Greetings from Hilary and Eddie
We have just become the proud owners of a Rockabilly, this being our first caravan. Our question we would love your responses to is do we really need rear view mirror extensions? Our Rockabilly is just 10 cm wider each side of our Volvo XC40 and it is easy to see along the sides of the caravan. We note that there are rather harsh but understandable penalties for not having extensions. The range of extensions available on the market seem to be rather cumbersome and we'd love to know if there are any out there which are more in keeping with the more slender breadth of our Rockabilly?

It has been so insightful reading the responses to the many questions here and we know there is a wealth of experience out there to be explored.
Many thanks

the advantages of mirrors
can judge if can get through narrow gap without damaging eriba
can indicate and move out in traffic easier
reversing may be able to stop before hitting other half.

the disadvantage of no mirror
mr plod fines you
while reversing accidently run over the other half who was in blind spot, have to cook all meals and story be told over and over of how run over other half

happy other half happy life

Hello Colin, thank you for replying so rapidly. The XC40 is just 10 cm narrower on both sides of the caravan but this dos mean the van is wider than the back of the car/width between mirror extremities.

We have the B4 model which pulls the caravan with ease. Unfortunately we have the mpg showing and this drops from around 45 without the van to 30ish with it.
Cheers for now. Eddie

Hi Hilary and Eddie. In your case you need mirrors but unfortunately there is also a law restricting the projection of the mirrors to 20cm beyond the Eriba. So you could be illegal with them or without them unless you can find some slimline ones. In reality I would think having them takes priority.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio...-motor-vehicles

Steve

I can’t believe the number of caravans I see on the roads where you can’t see the car or mirrors - even with the super-wide 8ft wwb’s.
They can’t see anything but don’t seem to care.

Many mirror applications actually make your vehicle too wide when towing an Eriba. I tow with a Volvo V70 - quite wide - and I don't, in theory, need additional mirrors, however I have bought a set of Emuks that I have cut down to minimum width. they are brilliant - no vibration at all and they fold with the mirrors when parking. Way better than Milencos (on my car).

i have also designed and assembled a wifi based rear view camera system , which is, in my opinion, way more useful than extension mirrors...

Well, having had two years with a motorhome with rear mounted camera, I thought it must be possible to do something similar on a caravan. Mainly to see those tail hoggers on French motorways who pop out and surprise you if you're not careful, but also to enable much more accurate reversing. The problem is, of course, the 2m gap between car and caravan. There are plenty of hard wired systems available (mucho £££), however I decided it must be possible to do the same using wifi or Bluetooth. And using equipment I already owned. Easy I thought. Hmmm. Wrong.

I set my targets on using an iPad Mini attached to the dashboard (as viewing screen) via air vent-mounted magnets - and that works well in my Volvo V70. Plus an "old" iPhone SE 2020 as rear mounted camera in the Eriba. I thought about using FaceTime to link the devices (for free), however you need a 4G network to reliably connect that way - plus, potentially, roaming charges could mount up on a long European journey, so, instead, I bought Filmic Pro, which is a professional filming app enabling remote control and remote viewing. All worked really well at home (you can set up the app to control the rear camera from the dashboard one) and you can flip the camera image so that you are viewing a reversed image on your dashboard. There is a slight viewing delay on wifi, which is a slight bugbear, although the latest software updates have reduced this. You can also record the camera footage from the controls on the view screen, which could be handy.

When installed in the car and caravan the signal would be lost intermittently - just too much distance for reliable connection. So, mark 2 (!) was the introduction of a mini wifi router at the rear of the car, powered from the car 12v supply and velcro-ed to the roof lining (it's an estate). This solved the connection issues most of the time. I was in contact with the Chinese manufacturers and they suggested I might need the version with two variable aerials, so i bought that instead and that really has solved all the issues (mark 3). Reliable video streaming for no ongoing cost. The mini router was around £30 and the filming software initially £8 a year. Everything else I already owned (the iPad mini I use daily as an e-reader, the iPhone my wife's ex-contract phone). I travelled around with it this summer and it was really reliable - still a second or so delay, but quite acceptable for seeing who's behind you. I find people also back off a bit when they see a device looking at them. I power the rear phone from a USB socket I already had put in the Eriba.

I have now upgraded my iPad Mini to the cellular version (without sim card), because this has built in GPS, which lets me navigate using Google maps - connected to 4G/5G via hot-spotting my personal phone. All very successful...

Couple of photos: one of the mini-router and the other of the iPhone running the software. And a third one showing the phone holder in the rear window of the Eriba (phone not yet attached - but Emuk mirrors going on!)

Nothing on there I wasn't happy to share - definitely no loin cloths...

In fact it says Zeppelin cloth - that should give you something to research.

What's far more concerning is how dirty my keyboard is - time for a spruce up!!

Great post!
I’ve been playing with another app called FreeRearviewCam - no frills but it works great over a tethered Wi-Fi, at least in the same room.🙂

The Wi-Fi booster might be the bit that makes it work.👍