Step-by-step guide

■ Slide the thin wedge of the clamp under the top of the car mirror’s housing as far as it will go and as near to the vehicle as possible. Tighten the thumb wheel to secure the clamp.

■ Put the second clamp as near to the edge of the car’s mirror housing as possible, and secure.

■ Ideally, the mirror arms need to be as horizontal as possible. You can achieve this by rotating the arm clamps either up or down. In our case, the inner one was pointing down, while the outer one pointed up.

■ Slide the arms into the clamps, making sure the clamps don’t move where they’re attached to the mirror housing, and then tighten the arm clamps.

■ For the next step, you’ll need to align/hitch your car with your caravan.

■ With the outfit perfectly straight and the mirrors attached (and the mirror heads adjusted), check that you can see comfortably along the sides of the van to the rear corners.

■ If so, they’ll need little or no further adjustment. But if not, loosen the arm clamps and slide the arms out to a position where you can. It might be that you need to move the inner clamp towards the outer edge of the car’s mirror housing to achieve this.

■ Ideally, half of the mirror should be filled with the front of the caravan and the other half with the view to the side of it. This should be the same for both sides.

■ Check all clamps are secure.

Road testing

I’m pleased to say that during a road test, the mirrors proved very stable, with minimal vibration. Of course, towing mirrors are only as stable as the housings they’re attached to, but I could see the road (and the traffic) behind very clearly. I also tried them on another car with the same result, so at the end of the test I was very impressed.

If you already have a good set of mirrors, I’m not suggesting you rush out and buy the Grand Aero Platinum mirrors; but if yours don’t tick all the boxes, or you’re looking to upgrade, I can recommend them, especially if you’re considering towing a 2.5m-wide caravan.

■ With thanks to Nigel Milbank and Milenco Ltd (www.milenco.com) for supplying the Grand Aero Platinum mirrors, and to Jonathan Goulden of Yorkshire Caravans (www. yorkshirecaravans.com) for the use of various width caravans for this test.

11 New mirror fitted for standard and 2.5m-wide caravans 12 New mirror fitted on another vehicle

14 View alongside a standard-width Swift Challenger caravan

13 Mirrors are stored in a handy and durable purpose-made bag

15 View alongside a 2.5m-wide Bailey Alicanto Grande caravan

1 Milenco Grand Aero Platinum towing mirrors as supplied

3 Heads: Grand Aero Platinum (left); Grand Aero (right)

5 Clamps: Grand Aero (left); Grand Aero Platinum (right)

4 Arms: Grand Aero Platinum (top); Grand Aero (bottom)

2 Legal requirements clearly displayed on the packaging

7 It’s important to clean the car’s mirror housing

6 Flexible rubber grip on Grand Aero Platinum

8 First, attach the clamp nearest to the vehicle

9 Both clamps attached to the mirror housing

10 Slide in the mirror arms and secure