No Tow Mirrors

How many of you tow a travel trailer without tow mirrors? I'm about to pick up my 26 ft. Travel trailer on Monday and was wondering if its doable without tow mirrors. For those of you who put aftermarket tow mirrors on, what brand did you go with and what are your thoughts on them? Durability, fit and finish, eom quality, and what not.

Thanks,
Q

 

You’re going to want tow mirrors, either the OEM style, or clip-on extension tow mirrors at minimum.

 

What he said! I went down to a 23ft TT and did not have tow mirrors. My first time out and I quickly realized they are a must. It's funny cuz I could not tell when passing a big rig when my tail end was past him, kept waiting for him to flash his lights at me so I could get over. I am pretty damn good towing my 24ft Deckboat, but the TT is just too tall and wide to try and see around at all. Needless to say, I purchased a set of OEM tow mirrors as soon as I got home. Not to mention backing up is futile without them. Bottom line it's not worth the risk not to have them.

 

They’re 100% necessary, especially for backing up. Etrailer.com has clip on extenders you can purchase while you save up for OEM tow mirrors...I’ve used them on a Jeep and they work well. Couldn’t be happier with my oem tow mirrors on tundra, aftermarket seem to shake at speeds...

 

Do they make oem that work with blind spot monitoring? I've seen several threads that mention that the do not

 

Depends on the width of your TT, I had huge blind spots. You can get clip ons but they shake and if you don't mind removing them all the time, not nice looking when not towing. OEM tow mirrors (and others I think) give you signal markers that work even if you didn't have that function before. These extend out. The smaller lower mirror is also great pointed at my rear tires, I can see before I curb rash.

 

I don’t believe they allow you to keep that function (a reason to go w/ the extenders, if it’s that important to you). I lost my mirror memory function and had to wire up the lower DRL amber light as the platinum isn’t wired for it.

 

From this thread, you have to have existing BSM.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/tow-mirror-bsm-confirmation.21642/

 

The smoked marker is definitely the way to go..it’s actually more visible than the amber...
https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/371790951829

 

fyi, to change out the mirror, remove the door panel, remove the sail cover, and basically unclip harness, clip the new one, 3 bolts. Easy peasy.

 

My 5th wheel is only 7' wide and after the first trip I replaced the mirrors immediately. My truck came with blind spot monitoring but didn't come with turn signals in the mirror. The Trail Ridge mirror has both and work on my truck.

 

I can’t pull anything without tow mirrors. Just plain unsafe. I bought Amazon tow mirrors and are happy with them after a year of use

 

Forgot to mention that PITA plastic rivet that holds the mirror on once the 3 nuts are removed. You need to squeeze it from two sides (needle nose) and pull away from truck, kinda a 3 handed job.

 

Dont have a link know but new camper was prewired for and I installed a anytime/backup camera on our 5thwheel. They work very well on the road and at the campsite.

 

Good to know. Do the mirrors have any vibration issues at highway speeds?

What brand did you go with.

Ive got my eyes on these currently:
https://www.1aauto.com/2007-18-toyo...3sLLdxDjpikbbt0O1ArRXKnIVVPdPaMRoCFCcQAvD_BwE

 

Ir looks like ours comes prewired, but I have no idea how it hooks up to the truck or what kind if camera we need to get for it to work.

 

They vibrate more than my smaller OEM mirrors but less than the factory towing mirrors on a Dodge Ram and a Ford 450 I once owned. The slight vibration is a non issue to me.

 

I also have this Furrion, it just needs a power source, like tapping the existing light. So you turn on your truck's DRL and your tow connector delivers power to the camera.

 

My drivers side mirror on my last truck(2010 F150) would vibrate slightly over bumps and if I had the stereo up loud, but the passanger side was rock steady.

Thanks for the input. I'll stick with my stock mirrors to bring the camper home at first. I have already primed the wife into thinking that they will be purchased if(when) needed!

 

Ours is the furrion as posted above. With the "anytime/backup" camera all I have to do is turn on trucks running lights to power the camera. With the camera and stock mirrors I can see everything.

 

Just towed my camper yesterday love my tow mirrors
OP
They are a must the stock mirrors are to short.

 

If anyone was waiting on the Trail ridge tow mirrors with BSM from 1aauto.com, they are back in stock. I submitted my email address for them to notify me when they were back in stock. Since I am an impatient person, and hadn't received an email yet, I have been checking their website multiple times a day. As of this morning, they were showing as in stock. Mine should arrive this friday, just in time to put them on this weekend!

 

You won't be disappointed. I have them and pulled my TT (24') once forgetting to pull them out... No good. Huge difference. The info above is almost all spot on (pulling & backing!). Have had 2 sets of TR mirrors from A1 and they didn't vibrate at all. BSM still works great and the turn signals and marker lights are just a bonus really.

Also that plastic center piece in middle is trash (you'll see it when you pull stock mirrors) IMO you don't need to reinstall that on the TR mirrors, mine are rock solid without the huge headache of that black plastic center clip.

 

Good to know, thanks for the info.

 

Put OE tow mirrors on my fathers limited. BSM, and RPA stopped working. But, turn signals on mirror work.
Also, look into an observation camera not the backup camera if you look at Furrion. The observation camera has a stronger signal, so it has less interference when used full time while driving.

 

Our camper came prewired for a furrion so all I had to do was buy the camera and pop it in... It works like a champ...in my driveway at least.

 

This is one reason why I have been looking at 7 foot wide travel trailers. Not ready to buy at the moment but the fact that they are narrower so I am less likely to need tow mirrors, plus it kind of needs to be 7 feet wide to fit in the spot of my driveway that I want.

 

I went with these for now, I was pressed on time before my first trip and was able to get these quicker them oem tow mirrors. They worked out real well and don't shake at highway speed or bumps.

http://products.cipausa.com/product/cipa-11300-custom-towing-mirrors-toyota/

I think I paid $53 on Amazon for them.

 

Right now I have some of the clip on ones that I had when I used my wife's Navigator to tow our TT. I just have not had a chance to order a set of tow mirrors to install on my Tundra. They are on my short list of whats needed next. To me, Toyota should sell all Tundra's with tow mirrors and have the smaller ones as options for people that don't like the big tow mirror.

 

Agreed, tow package should come with tow mirrors. I think they are only like a $55 option from the factory, afterwards they stick it to us at $400+ and were installing.