Mirrors

[whaley]

I'm curious if those of you towing Olivers or similar trailers use extension mirrors? Are they needed? Any advice?

 

Thanks,

Tom

[mountainborn]

Tom, we considered extension mirrors also. Bought some. Thought that while we was at it, we would get some good ones, especially since we wanted to be using them a lot. Our thinking was that the added field of view was a good investment in safety. I put them on faithfully and found them useful occasionaly.

Then one day I left them in the back of the tow vehicle, I had forgotten to put them on. So, I thought i'd put them on at the next stop. The next stop was lunch at cracker barrel. I forgot them, again, till' that evening when looking for a place to overnite at on our trip. We finished up the trip without them, carried them for a few trips, then quit even carrying them at all.

My conclusion is that the Oliver is so trim that not much is gained by puting the extended mirrors on our Jeep Wrangler.

From the looks of the Honda Ridgelines that I have seen, their mirrors are quality and you might consider borrowing a set, or buying a cheaper set to see if you want to go that way.

The standard Honda Mirrors may suit you just fine. We have a couple of sets of after market towing mirrors you can use to find out, if you like.

For us, it is just one thing less to have to do before we pull out. We feel lucky to be able to leave them at home.

I guess the bottom line for most folks will be their comfort level with how well they can see to the rear.

We have this type and the less expensive plastic tow mirrors bought at wally world. Both work well, we use neither at this time:

[whaley]

Mountainborn - thanks a lot for the reply. Maybe I'll wait and see. I'm afraid I'll be a white knuckle tower for a while.

 

Tom

[mountainborn]

Mountainborn - thanks a lot for the reply. Maybe I'll wait and see. I'm afraid I'll be a white knuckle tower for a while.

 

Tom

He, he, I'll bet that you will be supprised at how easy your towing experience is going to be.

Butcherknife would drive our class A towing a Jeep Wrangler, but never was totally comfortable with it.

But with our Oliver, she hooks up and tows and parks and un hooks by her self when I am tied up at work.

You are just absolutely going to love the ease with which you can manouvre in congested areas such as a wally world parking lot.

When we need a few items, I will drop butcherknife off at wally's front door then circle out further in the parking lot, fire up the king dome, catch the news, ect.. Sometimes the local news or weather will effect our travel plans or route.

[whaley]

Man, you're the most positive, helpful cheerleader. Think I'll have you on the cell phone when I pull out of Hohenwald, ha.

[mountainborn]

Hey it is good to know that a fellow owner may be available for a quick question, especially if out on the road somewhere. My cell number sent to you by PM.

[SeaDawg]

I have to agree with MountainBorn... The Oliver is just a really easy tow.

 

One of the reasons we started looking at Olivers and similar trailers is that we travel a lot to North Carolina, and we spend a lot of time on little narrow mountain roads. My husband liked the idea of a trailer that was not a lot wider than the tow vehicle... there's not a lot of shoulder or forgiveness in some of those little mountain roads. The added bonuses of light weight, low center of gravity, plus the narrower body just make for a really nice tow. We drove our new Oliver home from TN via Destin to Tampa Bay, about half small two lane roads and half interstate, in Florida tourist season traffic, and never had a problem with the Volvo's standard side mirrors. But, you may want to check out the tow mirrors just for added security if you're not used to towing at all. Especially, because the Oliver trails along so lightly behind, it's easy to forget that it's there!

 

Sherry