Side mirrors -Elephant ears or is regular okay
 

I imagine myself driving down a beautiful highway with unimaginable scenery, I look out my side window to take in the view, and what do I see, a giant tow mirror. I appreciate the functionality of the optional tow mirror, but are the regular mirrors adequate for occasional towing (2015 model), or is there an effective supplemental mirror that can be added and removed as needed? Who tows with the regular mirrors?

I tow a 7x16 enclosed cargo trailer with regular mirrors.

I have a 7x20 toyhauler and I picked up a set of the CIPA Towing mirrors that slide over the stock mirrors. They fit really nicely, almost look like stock mirrors when installed. The nice thing about them is that for the 90% of the time that I'm not towing, I don't have those elephant ears...

Here is a picture with the CIPA mirrors installed:

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...psc20dc286.jpg

Takes less than 5 minutes to install or remove them.

FYI, the "elephant ear" mirrors are also great when there's anything in the bed obstructing your rear view. Like a Lear Cap, couple of refrigerators or whatever. Their large convex mirrors easily show you whatever is in your blind spots. They're useful not just for towing.

And never had problems with scenery watching. Love mine. But I have a Lear Cap ...

I have pulled a 7x14 work trailer for 10 years. I've always had regular mirrors. Here's what I've noticed. I'm ok drivivng down the highway, I can see traffic besides me ok.. I can see nothing behind the trailer. If a car were close behind me, I wouldn't see it. Wider mirrors would help. When I'm backing up, I wish I had taller mirrors or a separate mirror n the bottom that shows the ground beside the truck. I have to either adjust the mirrors for highway or backing. My buddy has a Chevy and has a nice feature.. His mirrors auto adjust down when he's in reverse. I have thought about getting tow mirrors, but like you , I don't like the thought of a big mirror blocking my view, and I don't like the way they look. Honestly, I should have tow mirrors. Funtionally, they make towing a lot easier and safer.

I have the elephant ears and definitely like them immensely. They would be perfect but Ford made the upper mirror so "objects in mirror are closer" which makes hooking up the trailer much more a pain. Someone mentioned that the govt dictated that change on trucks under 8500 lbs. Just took delivery of another F250 and thankfully the upper mirror is still straight glass.

I have the elephant ear mirrors. I can't really say that I like them. If you tow only occasionally, just get some clip-ons. The big mirrors are a pain in the garage and in parking lots. They don't look so great either.

I put these on on the outside-bottom of my mirrors, and they work great.

<http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/k-...l#.VPtKHldaHA8>

My regular mirrors aim right down the side of the box to a point where I can just barely see the side of my truck - and the little spots allow me to see the next lane over as well as my rear tires.

I had those on my 05. They did help.