Clearview Towing Mirror Review

ArizonaRangers

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I installed Clearview Towing mirrors and here's my thoughts.

https://www.clearviewmirrorsusa.com/towing-mirrors/ford-ranger-north-america/

IMG_2379_Moment (2).jpg


  • The Clearview's are extremely heavy compared to the stock mirrors. That concerns me a little bit. Between the extra weight, the extended lever arm, tugging on them to extend them, and the extra wind resistance, I'm nervous this could put a lot of stress on the mounting point on the door.
  • Instead of creating a very clean electrical connection point like the oem mirrors have, the Clearview’s have a foot long rats nest of wires to fish through the door and risk damaging. Then you have to find a suitable place behind the door panel to tuck them. It just seemed like a lazy design.
  • I had several days in between having time to install the first mirror and second mirror. This allowed me to drive around with one Clearview and one oem mirror. The oem mirror has a significantly better field of view due to the Clearview’s vertical mirror design. Even the convex bottom mirror was no match for the width of view of the oem.
  • The height and overall bulk of the Clearview also creates a blind spot (when retracted) to the side roads when at an intersection. It requires various head movements to see around the mirror to see if there are cars on the side roads. I think a Ram type mirror that folds in horizontally for normal driving and unfolds out vertically for towing would have worked better than this design.
  • There is considerably more wind noise generated by the Clearview and thus wind resistance. Not enough to notice it over the radio, but with no radio, wind noise is clearly present.
  • There is slight shaking you can see while looking in the mirror compared to the oem mirror, but not very bad or enough to make clear rear vision difficult. This is an edited in bullet point because, I forgot it was shaking after I had both mirrors on. I only noticed it when I had one of each to compare.
  • Folding in abilities are pretty limited. Retracted, the mirrors stick out 14” from the door. Folded in that only goes down to 10 ½”. It seems like they could have been designed to fold in tighter than what they do. Had I known how little space the folding saves, I would have purchased the $500 pair that doesn’t fold instead of the $1000 pair that does.
Final judgement is that the oem mirrors are significantly better than the Clearview’s if you are not towing. I regularly tow a wide camp trailer (among other things) and am sick of not being able to see down the sides while driving and having to back up at an angle to know where the back of my trailer is. Towing mirror options are pretty limited for the Ranger. The Clearview mirror is a good, not great alternative, but significantly better than anything else on the market, currently, that I could find.

The Ranger is a fantastic tow vehicle. It is too bad that Ford hindered it with no brake controller or towing mirrors.

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ArizonaRangers

ArizonaRangers

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If anyone needs OEM replacement mirrors, hit me up.
 

LostMy65

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I may have missed it, but I've read where towing mirrors tend to vibrate more than the original, causing the image in the mirror to be blurred.
What's your experience?
 
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ArizonaRangers

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I should have included that as well. There is more shaking of the Clearview than the OEM, but it is not significant or difficult to see what's in the mirror. Honestly, I only noticed it when I had one of each on. Now that both are on, I don't notice it. I've edited my original post to include it. Thanks for bringing that up.
 

Husky85

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I installed Clearview Towing mirrors and here's my thoughts.

https://www.clearviewmirrorsusa.com/towing-mirrors/ford-ranger-north-america/

IMG_2379_Moment (2).jpg


  • The Clearview's are extremely heavy compared to the stock mirrors. That concerns me a little bit. Between the extra weight, the extended lever arm, tugging on them to extend them, and the extra wind resistance, I'm nervous this could put a lot of stress on the mounting point on the door.
  • Instead of creating a very clean electrical connection point like the oem mirrors have, the Clearview’s have a foot long rats nest of wires to fish through the door and risk damaging. Then you have to find a suitable place behind the door panel to tuck them. It just seemed like a lazy design.
  • I had several days in between having time to install the first mirror and second mirror. This allowed me to drive around with one Clearview and one oem mirror. The oem mirror has a significantly better field of view due to the Clearview’s vertical mirror design. Even the convex bottom mirror was no match for the width of view of the oem.
  • The height and overall bulk of the Clearview also creates a blind spot (when retracted) to the side roads when at an intersection. It requires various head movements to see around the mirror to see if there are cars on the side roads. I think a Ram type mirror that folds in horizontally for normal driving and unfolds out vertically for towing would have worked better than this design.
  • There is considerably more wind noise generated by the Clearview and thus wind resistance. Not enough to notice it over the radio, but with no radio, wind noise is clearly present.
  • There is slight shaking you can see while looking in the mirror compared to the oem mirror, but not very bad or enough to make clear rear vision difficult. This is an edited in bullet point because, I forgot it was shaking after I had both mirrors on. I only noticed it when I had one of each to compare.
  • Folding in abilities are pretty limited. Retracted, the mirrors stick out 14” from the door. Folded in that only goes down to 10 ½”. It seems like they could have been designed to fold in tighter than what they do. Had I known how little space the folding saves, I would have purchased the $500 pair that doesn’t fold instead of the $1000 pair that does.
Final judgement is that the oem mirrors are significantly better than the Clearview’s if you are not towing. I regularly tow a wide camp trailer (among other things) and am sick of not being able to see down the sides while driving and having to back up at an angle to know where the back of my trailer is. Towing mirror options are pretty limited for the Ranger. The Clearview mirror is a good, not great alternative, but significantly better than anything else on the market, currently, that I could find.

The Ranger is a fantastic tow vehicle. It is too bad that Ford hindered it with no brake controller or towing mirrors.

next-gen-square-infographic.jpg

.
Speaking from experience, if you had to fish extra wires into the vehicle you did something wrong. All the extra wires stay behind the molded rubber piece, on the exterior of the truck - the Clearview mirror is just as clean of a plug-n-play as the oem mirror is.

As for longevity, I've only had mine installed for 10 months at this point, but I haven't noticed any issues with loosening up as far as the mounting points go.

The price difference between the lowest power fold option and not is quite considerable, but there are also several other options that are included in that price difference as well (heat, turn signal indicators, and puddle lights). While I rarely feel the need to use the power fold, the heat is a MUST for me in the Midwest winters, and I like the turn signals and puddle lights as well.
 


Grumpaw

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Agree with Husky....all wiring and the modules are behind the rubber boot, in the mirror base. Only the plug sticks out enough to plug into factory plug. You can pull the plug out farther than necessary as the wires are just wrapped behind the boot, but its not necessary. The extra wire on mine were neatly bundled with a wire tie.
Have used mine on 4 trips so far, and pulled/pushed them in probably 30-35 times, and their sitll tight at the mounting points, but get a bit easier to pull/push as they wear in.
Agree that due to their size, they can cause a blind spot when turning, but that's about it.
Noise is a relative subject to each individual...I run with the ac on, wife has radio on and two pups in back seat..WHAT NOISE !!!
I have the set for a Lariat...all power an functions, and love em.
 
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ArizonaRangers

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Clearview wiring vs Ford wiring. I stuffed what I could behind the rubber boot. This is what was left over. That's not fitting back there.
 

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Clearview wiring vs Ford wiring. I stuffed what I could behind the rubber boot. This is what was left over. That's not fitting back there.
Did you order your mirrors through Clearview Australia or Clearview USA? Mine were plug and play just like the factory wiring.
 

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Clearview wiring vs Ford wiring. I stuffed what I could behind the rubber boot. This is what was left over. That's not fitting back there.
Not to keep arguing back and forth, but if that's what yours looks like then something. went. wrong. somewhere. Clearview install is just as clean (it is sticking out a little further in my pic because I pulled it out to disconnect and take the pic).

@Big Blue - all of their mirrors are made in Australia, they ship them over here to stock in their US distribution warehouse. That's why it took so long for them to get stocked here, because they were on a container vessel. Mine has all that same mess of wire - behind the rubber piece.

20220908_063240.jpg


20211113_182648.jpg
 
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ArizonaRangers

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When mine arrived, the first thing I thought, based on the condition of the packaging, was that these were returns or something. Plus they had a foot long wad of wiring hanging off them with all these splices. I'm starting to think I paid full price for refurbs. Mine definitely didn't look like yours.

RBDV7736 (2).JPG
 

Husky85

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When mine arrived, the first thing I thought, based on the condition of the packaging, was that these were returns or something. Plus they had a foot long wad of wiring hanging off them with all these splices. I'm starting to think I paid full price for refurbs. Mine definitely didn't look like yours.

RBDV7736 (2).JPG
Mine have all the same splices and stuff, but it was all tucked/jammed in behind the rubber piece. Yea, if the packaging looked rough as well, you got refurbs or something - I was extremely surprised by how well mine were packaged...
 

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Did you have to remove the door panel, or just the upper speaker to install these mirrors?
 
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ArizonaRangers

ArizonaRangers

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Did you have to remove the door panel, or just the upper speaker to install these mirrors?
I did unattach my door panel without disconnecting or removing it. I hung from the top of the door with a ratchet strap so I could push it out of the way. However, if you have the right tools, you might be able to replace the mirror without unattaching the door like I did.
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