I thought that this was a good idea:
http://www…entryID=39
Onother, cheaper idea is to set your mirrors to reduce the blind spot to almost nothing. I’ve don this on two sedans with excellent results. It’s not bad on my van, but the wife doesn’t like it. Here it is:
Lean to the left until your head just touches the window. Set the driver’s side mirror so that you just barely see the rear fender. Lean to the right until your head is over the console (or center of the bench). Set the right mirror so that you just barely see the rear fender. Adjust the mirrors on the highway so that when a car exits the inside rear view mirror it shows up in the appropriate outside mirror. I can see cars in the outside rear view mirrors up to the point that I can see them with my peripheral vision. Try it and see if it works for you.
How do you get out of the car on he highway at speed to adjust your mirrors?
Not all vehicles have mirrors that are adjustable from inside.
I use the above method, and will never go back to the ‘traditional’ mirror aiming. Having the ability to see your blind spot without turning your head is great.
Another way to set the mirrors up without moving your head is to adjust the mirror outwards until you can see the entire lane beside you on the left, and the shoulder on the right.
I don’t have that problem. My mirrors are power assisted. You might try pulling in front of a parked car on a straight road or parking lot for the right side mirror. Put half the car in the inside rear view mirror and the other half in the outside mirror. Maybe you can adjust the left side mirror while driving. Otherwise, try the parking lot.
With manual mirrors, standing at the mirror, lean down to just below the door handle and look up to the mirror. Adjust it to see the driver’s head rest.
Every car I have had without power mirrors could be adjusted from the driver’s seat just by opening the window and sticking you hand out. Are there cars (aside from a few that had mirrors mounted on the fenders) that you could not reach from the driver’s window?
I use the lowest tech method of all, I turn my head and actually look before I change lanes or direction.
That’s what I was taught in High School Driver’s Ed. In fact in CA in the fifties you would fail the drivers exam if you didn’t check seven by looking over your shoulder.
Most of my driving is on the highway. This blind spot issue is important to me. When I drive 1500 miles in two days, that is a lot of lane-changing, a lot of risk of overlooking a car or worse motorcycle in one of the blindspots.
Several years ago, I bought a couple little bubble mirrors which stick on the existing outside rear-view mirrors. They aren’t any good for backing up, but there is no longer any blind spot risk at all. Zero.
I also turn the mirrors out a little farther than most people do. A radio doctor described this; where he got it I don’t know. But, I set the mirrors so I must move my head out a tiny bit to see the side of the car, rather than covering the car itself. This also expands the visible area.
I hope we are talking the same blind spots. I refer to the ones where a car can be off to your side on the highway, and you don’t see him at all.
Turning your head each time you are going to change lanes, which for me is a lot of times a day, is an instant when you are NOT looking ahead. This happens enough times and sooner or later one of those times you look back something is going to happen at exactly the wrong instant. My attitude is you only get so many close calls, and so each one must be eliminated.
Bubble mirrors, stuck to the very outside edge of your rearview mirrors. Some truck rental companies have these on all their truck.
The new issue of Automotive News, a trade magazine, has an article about a system that totally eliminates blind spots. It has four wide-angle sensors, one on each side of the vehicle. They’re fed into a computer that develops full picture of the vehicle and everything around it from the “above the area” perspective. It’s liek watching everything from above.