The trailer towing thread...

[gsmittle]

Those convex mirrors can make the distance perspective difficult to judge. I also don't like the passenger mirror that has the optics of "objects may be closer than they appear". The outside mirrors I put on my tow vehicle were just mirrors without all the hoopla. I like seeing things as they are.

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I've had them on every vehicle I've owned for the last 20 years or so, so I guess I'm used to the odd perspective. (LOML says I have the odd perspective.)

g.

[dbhost]

Allot of people up here have a tow hitch on the front of their trucks so they can see what is going on. I never see them around lakes, just the rivers. Never had one myself and no longer fish the rivers since they got so crowded. I use my Escape to haul/tow it around and if I need to I open the hatch. You could probably drop the tailgate for more visibility too but the PVC pipe is allot easier.

On TT dropping the tailgate is easy. With a boat, well the '04 up F150 has such a tall bed, that the tailgate down would hit the trailer winch for some boat trailers... Not a bad idea though...

From the looks of it, the odds are that I am going to end up with a front hitch anyway so I can remove my winch and keep it out of the elements when not in use. (Theft prevention mostly). I'll attach it prior to heading out to the deer lease. I don't need the extra weight, or length anyway...

[dbhost]

I should mention. I am so used to either driving a van (one of my first vehicles was a 1965 Volkswagen Westfalia camper, and NO I am NO hippie...) or pickup trucks with giagantic mounts of stuff in the back. internal mirrors and back windows for the most part aren't useful for me... One of the mods I have left to do to my truck is add the '06 and up telescoping towing mirrors. The '04 & '05 didn't offer that feature, and it is an easy swap...

[jaybee]

I put a tow hitch on the front of my Jeep Patriot - I'm not ripping off the back hatch on an overhanging branch. And I have both front and rear view cameras to install.