Minimizing your blind spot in your car

[atlp99]

This little change can improve your situational awareness while in the car.

Most people do not set up their side view mirrors on their car. Most keep their side mirrors focused too far in towards the center with more overlap between the center rear view and side mirrors. Ideally you should set up your side mirrors so that they have minimal or no overlap between the area seen in your center and side mirrors.
This will feel a little weird at first but once you are used to driving with your mirrors set up like this it is amazing how much more you can see and how much less you have to look over your shoulders to check your blind spots.
On my car I have the mirrors as far out as they will adjust and have virtually no blind spot left. When a car is passing you by the time you can't see it in your mirror they are already in your peripheral vision.
This helps increase your situational awareness while in the car.

 

[porterdog]

Agree 100%; the trick I use (taught to me at a Porsche club high-performance driving school (not a member, sadly)) was to put your head against the inside of the driver door glass and adjust the mirror out so that you can just see the side of your car. When you move your head back to the normal position the view is near perfect.

 

[Zach S]

Some cars just have mirrors that are too small. Take my 93 Caprice for example. Sure I could change over to 95/6 mirrors, but they're about $70 a pop, and the swap involves drilling and welding, and I don't have a welder (yet). The newer mirrors are a big help, but it still aint great. Its like saying someone is smarter than Forrest Gump.

I keep my mirrors adjusted so that I have to lean off-center to see the corner of the vehicle. In my caprice, I just turn around and look. I think its widest point is the back doors (6' 6"), with it getting skinnier (er, not as wide) beyond that.

My truck is much easier. Do to a combination of its dumbo-ear mirrors, the cap on the back, and the 20% rear glass, I don't have a blind spot unless i turn around and look behind me.

I tried the "head against the door glass" method and it didnt work for me at all. All it did was move my blind spot and make it a little bigger. On a car thats almost 18ft long and 6.5 feet wide, that has smaller mirrors than my wife's escort, I cant afford that.

 

[Mainsail]

Do you use your mirrors to shoot through? What does this have to do with firearms Strategies and Tactics?

 

[cgraham]

It has to do with SA, as the OP stated; especially valuable while waiting in a parking lot. Big side benefit - safer driving.

Especially valuable advice for those of us who have lost neck swivel capacity by accident or age.

Use ALL the available tools!

C

 

[Sir Aardvark]

I put those little bubble-mirrors on both of my outside mirrors - try 'em before you knock 'em.

 

[gotime242]

You havnt seen blind spots till you drive a 350z...you'd think every other car out there has the visibility of the god himself.

 

[Byron Quick]

The bubble mirrors work good for you?

 

[Dope]

I do something similar, but I then move them in so I can juuuuust see a little bit of the rear corner(s) of the car in the mirror. Mainly this is just for orientation, so when I'm looking at something in the mirror I can have a good idea of exactly where it is in relation to the car. There is very little/no overlap between the 3 mirrors, regardless.

Dope

 

[jbauch357]

The blind spots in my vette are horrendous, and thanks to aftermarket seats you can't move around much to look into the blind spot. Correctly aligning the mirrors out to the side to just past the point of being able to see down the side of the car gives me proper overlap of the three mirrors and negates any potential blind spots.

On my truck it's a different story - I sit too high to see a lot of cars on the road (in this area) and have installed bubble mirros to see in all directions but most importantly down.

 

[CWL]

Ugly but effective, you can install a Wink Mirror in your car that will give you a full panoramic view of what's behind you.

 

[mejeepnut]

This thread needs to be closed until we have 25 verified addresses from THR members who are/where in danger from the topic in this thread!!!!


PER -Jeff White,ask him,not me!

 

[CoRoMo]

I use these.

 

[Kat144]

I'll have to try this....usually I don't mind just turning my head, but when traffic is tight and I"m trying to merge, nothing causes a heart attack faster than checking to make sure the car I'm trying to merge in front of is going to let me in rather than rear-end me....and then turn back around and see that in the zillionth of a second it took me to look, the car I'm merging *behind* has slammed on its brakes....

 

[withdrawn34]

Any mirror made with the past few decades are capable of the 90-degree mirror setting mentioned in the OP. It makes bubble mirrors completely obsolete. Bubble mirrors aren't as great because they create a second view... creating extra information that you have to get used to and the process all the time.

It doesn't really make sense, because you're compensating for mirrors that would work perfectly if they were set properly. Basically, you're getting bubble mirrors because you insist on seeing the side of your car in your mirrors.

Remember, the side of your car isn't going anywhere; so why is it in your mirror?

It's sort of like constantly hitting yourself in the head with a hammer, and then taking an aspirin to dull the pain. It'd make a lot more sense to just stop hitting yourself in the head.

 

[Zach S]

Any mirror made with the past few decades are capable of the 90-degree mirror setting mentioned in the OP.

You must have missed where I mentioned that the mirrors on my caprice are much smaller than the ones on my wife's escort.

 

[ultradoc]

I use bubble mirrors or some call them fish eye mirrors. You see them on big truck all of the time because they have miltiple blind spots.

 

[ChuteTheMall]

Bubble mirrors work great on my truck for letting me see down onto the white lines as I perfectly back into a small parking space.

They're slightly useful at night for giving another opportunity to catch headlights of following vehicles, but otherwise I don't use them much.

Nothing beats adding a quick glance over your shoulder if possible, you might see a motorcycle you didn't expect.

 

[withdrawn34]

>> You must have missed where I mentioned that the mirrors on my caprice are much smaller than the ones on my wife's escort.

You're right, some mirrors still might need extra help. I suppose I shouldn't have said "all."

The only other vehicles that could use special wide-view mirrors are large trucks or other types of vehicles with large blind spots. It's a necessity there.

 

[withdrawn34]

(sorry double post, no way to delete posts it seems)