so here's what's involved with 'trimming' the clearview towing mirrors so they don't stick out a country mile... do i recommend this: NO, but i am now happy with the result after spending a ridiculous amount of money on mirrors and still having to spend a good number of hours hacking them to make them functional... but if you did tow a wide van they would be a good investment i think. I only did this because (1.) my OEM mirrors flop around in the wind regardless of how much i torque them, and (2) i desperately wanted blindspot mirrors, but something better than the tiny stick-on types that reduce your normal vision.
so you need to cut 100mm off everything, you can't go more. you need to cut the external moulding with a lot of care to get relatively decent finish, i marked precisely with a razor blade and chalked
if you don't leave this bit of internal arm plastic, they might vibrate: there is a plastic piece that is inserted in the end of the outer plastic arm (now cut off) that grabs this internal arm like a glove... i tried to file the inside of the new end to reinsert them, but it proved extremely time consuming, and in the end i just put about 20 wraps of electrical tape around and then fitted and proceeded to remove layer by layer until the perfect fit was had.
new groove for cir clip
the hardest part is not damaging the outer plastic arm and carefully filing the edges to match the moulding on the other side... it looked mangled if you don't go to this trouble, not what you want after just paying the asking price for these, which for me was double after freight and import taxes.
the end result is pretty good. before trimming them, i was a bit put off initially by the difference in viewing experience, but i have now adjusted after about 16 hours driving time, and it is honestly miles better than before, especially given they are much closer inwards... before trimming they sat so far out that they actually needed a slightly inwards angle to see the edge of the vehicle, and as the main mirror is not convex, i was very disappointed with the vision, but trimmed and now inline with the vehicle body, the angle is now just slightly outwards and vision is much increased. then with the blindspot mirrors adjusted to grab just where the main mirrors end, the result is fantastic in that i now never have to look over my shoulder, like never, i can basically see in the blind sport mirror right up to my vision out the actual front windows. given i drive in crazy gridlocked Lima traffic, where 3 lanes is often turned into 5, this is huge for me.
but would i recommend you spend big bucks and then spend time to hack them up? NO, although i looked and didn't find anything else out there to bolt on that gives better vision and is sturdier than the OEM mirrors.
much better for my purposes
Edit: also forgot to mention, that if you have the powered mirror adjusters, you do need to completely dismantle the mirror supports in order to rethread the cable through the holes provided. you can't do all this without removing the cable from the supports, and it will not find its own way if you just shove it up the channel it came out of. when you take the support apart, you'll see its under pressure from a spring, making reassembly interesting. also you must sacrifice the rubber lugs to remove them to get access to the torqued nuts holding it together, you can't get them out without damaging and the easiest and cleanest way is to driil a hole in the middle and lever them out. that will make sense if you have them in front of you
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