Ever since we started towing about six years ago with the GMC Savana, Jarrett has had a love/hate relationship with our tow mirrors. While some tow vehicles offer the option of adding an extra tow package with special extended mirrors, this was not available for our van. That left us looking for an after-market solution–which turned out to be harder than we had initially expected. After some trial and error, though, we found camper towing mirrors that work without breaking the bank.
For the past few years we have been using these tow mirrors: Longview (LVY-1700) Towing Mirror. While they got the job done and were much better than just the van’s mirrors alone, Jarrett still could not see the back end of the camper when towing.
So the mirrors weren’t ideal for our rig, but Jarrett made it work because at the time he had not found another solution. But then this past summer when our friends from RV Circus were talking about having the same troubles with their camper towing mirrors, Jarrett decided to go back on the hunt for a better option. And that’s when he found this option for about $33 per mirror: the CIPA 11980 Universal Fit Towing Mirror.
Installation of the new mirrors on the van was pretty simple (check out the video below for more on that). You can manually telescope the mirrors in and out depending on how wide you need them (up to 17″). They can also be manually rotated into either a horizontal or vertical position. Although Jarrett clamped the mirrors to the top of our van mirrors, on other vehicles you may be able to secure them to the bottom of the mirror as well.
In the following pictures Jarrett left the old tow mirrors on with the new camper tow mirrors to compare the difference in visibility.
We put these mirrors to the test on our current solar eclipse trip, and Jarrett was pleased with how they performed. They do vibrate/bounce when traveling at higher speeds, but the connection points remained strong. We found there was more bounce when they were in the horizontal position rather than the vertical stance. Also keep in mind that the product description says they are a flat mirror, but I would consider them a bit convex. This is not a big deal to us but some reviewers did not like this aspect of the mirrors.
Since the mirrors stick out much farther than the other towing mirrors we had, we have to be mindful of pulling them in when we are not towing so we don’t graze anything or accidentally walk into them. 😉
Below Jarrett created a video of the installation process:
Have you had problems with your rig’s camper towing mirrors? What solution did you find?
Good to know! We also have to do this on our tow vehicle. The mirrors we currently have work, but the one on the passenger side always move way more. At one point during our last trip I had to roll the window down and get it off the mirror while driving down the interstate. Totally safe, I wasn’t worried at all-ha!
Hi Sara! Yikes! That would not have been cool! We haven’t had ours vibrate that much, but I’ll definitely have to keep an eye on it. 😊