Community Forums

easyryder01 · 04-22-2010, 09:23 PM

Hi guys haven't posted here a lot but I have been searching for someone to actually put or create or even sell mirrors like the "Big Boy" Class A fellas here have on their coaches and unfortunately Velvac which happens to be the big producer of these mirrors to the coaches they just came out with a very expensive upgrade to our standard white power/heated mirrors.......... I'lll give you guys one guess and yeah you got it replace the entire mirror head for one very expensive price. NNNNNaaaaahhhhh. I did it without doing so and it took me a long time to actually find the light which was at Auto Zone, they are led flexible strips that are 2 in a pack measurring 14" long each and the LED lights are on the edge of the strip not on the middle. It will make sense when you try them out in the store because they light up on the edge when installed not on top. They wound up costing about $27.00 and the rest of crimp connectors and electrical tape was another few dollars. And here it goes. Enjoy and feel free to trying this yourself because the Velvac fellas sure try to talk you out of doing this.
I am also doing this because I have no method of letting drivers know that I wish to change lanes other than them being in the front or the back, when they are mid-coach they have no idea and I solved it by doing this.

I removed the mirror head from the 16" arm on my coach with the loosening of the allen head on the end of the arm, then removed the black plastic cap at the bottom of the arm which made it very easy to unplug the mirror head and set it aside.
Next was to remove the arm from the cach which was pretty easy too but I failed to take a pic of it but passenger side is just a black plastick clap held in place by a metal clip. Give it a pull with your fingers and it will come off.
You will find yourself looking at the wires for the heated and power mirror with wire nuts put together just mark the wires and diconnect them.
With the window open start to remove the 3 nuts that are holding the arm on on the door and when your on the last one get your hand on the arm doesen't way a ton but you don't want to drop her either. There should be an insulating piece of foam on the other side too.
You will need some snaking wire such as lashing wire (that's what I used to snake the wire down the arm) or similar, crimpers, red and black 16ga wire and male and female solderless crimps. Plus some patience.
I made similar location disconnects so in the future if I had to remove the mirror I can. Also there is a round cap which I failed to mention at the pivoting point on the arm that you will need to remove and all it is a dust cap, you will see the harness of wires going through the 400lb spring that Velvac talks so much to not to touch or mess with and you never do. Yo will fish the wires to follow the other gray wire harness and out it goes.
You will re-attach the mirror arm back to the door, you will use the obvious ground on the door which has the self-tapping screw in it to the door, and you will have to snake a wire down your fender to the turn signal which will give you your blinker and hazard lights. I also took off the door panel to run the wire through the rubber door tube which all the wires are run through to make it a nice clean install. That is different from what I understand coach to coach. I didn't think it was hard at all. 3-4 screws and lift up and off the door panel comes off.
Here are pics of my success.

tncruiser · 04-23-2010, 07:21 AM

very nice i may copy that great idea
brianj

wa8yxm · 04-23-2010, 09:34 AM

Nice job.. I plan on just mounting a pair of clearance/marker lights on the bottom of the mirror arm. Way easier, no need to remove the mirrors from the head.

Idaowl · 04-25-2010, 01:36 PM

Love it when a high dollar change-out becomes a low dollar mod. Thanks for using your brain power.

Daysu47 · 04-27-2010, 08:57 AM

Eazyryder01, I plan on doing the same as you but am alittle confused as how to remove the mirror from the housing. I don't want to break the mirror. My mirrors have a black plastic "clip" at the bottom and top that I assume you remove.

HOW???

Any additional help would be greatly appreciated.

David

Daysu47 · 04-27-2010, 09:13 AM

Forgot, do you have the brand name and model # for the strip lights you bought at Auto Zone?

Again, thanks,

Logthumper · 04-28-2010, 02:07 PM

Auto Zone here does not have and could not locate. Who is the Mfg and what is the Part Number?

Daysu47 · 04-28-2010, 03:34 PM

Logthumper, I found the LED lights at our Auto Zone here in San Diego. I will get the name and number tonight and post them for you tomorrow UNLESS easyryder01 beats me to it.

Also I still need info on how to remove the mirror, so still waiting.

Thanks,

born2camp · 04-28-2010, 05:46 PM

Looks good and nice job. I ordered my side emitting LEDS from Oznium and also have seen the ones at Autozone. Not knocking the Autozone LED's, but the Oznium brand was quite a bit brighter. Took the Autozone LED's and used elsewhere. You can get them up to 2 feet in length and then cut to fit if needed every 3rd LED.

easyryder01 · 04-29-2010, 06:46 AM

Hey guys how are ya ! Sorry for the delay I had no notices on my page saying that I had any messages. So here we go I will get pics of the brand lights I used and unfortunately I took a pic of them and now I cant find them. But I will go back. As for the mirror it is a very careful task but I used a very long flathead screwdriver that had the flat spots on the shaft whereas yuou can use a box wrench to turn it, the reason I used that one is that it would lay flat against the edge of the mirror housing, I then pryed at each individual tab until they popped. It took me being very careful about 3-4 minutes to pop it off, I'm sure due to my paranoia is why it took so long. But also as far as getting a brighter light don't do it, it will be very annoying to see lights brighter than this in your eyes at night. Try it out first before you even mount them or even open the package up as for Auto Zone would not take them back if the package was open.
Alpena / 28 in. amber colorful LED light is the name of the light that I got. You can look up in Auto Zone's web site and if you put in the serch bar led lights it will give you the choice of LED Exterior Accessories and the first package is the brand light you are looking for.

ron55 · 05-02-2010, 06:27 AM

search for Muth signal lights

Daysu47 · 05-03-2010, 08:53 AM

Well, mines done, sorta!!!!!

I have the power mirrors with the all view mirror at the bottom of the housing and noticed that if I moved the mirrors all the way to one side (angle) I could see behind the mirror and see where the wiring come thru from the base.
I simply fished a piece of small welding wire thru the hole and then hooked the wiring for the LED lights to the wire and pulled. Went right thru!! No mirror removal.
Next step, I then attach the LED strip to the mirrors, and done.

NOW, After fishing the wiring to the turn signals and attaching quick clips to the wiring, and once the RV is painted and the mirrors are painted, I will re install them!!

Thanks for the idea!!

Curtis in TX · 05-30-2010, 07:11 AM

Great, now I have to go to Autozone on the way home from Church and see if they have any of those lights at my local store.
I have always wanted turn signals on my 90's mirrors.
One more thing.

2003coachmen · 04-15-2011, 12:18 PM

I also added signal lights to the Velvac mirrors. Did about the same as easyryder01 except that I used a clearance light under the arm. The plug under the arm spring warns you not to remove the plug but I removed it and found nothing dangerously exposed. I called Velvac and they were very forcefull in not to remove the plug they tried to scare me from exposing the spring which is covered by the plug. i think that Velvac would like to have you purchase new mirrors and arms so they could profit. I fished the wire in with the other wires and had no problem at all. The LED lights work fine and show up well under the arm. This is nice addition to the signal lights.