Side mirror drag & effect on fuel economy - quantified

[orbywan]

I should have my camera back by Wednesday or so, I'll take more photos of the interior layout and provide some more info on the cameras and monitor.

I've gotten pretty comfortable with the side cameras, but driving at night in heavy traffic can be a problem. The problem with current generation small cameras suitable for this application, is at night headlights look like big fireballs coming at you. This can make it difficult to figure out how far away they are and how fast they're going. When they get closer, maybe 20 -25 feet away, then you can judge it pretty well, but by then they're so close it may be too close to change lanes or whatever.

I installed convex side mirrors on the inside of each window (will post photos of those as soon as I can) and those do help, but in heavy traffic at night, it is occasionally hard to sort out all the headlight pairs. Coming home from Phoenix last night I think I figured out a good solution for this. I think replacing my inside rear view mirror with a wide angle version will solve this problem. I just have to find one and try it.

Why is that any different that the side convex mirrors? Only trying it will tell, but I think the larger size of the center rear view mirror will reduce the fish-eye effect and make it easier to sort the images out.

I'd say in current form, this system is more effective than mirrors in most conditions, and not as effective as mirrors in about 2 or 3% of conditions, the worst being at night in heavy traffic, well see if a better center rear view will make the difference there.

If you're brave, and it is possible to see far enough back on either side of your vehicle in a pinch, removing the mirrors and adding the convex mirrors on the inside (without cameras) might be an option. There's a simple way to find out. Find the best location for mounting the convex mirrors, and then, here's the brave part: tape your current side mirrors off completely. Now, U]carefully[/U], drive around a little in non-insane driving conditions and see what you see.

If you're young (and your neck still has max rotation so you can look back once in a while) and you have great vision (so you can instantly go from looking forward in the distance to trying to see very small images in the convex mirror 18 inches from your face, in a heartbeat), then this might work for you.

For the average person, probably not. So anyway, the testing continues...

[Big Dave]

Thanks.

You told me what I need to know.