Try to add a mirror, ruin the existing mirror arm

[Cubey]

Just a venting post mostly. I ordered some extra spot mirrors for the the RV.
And of course, the bolts for the old mirror snapped.

Well one did and the other was a crap bolt I put in trying to fix the already buggered threads. The bolt I put in was soft crap metal hence it breaking, so I was able to drill it out. The threads might be able to be tapped back to being usable. The other seems hardened and despite a tiny amount of bolt sticking out, vise grips haven't worked. I tried hitting it with a torch then letting it cool down again. No luck. I tried grinding it flat on the sides so vise grips stand a better chance. Nope.

Maybe somebody put freaking locktite on it? beats me. I'm at a loss now.

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I drove all over town looking for another one, a waste of ~3 gallons of fuel in the truck.

A junk yard had some that were only about 4.5" x 4.5" while mine is 4.5" x 7.5" or so. It needs to stick out more. I guess I might have to go back and get the crap condition junk yard one. At least the bolts were coming loose easily but they looked like total garbage.

A semi/trailer parts shop way across town didn't have any either. There are a couple close by the house I'll check tomorrow.

The LH on the RV side has what looks like a 4.5" x 4.5" bracket, with an extension added on to make the mirror stuck further. I found an extension online for about $17 shipped on ebay, if the bolt threads are right. Who knows, the maker (Retrac) doesn't believe in telling the dimensions of any of their products, except the bare minimum info.

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Or try one of these, but again with no dimensions:
https://www.retracmirrors.com/part/605755


Or I can spend $40 on two of these complete kits with horrible plastic body mirrors (that I don't need, mine are good metal ones) but the rest is metal. I'd have to order 2 for free shipping. But these are 4.5" x 4.5" too.

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[Cubey]

AH HA!!!! Finally I found one online! Truck-Lite part # 97748. It says it's 4.5" x 7.5". $17 with free ship on Crapazon with no min order from the seller. It won't be chrome like the original, but oh well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VRTXBW/

I'll call the nearby truck shops tomorrow, in the unlikely event they are cheaper. They are listed as Truck-Lite "distributors" so with the part #, they should be able to tell me the price over the phone.

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EDIT: I also found it through Napa with the same part number.
https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/LIT97748

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Thanks for this link. Now the wheels are turning.

 

[Cubey]

Thanks for this link. Now the wheels are turning.

Part of the reason I want/need the longer arm, is there are extending support/stabilizer arms on mine. It's held on with a clamp at the arm and is bolted to the door between the normal arms of the 3 point mirror. But also having it sticking out further helps it get beyond the motorhome box sticking out beyond the cab width wise.

Some fuzzy, digitally zoomed shots from old pics showing how it was. The arrow pointing to the added support/stabilizer arm.

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On the driver's side, a cheap ~$10 clamp on blind spot mirror is all that is needed to help with driver's side massive blind spot. (Note, you can see the stainless steel 3" extension on the main mirror's chrome arm). With the blinds raised, I can also look back over my left shoulder and out the side window on the wall behind me.

Ya know, it looks like the mirror's arm has the 7.5" going vertically, and the 3" is added on to the 4.5" horizontally. I'll have to measure that and see. I guess someone had a problem seeing the mirror with 4.5" vertically. Somebody had screwed a wedge of wood to the throttle pedal with the wide end at the toe which was SUPER uncomfortable to me, so I removed it. It made my ankle have to sit at an angle. The wedge made me think someone short was driving it but the higher mirror makes me think someone taller was. Very strange! Maybe they wore cowboy boots (or high heals?) and the wedge helped with foot comfort?

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The blind spot is really bad on the passenger side. Up to now, I had to use a 3" round stick-on blind spot mirror that a past owner put, which is almost useless on a full size van, much less a motorhome! It's smaller than a postage stamp in size when you look at it from the driver's seat. You see tiny blobs of color and it's hard to tell if it's a car and if so, which lane it's in.

I got two of these K Source CL062E 4.5" x 6" convex blind spot mirrors from Rockauto for $26 shipped for both. It should provide much better viewing from 7ft away in the driver's seat. (Not exaggerating about the distance!). I ordered two since they were so cheap. They're $20+tax each from O'Reilly! Never hurts to have an extra one. I might find a way to use the second one, or just have it as a spare. It was all of $5 more for a second one basically.

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Due to the direction of the clamp/mounting hole with the bolt, the only way I can use it is to remove the clamp and mount it to the end of the elbow arm for the main mirror, where the main mirror is bolted on to the end of the arm. That's why I ended up breaking bolts on the main mirror, because I was having to mess with it in order to mount the blind spot mirror.

Mounted that way, it will be above main mirror, but that's where it needs to be on the passenger side, so it can be seen from the driver's seat. If it's below the mirror, the door blocks the view. And again, the "twisted" arm of the add-on mirror limits how I can mount it. It was short sighted of me not to notice that before buying them, but oh well.

I did tried mounting it to the added support arm for the main mirror with the clamp (the only other way it could be mounted) but the added mirror's arm wasn't long enough to clear the main mirror, causing the main mirror to partly block the added mirror and making it so it couldn't be adjusted. Basically making the mirror useless. Plus, it would stick out further and could potentially hit into things easier. Having it above the mirror gives me a very clear view of it, and it doesn't add width to the cab in the form of an extra mirror sticking out.

I did have a third idea for mounting it, by drilling a hole in the main mirror's bracket but my tiny drill bits are all worn out (or gone from being broken) so I quickly gave up on that. The better way it is how I tried but had stuck bolts. So, I'll just have to spend the $17 for the replacement arm. I am gonna coat the bolt threads in brake grease to avoid them rusting this time. No idea how they did to begin with You wouldn't think much water could get in there!

I'm not gonna mess with the driver's side mirror any since it has the clamped on 5" round blind spot mirror that works great.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

But also having it sticking out further helps it get beyond the motorhome box sticking out beyond the cab width wise.

This why I'm going to try to use these arms and mount the extra mirrors I have of this style on the ends to get better viewing around my slide in camper. I can remove them when I'm not hauling the camper.

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[Cubey]

This why I'm going to try to use these arms and mount the extra mirrors I have of this style on the ends to get better viewing around my slide in camper. I can remove them when I'm not hauling the camper.

You might be able to fit the clamp on the mirror's stem, not sure.

A previous owner of my F250 with those factory mirrors drilled a hole for a blind spot mirror on the LH side but the mirror was gone. I found this blind spot mirror in a junk yard and put on using the hole. Some come with an L bracket for mounting the mirror, like that one did.

The RH had a stick on blind spot mirror but it's seems more effective on the truck, maybe since it's less wide and long. it fell off but leaning over to get a better view of the mirror lets me see in the factory mirror well enough when merging right with just the truck, at least around town here where there are frontage roads with a lot of right merging involved. If I was driving it around the country, I'd probably add another mirror. I had that big awful travel trailer such a short time that I never got around to it.

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[Cubey]

I ended up ordering from Crapazon, but it was a last resort. The truck shops would have charged shipping. Even the local Napa would have to charge shipping to get it to their store for pickup. It would have been faster probably, but I don't need it that fast.

 

[Cubey]

The arm finally got here today. The bolts are 3/8" instead of 5/16", so I had to drill out all the bracket holes that bolts go through but that was no big deal. It's semi-reflective like chrome, so it doesn't stand out as being replaced. Here it is all put back together and adjusted with the added blind spot mirror. I put some brake grease on the bolt threads, so maybe they won't rust up if the included fiber gaskets leak. The big added mirror is gonna help with the blind spot for sure.

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[IDIBRONCO]

That's funny. I ordered the exact same arms and they just came in today. I held one and a mirror (roughly) in place to show my idea for a temporary mirror to be used only while hauling the camper. This is my idea with the stock mirror in place to get an idea how far this will put the mirrors than the stock ones. I think this will work fine for me. All I have to do now is to figure out some adapters to mount the extra mirrors onto the stock mounting brackets without enlarging the bracket holes.

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[KZF250]

I'm using that set up and works ok...I think it would be better if I move the assembly forward 2-4 inches.

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[IDIBRONCO]

I'm using that set up and works ok...I think it would be better if I move the assembly forward 2-4 inches.

That's not quite what I have in mind. I'm going to use the same style of mirrors as is already on the bracket in my picture. This will put them a few inches farther out than yours are. The whole mirror will be out farther than the ones currently mounted on mine.