VF Hard Top/Lid

[red_vxr]

The worst part with mine is checking the left side blind spot before changing lanes. I find the hump behind the window is rather high compared to others I have seen.

I'd argue it's worth it, the hardtop looks quite nice, especially the HSV ones on the Maloos with the two bulges.

 

[losh1971]

I'd argue it's worth it, the hardtop looks quite nice, especially the HSV ones on the Maloos with the two bulges.

They look really nice but make it a lot harder to see. I'm not sure why making a car that has limited vision from factory with just a soft tonneau and making it worse again by adding a humped hard lid is worth it? I'm considering taking mine off and going back to soft cover as it is quite dangerous.

 

[losh1971]

Parking with a humped hardlid is a nightmare at best. I struggle if I park next to a car, if I need to reverse out and into traffic. I have had at times where the wife has had to jump out and watch for traffic in busy carparks with no chance of finding a spot that's not surrounded by other vehicles. This may have been resolved somewhat if our VE's had better side mirrors.

 

[lmoengnr]

They look really nice but make it a lot harder to see. I'm not sure why making a car that has limited vision from factory with just a soft tonneau and making it worse again by adding a humped hard lid is worth it? I'm considering taking mine off and going back to soft cover as it is quite dangerous.

Parking with a humped hardlid is a nightmare at best. I struggle if I park next to a car, if I need to reverse out and into traffic. I have had at times where the wife has had to jump out and watch for traffic in busy carparks with no chance of finding a spot that's not surrounded by other vehicles. This may have been resolved somewhat if our VE's had better side mirrors.

You make it sound a lot harder than it actually is...

 

[RevNev]

I'm not sure why making a car that has limited vision from factory with just a soft tonneau and making it worse again by adding a humped hard lid is worth it? I'm considering taking mine off and going back to soft cover as it is quite dangerous.

The cops had Holden utes with canopies as general paddy wagons and K9 squad cars since VE in SA, hundreds of the them for years with virtually no rear/side vision compared with a hard lid. Canopies on a ute are far worse than hard lids for blocking vision and I'd think if it's a genuine danger, canopies would've been outlawed and the cops wouldn't have used them.

Ute's are a commercial vehicle intended to carry goods and a ute load of stuff can likewise block your vision like hard lid or worse. I think Imoengnr comment (below) reflects my thoughts on it.

You make it sound a lot harder than it actually is...

 

[RevNev]

the hardtop looks quite nice, especially the HSV ones on the Maloos with the two bulges.

I came "really close" to fitting a Maloo hard lid and sail plane to my SSVR Ute and what stopped me, was the strong likelihood of it growing legs from the hard lid and ending up a faker Maloo. Raised on bagging out blokes with faker GT Falcons, XU1's, L34/A9X Torana's, HDT Commodores etc, it's a serious sin according to the bible of performance car enthusiasts.

 

[Holden17]

We had a VE2 with three piece twin hump hardlid. We absolutely loved the poison ivy colour and everything else about it but quickly found ourselves fitting the small, round blind spot mirrors to both external mirrors. The night I drove it home from the Dealers I found left shoulder checks on the 4 lane highway near on ramp merges in particular scary with headlights & street lights reflecting off the sports bar making it pretty much impossible to tell where other vehicles actually were. Solution when changing to left lanes?…put the indicator on, allow at least 5 seconds, do a very gradual change of lane over a few hundred metres while still travelling at 100k. Fitting the blind spot mirrors certainly made life a lot easier.
Traded it on the Vf2 with same hardlid set up and have never felt unsafe with the blind spot indicators in the mirrors priceless. Rear camera with guidelines also allowing all types of reverse parking so much easier and with confidence. The Mrs still doesn’t talk to me when I raise the issue though as the poison ivy was of course not available after the VE2.

 

[dassaur]

We had a VE2 with three piece twin hump hardlid. We absolutely loved the poison ivy colour and everything else about it but quickly found ourselves fitting the small, round blind spot mirrors to both external mirrors. The night I drove it home from the Dealers I found left shoulder checks on the 4 lane highway near on ramp merges in particular scary with headlights & street lights reflecting off the sports bar making it pretty much impossible to tell where other vehicles actually were. Solution when changing to left lanes?…put the indicator on, allow at least 5 seconds, do a very gradual change of lane over a few hundred metres while still travelling at 100k. Fitting the blind spot mirrors certainly made life a lot easier.
Traded it on the Vf2 with same hardlid set up and have never felt unsafe with the blind spot indicators in the mirrors priceless. Rear camera with guidelines also allowing all types of reverse parking so much easier and with confidence. The Mrs still doesn’t talk to me when I raise the issue though as the poison ivy was of course not available after the VE2.

Yep I've got the blind spot mirrors on my calais wagon. I dont care if I look like a 'granny' driver. It makes visibility for reversing (read: gutter rash) so much better.
The best wing mirrors in any car I've ever driven is the last gen of the mitsubishi lancers. They were oversized without looking out of place and worked really well

 

[losh1971]

Yep I've got the blind spot mirrors on my calais wagon. I dont care if I look like a 'granny' driver. It makes visibility for reversing (read: gutter rash) so much better.
The best wing mirrors in any car I've ever driven is the last gen of the mitsubishi lancers. They were oversized without looking out of place and worked really well

I find the side mirrors on the wife's 2015 Outlander awesome. Much better than the VE. VF might have less of a blindspot regardless. VE have a really wide rear pillar plus the plastic trim that widens it even further, plus you sit quite low in a VE, and lowering doesn't help side vision. Going to look into these blindspot mirrors. Never thought of those. I have seen them but thought they were a factory thing on different cars.

 

[RevNev]

Traded it on the Vf2 with same hardlid set up and have never felt unsafe with the blind spot indicators in the mirrors priceless. Rear camera with guidelines also allowing all types of reverse parking so much easier and with confidence.

My daily driver is a VF2 SV6 ute with a standard tonneau cover that has blind spot alert in the mirrors and rear camera. With the driving style I've established with SV6 ute, I don't really notice the hard lid obstruction when driving the SSVR Ute. Having said that, the thrill of the LS3 torque and V8 exhaust note driving the SSVR ute probably hides the hard lid visual obstruction to think it's an issue.