Towing Mirrors

|| A bit of advice required. || || I've been towing a caravan on occasions for about a year now. || || It's about time I got some mirrors to help with overtaking and right || turns ect. || || I don't know which to buy. || || The ones that attach to the existing door mirrors || || or the one that are placed further forward on brackets that fit || across the bonnet. || || Anyone had experience of either or both? || || -- || Simon Mills || Vic.Aust. || || 98 tdi Disco

The ones that clip on the mirrors with large rubber bands are quite adequate and robust IME, good for motorway speeds if they are on nice and tight. However, they aren't as much use as you think - they let you see down the side of the van but not much else. To get a good view of the traffic behind, you'd need something that stuck out a couple of feet both sides. Discos and RRs are pretty wide vehicles anyway. At least the mirror-mounted ones are easy to get on and off - you can get the caravan to your destination and then pretend you haven't got one.

In message , Simon Mills writes

You can achieve good visibility by swinging out your Defender mirrors to

90 degrees. I have also used strap on extensions on these mirrors. Advantage is you ( and your passenger) can adjust from inside the cab. I have used the wing mounted ones in the past, but it takes quite a gap in the bonnet to take them and they are bulky to store. It was sometime ago I last had any, and got rid when I switched from Volvo as they wouldn't fit on my Jeep. I've never tried them on a Defender - not sure they would fit such a large wing. Maybe someone else can advise.

Get the extended wing mounted variety, nothing wrong with wing mirrors.

I use rubber band mounts onto the existing mirrors of my Disco quite successfully

Top tip - I use them vertically (portrait) rather than horizontally (landscape) as this reduces vibration significantly; I find this important at night otherwise the reflections of headlamps behind become very distracting as they flicker in the mirror. Strapped onto a LR they are quite far enough out not to need to be horizontal.

My only complaint is that the mounting arms have plastic plugs to automatically depress the existing mirrors to show the leading edge of the caravan and I don't like forcing my electric mirrors around manually ...

If you want to see behind the 'van, you'll really need a camera, not mirrors tho'

SMAT Magnums (strap over door mirror type with big rubber bands and plastic clips) do an ok job for me on my '94 Disco Tdi and don't interfere with the existing mirrors. Use them in portrait mode rather than landscape as suggested elsewhere. Can't see right behind the 'van but as I have a view through from the car it's not a problem.

Bob.

Thanks everyone.

I think the strap on one seem to be the way to go.I'll get some at the weekend.