check?

Please post your valuable comments and I'm a novice, excuse me for any stupid question.
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Old 4th February 2020, 19:48   #90
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Re: Eliminating Blind Spots - How to correctly adjust the mirrors

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Originally Posted by bpnpmr View Post
1. At a signal, there was a car to my left and slightly behind. In my left mirror, I could see the right mirror of the car. I cannot see my own car in left mirror without tilting my head. Is the left mirror setting right?
I'm sure we have covered this! But, yes, you should be able to see the side of your own car in the ORVMs. Just a little.

This is what I was taught by a very professional instructor in London, years ago (Sadly, I can't remember my Dad's advice on this one): You should be able to see the side of your car in the outside mirrors, and just a little of the back seat in the inside mirror, because this allows your brain to relate what you see in the mirror to your car. You get a much better idea of where what you are seeing is.

As to vertical adjustment of the outside mirrors, my starting point is to make it so that the part of of the car I can see looks horizontal. Which it is. Again, this helps the brain cells translate to reality. You can adjust from this point to suit your view/comfort.

There will be blind spots. One has to take account of that.
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