F150 mirrors... ford dropped the ball

My 02 F150 mirrors suck.

Option 1: Ebay tow mirrors. Not an attractive option. They are huge F350-style mirrors that stick way out. super-ugly overkill.

Option 2: stick on parabolics. Not a good option either. The only place to stick them is on the existing (very small) mirror glass, and they are too parabolic to really do any good.

Option 3: Find mirrors from another Ford that work and are an improvement. The Ford forums suck. Some say that later (04-up) F150 mirrors work, others say they don't. Some say that 04-up Expedition mirrors work, others say they don't. Some say that F250/350 mirrors work, others say they don't (plus, they're no better than the behemoth ebay mirrors)

You folks have any insight into this?

Have you read the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? :)

All I can say is get thee to a junkyard and start playing. Should be plenty of Fords of this era to play with.

Not really an good option. Buy-and-try isn't the way to do it. Even cheap non-power mirrors go for $100 each. Plus, Fords of this era require a full door panel pull to even view the bolt pattern.

In the context of your analogy, its not just sampling three kinds of porridge that are already prepared, its like plowing the field, planting oats, harvesting them three months later.... Its a significant investment in time and/or money, especially considering the lack of good 'yards around here.

But I whine a lot.

I've been scouring craigslist for someone selling some local that I could compare, but that hasn't turned anything up in the last 4 months.

Looking at the towing mirrors, those suckers ARE huge. What about the clip on extenders that simply widen your current ones? Something like this?

-Rob

I have a pair of those. They kill the paint, and add almost as much width as the ebay honkers. It adds an entire second mirror outside the existing one. I just want a single, larger mirror that gives me an adequate field of view.

For instance, the stockers look like this: small ovals that don't offer much viewing area.

• But 04 Expedition mirrors are rectangular and (from my experience driving an Expy) much more useful:

Truth is, I wouldn't mind the ebay towing mirrors if they weren't on 8" stalks. I do a large amount of city driving, and if I could have tolerated the extra width, I'd be driving a dually.

the little blind spot mirrors are invaluable. I have them on all of my vehicles and, when i'm out of town for more than a few days, I even buy and install them on my rental car.

you adjust the big mirror to see down the side of your vehicle and what is behind you and use the blindspots to see if you're clear for a lane-change.

my wife has a hard time and can't get used to them so they might not be for everyone but i've never had so much as a close call in decades of driving using them and I never look over my shoulder.

I had one fall off of my motorcycle while driving and i felt so blind and vulerable it made me want to pull over and get towed home

jfryjfry wrote: the little blind spot mirrors are invaluable.

Personal taste I guess. I detest them with a passion. I had them on my bike and ripped them off on the way home from buying it. First, the existing mirrors on my F150 are already small so I don't want to occupy real estate with the stick-ons. Second, they are WAY too parabolic for me. Anything more than 20 feet away is a tiny speck and I find that they hurt more than they help. Seems like too many times I have merged into a lane only to almost die because I didn't see the car coming up behind me at 80 mph.

I'm one of those weird people who actually likes the factory wide-view passenger-side mirrors. They are slightly parabolic so it gives a wider field of view, but I can still judge what's happening a half-mile behind me. If I had my choice, I would make the driver's side with the same convex.

I am thinking the same thing on my F350 right now. It has the little mirrors, I want the big honking F350 dually towing mirrors, hidious I agree but man were they nice when I was towing with a friends diesel.

But they are ~300-400$ around here and they are all power operated only. Finding manual ones has been a challenge for my XL which has non of the wiring to run it.

For about $150 you can get a 7" monitor, 4 cameras, and a box that will split the screen for all four cameras at once normally and go full screen for the appropriate camera when in reverse or turning.

I'm seriously thinking about replacing my interior mirror with one.

curtis73 wrote: Not really an good option. Buy-and-try isn't the way to do it. Even cheap non-power mirrors go for $100 each. Plus, Fords of this era require a full door panel pull to even view the bolt pattern

Yes, your local yards must be significantly different from mine.

I would go and find 3-5 '02 trucks with the door panels already ripped off and the mounting bolts exposed - or the holes, if the mirror is already gone.

Then I could go look at other years and models and take off any mirror whose mount looked close and try it on the '02. Couple hours, tops.

Adjust your mirrors so you aren't looking down the side of your own car. Why do people feel the need to see your own car, you know it's there. You're loosing huge amounts of viewing range by doing this. Blind spots can be largely eliminated if one adjusted the mirrors properly. I have mine set so I can see the edge of the rear door handle,(the outer most point aft of the mirror) and that's it, so I have a reference point. That said, the F350 tow mirrors sound like the fit what you want...huge, and ugly, but one pane of glass, huge view and...its a truck, who cares about style.

TGMF wrote: Adjust your mirrors so you aren't looking down the side of your own car. Why do people feel the need to see your own car, you know it's there. You're loosing huge amounts of viewing range by doing this. Blind spots can be largely eliminated if one adjusted the mirrors properly. I have mine set so I can see the edge of the rear door handle,(the outer most point aft of the mirror) and that's it, so I have a reference point. That said, the F350 tow mirrors sound like the fit what you want...huge, and ugly, but one pane of glass, huge view and...its a truck, who cares about style.

According Minnesota 55 Alive instructors, the best way to adjust outside rear view mirrors is to place head against driver window and adjust just beyond the drivers side quarter panel. Move head same distance to the right and adjust ride side mirror to same point. I have been using this method for the last 15 years. You can see cars approaching in interior rear view and pick them up on side mirrors as they move into former blind spot. I know where my quarter panels are and they pose no danger. Now, if I could convince my wife to do this I would not have to readjust mirrors when I drive her DD.

In reply to outasite:

That method works very well. On some cars with small mirrors, it still leaves some blind spots, but usually nothing terrible. On my Jeep, it's good enough that you can't fit a motorcycle in any of the remaining blind spots.

I don't understand your hatred of convex mirrors. As an ex-commercial driver, I lived by the things. I only ever used the flat plane mirrors to double check and see where the back of the truck was when backing up. From what I remember, I had a regular mirror on the Driver's side and a large convex hung below it. On the passenger side I had the same regular mirror, a convex hung above and below it, and a third convex screwed into the top of the door aimed down so I could see where the kerb was when parking (or if anybody was hiding right next to me)

Bro, no body tows with an F150. You need a 4x4 F350 dually, bro.

Appleseed wrote: Bro, no body tows with an F150. You need a 4x4 F350 dually, bro.

Lifted, with stacks, bro.

I love my 2014's normal windows. but I'd love the tow option windows better. (other than the huge mpg hit I'd probably take for those suckers in the wind.)

Appleseed wrote: Bro, no body tows with an F150. You need a 4x4 F350 dually, bro.

3500 RAM and some white Oakley bro.

mad_machine wrote: I don't understand your hatred of convex mirrors. As an ex-commercial driver, I lived by the things. I only ever used the flat plane mirrors to double check and see where the back of the truck was when backing up. From what I remember, I had a regular mirror on the Driver's side and a large convex hung below it. On the passenger side I had the same regular mirror, a convex hung above and below it, and a third convex screwed into the top of the door aimed down so I could see where the kerb was when parking (or if anybody was hiding right next to me)

apples and oranges. I love convex mirrors when they're 1 foot diameter and used for spotting the front bumper of a freightliner in a parking lot, or making sure a kid isn't walking in front of my school bus. I also love the very mild convex mirrors the factory uses on the passenger side.

The stick on 3" convex junk are nothing of the sort. I don't need to spot my passenger side dually while backing into a dock. I need to spot traffic a quarter mile back in the lane beside me without ducking, leaning, and squinting into these little tiny mirrors. I'm not trying to eliminate a blind spot, I'm trying to get a larger field of view using larger mirror glass.

Convex on a commercial truck are great for spotting the 40-foot blind spot beside you. I don't have a big blind spot. Those little 3" convex mirrors just take up already limited space on my tiny mirrors, and even if a car is right beside you, it still shows up as a tiny speck.

I don't hate all convex mirrors. I detest the tiny, cheap, worthless convex mirrors we've been discussing. As a "fix" for poor mirrors, they are not my preference.

In this application, I need larger mirror glass. Period. I don't need fisheye convex in any way. I don't need massive F350 mirrors.

This could be a useless observation but I liked the mirrors in the rental Transit, not Connect, I drove recently. That's my only experience, sorry.

EvanR wrote:

curtis73 wrote: Not really an good option. Buy-and-try isn't the way to do it. Even cheap non-power mirrors go for $100 each. Plus, Fords of this era require a full door panel pull to even view the bolt pattern

Yes, your local yards must be significantly different from mine. I would go and find 3-5 '02 trucks with the door panels already ripped off and the mounting bolts exposed - or the holes, if the mirror is already gone. Then I could go look at other years and models and take off any mirror whose mount looked close and try it on the '02. Couple hours, tops.

Yeah... I've found one expedition in a 60-mile radius and the mirrors are already sold. They were $380 for the pair.

nutherjrfan wrote: This could be a useless observation but I liked the mirrors in the rental Transit, not Connect, I drove recently. That's my only experience, sorry.

Good insight. I'm looking at all possible options.

curtis73 wrote: Yeah... I've found one expedition in a 60-mile radius and the mirrors are already sold. They were $380 for the pair.

I was at the yard the other day and did some digging. I honestly don't believe the '02 Expedition mirrors are significantly bigger than the F150XL, plus you'd have to do an electric mirror conversion. But I assumed you have the XL trim. If you have an XLT that already has power mirrors, the swap would be easier - but again, I don't think it would be a significant improvement.

But if you decide you do want Expedition mirrors, I can get you a pair for a whole lot less than $380. All day long. My local yards have tons more Expeditions than pickups.