Towing mirrors quality evaluation

[petrofun]

Towing mirror OEM replacement quality evaluation for 2nd gen 1998 Dodge.
A lot of brands are available how to sort them out ???

 

[petersonj]

I replaced my factory standard mirrors (electric and heated) with Kool Vue towing mirrors (electric and heated). They have been on my truck for 83,000 miles since July of 2014. No regrets.

- John

Edit: Vibration has not been a concern with my mirrors.

 

[FOXY005]

I will keep an eye on this thread, I also would like to change to towing mirrors but most of the reviews I see on aftermarket brands complain of the glass vibrating so badly that they say they are useless. Most say go Mopar OEM $$$.

 

[petrofun]

Well I wanted to gather info as to quality, defects, and other problem area,before I'd purchase a pair.
But this morning on Amazon.com there was an offering, a USED hand tiltable towing mirror pair, with heated, motorised larger upper portion , and a manually positioned smaller, convex lower portion of ECCPP brand, including two reinforcing anti vibration installation plates. This is an unknown brand to me.
At $106.76 total and free ground shipping, handling ,inspection and 1 year warranty by Amazon even a scrap yard wouldn't beat that, so I placed an order.
Yes I'm taking a chance, ECCPP show's many towing mirrors pairs,some with odd name brand...Scitoo for one, with AISIN and/or part number nearly identical.
It is my understanding that they all have the same origin,and most likely the same manufacturing quality.
I previously bought an imported manual towing pair from 1A Auto for my 1996 Dodge which I have since sold, the pass. side was a bit looser than the driver side but overall, they where just very acceptable and way more practical for towing. There were vibrations but not nearly as much as I tought.
I just hope I'm on the good side of the deal.I will post what I find out
I will receive them by 2nd or 3rd of April.

 

[DavidC]

I put these on my 99 at least 90k miles ago and probably 15 years. They are still there with no complaints.

https://www.etrailer.com/Custom-Tow...ckup/1999/CM-73100.html?vehicleid=19994027492

They wre a lot cheaper back then thru genosgarage.com

Dave

 

[BarryG]

I also used the CIPA mirrors on my 01. As David mentioned they were certainly cheaper back then. However they worked fine I saw no real vibration issues that were out of the ordinary. The picture in the link does not show them but mine came with little convex mirrors as well. The convex mirrors were stick on and not adjustable but worked fine.
Hopefully the ones you get work well

 

[petrofun]

The CIPA slide on, that is what I started out with back in 2010 on my 1996 Ram 2500 with an inbox camper. They where quite allright used that way, but when I replaced the camper and bought the 5th wheel they where not large enough.
So I do know the CIPA brand but I never found dedicated full size towing mirrors, maybe they have them, just couldn't find them.
Like FOXY005 said,$$$$ the OEM models, to me are overly expensive, no way I can afford them.
For such a price they surely must have built in quality, but how one can tell??? If not, they must reap a good profit.
Yes I do hope they work fine.

 

[petrofun]

Good morning.
Picked them in Vermont yesterday.
After removing ALL packing material an initial out of the box inspection revealed a small broken plastic knob with a screw in it, which at first look can be epoxied back in place easely.
The outside back of the mirror head has some faint scratches from the reinforcing plate rubbing trough the plastic bag they where in.
This far, the sturdiness seems to be there, but the weight of each mirror is surprising, there's a motor in there and it really shows, to me they are heavy.
Never had motorized mirror in my hand before, so I guess the stiffness/sturdiness is needed. The top mirror in each unit seems to be well affixed to the holding means ,it doesn't seem vibration prone
My truck is winter stored now and there is too much snow to shovel it out for at least another 3 weeks.
Since there is a 30 day limit to return them , if some other problem show up on installation,in the meantime, I will need to at least electricaly test operation of heat and movement and i've got no idea (wiring diagram) for each wire function .
If someone can help it would be great.
So from what I've seen for now I think and hope, it is of good value for the low amount spent CDN $141.73 + $31.75 gas to go get them for a total of $173.48 for a pair of used, heated/motorised towing mirrors

 

[DavidC]

This is a 99, hopefully the same.

Dave

 

[petrofun]

Wow! I just finished dressing up to go in the garage, as soon as look closer to the connector I'll probably have a better idea.
Hey ! Thanks Dave.
Pierre

 

[petrofun]

Well, things are getting complicated.There are two screws that hold the plastic saddle or matching surface that seats right against the outside door surface.
One of the two is the broken one and there is another one with stress sign in the plastic and it was loose.I dont trust it.
The only way to do a good repair job with epoxy would be to split the plastic parts where the swivel joint is located between saddle and the long mirror head support arm...way to much work and risks involved for me. If I break something its all mine.
The other surprise is, according to the very crude sketch included, there should be a total of six threaded Metric (6mm-1.0) mounting studs and nuts provided for installation, three to each side, there were six nuts allright, but only four studs ...another brick.
I did check the operation of each of the two motors in each mirror by guessing the connector diagram with my Ohmeter. No instructions provided
I cant tell if it was properly connected but the top row midle pin was used for ground and using a 2 amps fuse in the positive wire , I briefly touched the other two pins on each side of the midle one, each of the motor ran a bit in one direction only, I didn't want to blow that small fuse and it provided what I needed to know, they do run.
The connector top three wire seem to be for motor purposes, but I can only assume that the bottom row two identical grey colored wires are for heating purposes.
Connector top row wires colors are (looking into the connector L to R) Green/ Brown / Violet.
The well appreciated wiring diagram, I cant use for now having no access to winter blocked hangar where my truck is stored.Wire colors will also help when I compare them.
As of this Wednesday morning I contacted Amazon about my griefs and they offered a 20% credit and I keep it all or they provide a prepaid return label and reimburse me completely.
I choose the last proposition and I will most likely buy the very same model but this time NEW.
The complete mirror by itself seems quite solidly built and if everything runs when you check it out on reception it should be a good value especially for an older truck like mine.
I will update when all is done.
Pierre

 

[petrofun]

Hi all.
Its been 82 days before this long story as ended.
I finally did buy a second pair exactly the same, received them at the beginning of May I finally got to install them yesterday and today the 24 th of June.
They are well made, feel solid and every electrical motors ( 2 per side) and heaters worked just fine. there was quite a bit of time involved in figuring out where the pading (one sided stick foam) as to be installed. I had to saw off the driver side upper stud end protuding after everything was thightened down.
This was required to clear the side selection switch/joystick.
Took a test drive on a rough road to investigate vibrations.
The result ,is that they are much more solid then the ones I had on my previous 1996 Dodge.
All in all , a very good value for the price.
Be aware that I had to buy a small lenght of metric 1.0 threaded rod and nuts, to replace the very often missing two studs,(only 4 in the box) there are 3 studs per side.
Pierre