Side mirror drag & effect on fuel economy - quantified

[AXMonster]

My AX with side mirrirs replaced with 2 inch convex ones.

I just cut the mirror mount down and glued them on

Everything looks tiny, even when its real close. The thing to remember is that if you can see something in the mirrors then its probably not safe to change lane. A quick over shoulder check is the decision maker.

Edit - And the manual adjustment stalks inside the car still work too

[COMP]

Originally Posted by AXMonster

My AX with side mirrirs replaced with 2 inch convex ones.

I just cut the mirror mount down and glued them on

Everything looks tiny, even when its real close. The thing to remember is that if you can see something in the mirrors then its probably not safe to change lane. A quick over shoulder check is the decision maker.

Edit - And the manual adjustment stalks inside the car still work too

Hmmmmmmm ,,it would be a pain to tow with but for DD

[Vince-HX]

So i bit the bullet and recently removed both my side mirrors and made some block off plates for that and my front upper grill.

Looks to be my best tank ever but gotta wait till friday to have the $$$ to fill up and crunch some numbers. The guys @ work laughed and dont think removing the mirrors will have any effect. I love proving people wrong.

Hopefully I will be ordering a Scangauge II this friday also

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello Vince,

What did you do to replace the mirrors?

[JeffOYB]

Hi all... My first post!

I was wondering about the side mirrors as low-hanging fruit. Looks like they are!

But I wonder why such hesitation to go all the way and just take em off? --Since eco-drivers already use quite a few special driving techniques, wouldn't head-checking instead of using mirrors be a pretty easy skill to add to the list? At least for testing? It seems like interior fish-eye stick-on adhesive mirrors are easy to find and effective. I've raced HPV bikes and used such mirrors---no prob. Even if they're illegal my hunch is that our local cops anyway wouldn't notice or much care. We already have all the "loud pipes save lives" folks filling the roads around here (now THAT's a violation whose lack of inforcement baffles me!).

PS: I'm looking for a BOOK about ecomodding. Is one coming out? Anyone working on one? I'm an indy book publisher who's game!

Onward!

Jeff Potter
OutYourBackDoor.com
indy culture

[atomicradish]

Hell, I'm going to remove my mirrors all the way, particularly for the long highway trips. I plan on driving exclusively on long highway jaunts anyway...

Luckily for me, I do not use my side mirrors now. I don't trust them, and always do a head check. Nothing lost... except a little bit of drag

[SVOboy]

I've always been scared to just because of THE LAW, but I'll check honda for what I think is a factory block off plate for the passenger side and see about removing that one,

[MetroMPG]

Hi Jeff - I've been to your site and remember you from the MaxMPG Yahoo group too.

One reason I kept the folding driver's side mirror (even though it's not legally required in Ontario, provided I have an inside mirror with a clear rear view) is that it can also provide a rear view when the view back is obstructed (something in the car or a vehicle close behind and I want to know what's going on behind it).

The convex mirrors just inside the glass are fine for a side/rear view, but don't provide an actual rear view.

This has become more important since adding the Kammback.

[pawilkes]

i drove 560 miles yesterday and to keep myself entertained and awake I played with having my mirrors a bit to see the results. Going 75 mph (i sacrificed fuel economy for time on this long drive) i noticed between 0.5 and 1.5 mpg. It wasn't very scientific, just having them folded in or not and resetting my scangauge and driving 20-30 miles, but i did it a number of times switching back and forth and it was consistently better.

on another point, i hit bad rain in the dark and flipped my driver side mirror out right away. in adverse weather, its really nice to have the mirrors there. i might try to rig some up to my A-pillar and see if they work. if so, i'll try to pull the stock ones off w/o damaging them. I think it would be worth 2mpg on the highway.

[pawilkes]

i just looked at Kentucky law, all it says is that there must be one on the left side of the car but it doesn't explicitly say it must be on the outside of the car. i'm pretty sure mine are simple to take off, a couple screws and a wire. now i have to get time to tinker.