Hi all
Anybody got any tips for keeping there rear view mirrors clean during this weather.
All this week with the cold weather and salt on the roads I seemed to be cleaning my
Mirrors . What ever I used on them whether it was just a dry cloth , water , white wine vinegar , within a few minutes they had all fogged up again .
Put the mirror heater on and same happens all fogs up .
Cheers
Happy Trucker1:
Hi all
Anybody got any tips for keeping there rear view mirrors clean during this weather.
All this week with the cold weather and salt on the roads I seemed to be cleaning my
Mirrors . What ever I used on them whether it was just a dry cloth , water , white wine vinegar , within a few minutes they had all fogged up again .
Put the mirror heater on and same happens all fogs up .
Cheers
Glass polish will help, makes them easier to clean too. Don’t bother with the heated mirrors unless they fog up or are icy in the morning, it just bakes the salt and dirt on.
Some lorries worse for it than others.
Try keeping a kitchen/bathroom spray bottle of water in the cab, can always add a drop or two of fairy liquid but not necessary, and a 8" or so soft silicon bladed squeegee, couple of sprays and two wipes of the squeegee on glass and mirrors and its gone, note this is not easy for not so tall drivers if you have a large cab where the lower door covers almost all the steps, so an extendable squeegee will be needed.
Pointless trying to clean them with paper or cloth when salt water is involved all you do is move the salt around the glass.
Agree with UC about being selective with the mirror heaters.
Put some screen wash in an empty spray bottle, that`ll help. But just lots of water to rinse off the salt will do it.
As soon as the salt dries on the road, it will turn to dust and get on the glass again, no way around it.
sorry to hijack thread but whilst we’re taking about glass in this weather, any of you guys know anything that keeps glass free of sitting water? We use credit card sized cameras on our side marker boards and one one back of the lorry when loaded as standard mirrors are completely obscured then. In heavy rain its a nuisance as water sits on camera lenses and all you see on the cab monitor is a blur, very hard to pass anything or move over to let anyone join motorway etc. Heard of rain-x not sure if anyone had good results with anything else
any of the above…or just persuade your boss to buy you an Actros with internal mirrors 
In the olden days, and before heated mirrors where a thing, a long rag was tied to the mirror mount which flapped about on the mirror to help keep them clean whilst driving.
It was also a thing for drivers to stretch a small inner tube cut in a wide strip over the front wheel nuts to disrupt the air flow stopping most of the the spray coming up the side of the cab, think the metal trims covering the nuts also help.
Some truck designs are better than others at keeping the spray at bay, take the older FH with its very wide gap between wheel and arch pumping tons of spray up the side of the cab.
Seen these fitted to some trucks on the front axle which also helps to cut spray to a minimum.
wide-load85:
sorry to hijack thread but whilst we’re taking about glass in this weather, any of you guys know anything that keeps glass free of sitting water? We use credit card sized cameras on our side marker boards and one one back of the lorry when loaded as standard mirrors are completely obscured then. In heavy rain its a nuisance as water sits on camera lenses and all you see on the cab monitor is a blur, very hard to pass anything or move over to let anyone join motorway etc. Heard of rain-x not sure if anyone had good results with anything else
Rain X does work, it’s bloody hard work applying it to larger areas such as side or rear screens of your car (don’t for goodness sake apply to your windscreen, ask me how i know this 
), but a smaller area such as a camera lens would work fine.
I would have thought the odd wax polish would do the trick just as well.
The reaview camera is always going to be an issue whatever you coat the thing with due to vacuum effect sucking filthy spray up from the road, unless you can site it high enough that air passing over the load defeats that problem.
I’m glad you raised this, noticed in wet weather constant flashes from my nearside cameras (curiously the offside doesn’t have this problem) on the screen due to moving blobs of water, never gave the curing of this a thought till your post so going to try waxing the lenses and see if that improves things 
Juddian:
wide-load85:
sorry to hijack thread but whilst we’re taking about glass in this weather, any of you guys know anything that keeps glass free of sitting water? We use credit card sized cameras on our side marker boards and one one back of the lorry when loaded as standard mirrors are completely obscured then. In heavy rain its a nuisance as water sits on camera lenses and all you see on the cab monitor is a blur, very hard to pass anything or move over to let anyone join motorway etc. Heard of rain-x not sure if anyone had good results with anything elseRain X does work, it’s bloody hard work applying it to larger areas such as side or rear screens of your car (don’t for goodness sake apply to your windscreen, ask me how i know this
I would have thought the odd wax polish would do the trick just as well.
The reaview camera is always going to be an issue whatever you coat the thing with due to vacuum effect sucking filthy spray up from the road, unless you can site it high enough that air passing over the load defeats that problem.I’m glad you raised this, noticed in wet weather constant flashes from my nearside cameras (curiously the offside doesn’t have this problem) on the screen due to moving blobs of water, never gave the curing of this a thought till your post so going to try waxing the lenses and see if that improves things
I’ve been using rainx for years on Windscreen, mirrors and side windows, on cars and trucks no problems.
Clean windows or mirror
Apply Rainx with a price of kitchen roll allow to dry
Reapply Rainx allow to dry
Put some drops of water on once dry, then polish up with dry kitchen roll. Also wipe the wiper blades with the kitchen roll you applied the Rainx with.
If you don’t want to use Rainx, have a microfiber cloth, that you only use to clean the outside of the windows,
Or just use newspaper to clean windows, inside and out .
I bought these special cloths.on watford gap services,they are meant for interior windows,but they work well on the mirrors,but they cost £10 for 4.They have them in the shop by the pumps.
It’s annoying how a rag cant clean them
Was planning to ask exactly this question as its becoming a right pain overnight. Think they are using a different blend for the salt mix, like a brine solution instead of just grit salt. Good for paint, bad for windows.
Have tried RainX on the mirrors and although it seems to work, it does tend to turn it into thousands of tiny drops rather than make it run off. But might be doing it wrong. Unfortunately doesn’t seem to help with the salt.
Yeah and defo don’t put it on the windscreen - doesn’t work well with wipers.
A dry soft rag works ok in the case of severe cold creating a dry coating of salt which just wipes off.
Otherwise just do whatever it takes to get plenty of clean water on them at every opportunity.Jet washes or throw a bucketful or two at them is ideal.Then dry them with soft dry clean rag make sure to throw it away not reuse it.
Some trucks are worse than others but most/all of those I drove kept the mirrors clean enough not to have to stop to clean them en route between trailer swaps.
From memory the DAF 2800 was around the worst for fouling its mirrors.
Angelwax H2go is similar to rainex albeit it’s more concentrated, I use it on my car glass
Clean mirrors, cut a spud in half rub the cut side over the mirror, polish off with a soft cloth.
I don’t know how well it will work with salt, we don’t salt our roads, but it’s good for rain and grime.
Red wine?
It doesn`t stick to the inside of my glass for very long.
wide-load85:
sorry to hijack thread but whilst we’re taking about glass in this weather, any of you guys know anything that keeps glass free of sitting water? We use credit card sized cameras on our side marker boards and one one back of the lorry when loaded as standard mirrors are completely obscured then. In heavy rain its a nuisance as water sits on camera lenses and all you see on the cab monitor is a blur, very hard to pass anything or move over to let anyone join motorway etc. Heard of rain-x not sure if anyone had good results with anything else
Tie a small piece of ribbon around the camera mount. When stretched out, you want it to extend past the camera lens by only 1-2cm, otherwise you’ll see more ribbon in your screen that you will road 
. Once you’re moving, it will flap about and stop water building up on the lens.
carryfast-yeti:
any of the above…or just persuade your boss to buy you an Actros with internal mirrors
Could use the jet wash on them at FM and DY.Kilworth wasn’t far enough to get the mirrors dirty. 
1 tip I was told add a bit of antifreeze to your washer bottle it stops it freezing over.
I tend to use the spray on foam window cleaner.
Can usually get it from them shops that sell everything that take over the pavements with there stuff.
About £1 a can and does a good job
I carry a bottle of dettol anti bac.
Cleans everything.
Heated mirrors on
Spray dettol
Wipe over
Turn cloth round and buff up
Done
I’ve been using a spray with water and detergent and an old towel to buff off. Tried the squeegee part of an ice scraper, but takes a while and doesn’t work well on the curved mirrors. Disadvantages include a dirty towel needing to be washed.