[EU Guy Asks] What's going on with these mirrors?

[marcinbike]

Hi,
as I mentioned in my "hello" topic, I'm fresh owner of American pickup truck in Europe. You may say all cars or trucks are more or less the same all over the world - if You can drive a car in US You will probably handle it in europe. But not everything is the same...

First thing - mirrors. I've never dealt with mirrors like in my RAM. (even though my previous car was also a pickup truck - Ranger Raptor btw)
1. In both mirrors, in the corners, there are same small additional "fisheye" mirrors.
2. Driver side mirror has ... hign magnification.

How to adjust them?

When I setup main driver side mirror just like in "normal" car I have really large dead zone.
Now I adjusted them like these small corner mirrors were main mirros but I'm not sure is that right...
Once again

How to adjust them?

I know this is an obvious matter for you, but please explain to me

 

[kdoublep]

Congrats on your new truck and welcome to the forum! Where in Europe do you live?

Large mirrors are your main mirrors. The small mirrors help with a wider field of vision to help reduce blind spot. You should not have much dead space in your large main mirror if adjusted properly.

 

[DivingOtter]

To set your large mirrors, do the following.
For the Drivers side, close the window an lean over till your head is touching the window... Adjust the mirror till you can just see the side the truck @ the tailgate and then sit upright. The Large mirror will show most of the 'blind area' to the side. The small mirror will let you know if there is a car size object in the other areas not immediately covered.
For the Passenger side, lean over the equivalent of putting your head on the window, just the other direction and set the Large mirror to be able to just see the side of the truck like before....

Vertically you should be able to almost make out the ground (use a traffic cone or basket ball) at the very back of the truck. That will cover most small objects, kids, toys... the important things... If you don't like the settings, adjust them from there.

A lot of people use the side mirrors to look straight back, but that leaves a very large blind spot in the adjacent lane about where the rear wheels are. I've seen motorcyles and small BMW's 'disappear' in that blind spot. Setting them like above covers that area. AND if you need to see directly behind you and the rearview mirror doesn't show you what you want, you can always lean over ever so slighlty and see directly behind you in your side view mirrors.

Mirrors Set.

 

[Richard320]

I have the fisheye mirror set so that cars drive off it and onto the main mirror.

All you really want to see is if there's a car hanging in the blind spot. If the blind spot detection is working, you'll see the yellow arrow lit up. But it's still a nice check before you switch lanes.

 

[marcinbike]

Thank You guys for Your advices. I got some driving today, so I could play with adjustment.
DivingOtters method worked pretty well for me. I feel much more confident now changing lanes.

kdoublep, I'm from Poland - country of Vodka, Wałęsa and the Pope

​

 

[kdoublep]

Awesome! Enjoy your truck!