My Towing Mirrors

[05silverTaco]

Well guys I finished my towing mirrors so I decided to combine everything in this forum as most people intrested ((editted) will be towing.) in towing will be on this forum.
So here goes.
I went from this.






To this.



I first got this idea after looking at a lot of mirrors on different trucks and finding out Toyota does not have a decent tow mirror for our truck and niether does the aftermarket.

Well I got some information on these mirrors from this site.

http://www.elektro.com/~charlie/dodge/mirrors/

So I read up more and measured and found the base atachment point of these mirrors to be smaller than ours.

continued.

[tdm156]

Not bad! Seem a bit out there but if your going through any of the mountains they probably come in handy. How big of a trailer is that and how does it pull? I might be in the market for something similar to that in the new year.

[05silverTaco]

So I went ahead and ordered these mirrors.

http://www.speedycarparts.com/sku/Do...01_DG49EL.html

And started by taking apart the inside door panel and off with the mirrors after recieving the new dodge ones.

Outside without mirror.



Inside without mirror.



Thinking of a different switch I thought I came up with one that had heated switch incorporated also. But it would not work. More on that later.

Well after Taking the mirrors off and comparing the new I found three mounting studs just like the toyota. I also found I could use the rear most stud on both new mirrors as my starting point and removing the other two, the top and front one from each mirror and replacing them with a shorter one then marking drilling points I could then mount the mirrors on the door frame.

cont.

[05silverTaco]

Here are pics of mirrors mounting points.



And of having marked door frame.



I drilled the door frame at my marks and then relieved some of the material from the inside door frame to allow my nuts to hold my mirrors on.



Then I made up a 1/4" aluminum piece to this shape to fill the indentation and drilled that to match.



Then temporarily mounted to vehicle.



Cut gasket material out of a generic splash guard of about 1/8" rubber to this shape to fill mismatch of dodge to Toyota door frame.




I also replaced each stud on both new mirrors with a stud about 2" long that way the inside door panel and mirror covers will fit.
cont.

[05silverTaco]

Originally Posted by tdm156

Not bad! Seem a bit out there but if your going through any of the mountains they probably come in handy. How big of a trailer is that and how does it pull? I might be in the market for something similar to that in the new year.

tdm

20 foot travel trailer about 4500 pounds empty and pulls great.
Just got back from a camping trip up the road a piece with pulling from 800 foot to over 2000 ft high passes here.

vince

[05silverTaco]

Now after cutting the spacer drilling to match the new holes on the door and making the gasket here is what she looked like.



Wired the new mirrors up to the old Toyota mirror connector using info from above post on dodge mirrors. Just double check that they are using the same common wires as above mine had two different common wires from side to side.
Then mounted and wired up a seperate switch for heater operation.



Ran a fused wire from the battery to switch and then to both door mirrors with one wire from the door mirror going back to ground just under each side kick panel. I used a long plastic tie wrap to feed the wires through the door along side the original door wiring.

Here are some pics from the driver seat while towing.





cont.

[05silverTaco]

Now if I were going to do this again I woould do it different. I would make up the spacer in 3/8". Install on door with double back tape and drill the spacer for the stock mounting holes. By marking the toyota holes from the inside door frame area.
Remove the uppermost and front stud from each mirror and use a shorter stud so as to mark the drilling of those two holes. I would put the spacer on the door with double back tape install mirror partialy with using the long stud through stock toyota hole and two shorter studs in place of the two previously removed studs.

Now having drilled the stock locations from your first markings tap the front and top most hole to 6.0mmX1.0pitch and countersink from the outside of spacer. Then drill the two dodge mounting holes from your markings and countersink those holes from the backside of spacer. Install two machine thread srews into your tapped holes from the outside of the spacer in the forward and top most Stock hole position using locktite. Now mount spacer to mirror using machine thread screws with locktite in the top and forward dodge mounting position.

What we just accomplished was making the dodge mirror have the mounting studs in the stock toyota location with the use of machine screws and the spacer.

Now there is no need to drill your doors out like I did.

cont.

[05silverTaco]

I previously posted or started this topic here http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd...g-mirrors.html .

And there are more and different pictures there.

I am completely satisfied with this modification to my truck. The mirrors look stock from 5 feet away and further. They only look added on due to the gasket taking up the different shape between Toyota and Dodge door frames and only if you know what you are looking for.

The mirrors are stable and worked great for towing. After setting up camp I refolded them to the retracted position and adjusted quickly so we could drive around with out the Mirrors sticking out like this.



If any of you would like to do this modification and have any questions feel free to ask.

I would like to add one more bit of info on how my mirrors are working.

I think the toyota wiring may be different than other factories when it goes from our mirror switch to the mirrors.
My left mirror works just like the factory installed it with movement up down all around from the switch matching the up to up down to down and right and left to right and left.
The right mirror is off. It goes up down right left o.k. it just doesn't correspond to the location on the mirror switch. The wiring from toyota to the right mirror looks to go through some kind of diode trio to keep the common wire grounding the motor when appling the mirror switch.
My mirror goes up when I press the switch left, it goes right when I press the switch up, it goes down when I press the switch right, and it goes left when I press the switch down.
As you can see it is 1/4 switch position off.
Now since nobody else has done this mod and I am running point here I wanted to let you know if you do this mod your right mirror might take some getting used to adjusting it.
I am planning on trying to rewire so as to work correctly just have not had time yet.

cont.

[05silverTaco]

As too my wish to use a different mirror switch with heated switch on mirror switch I haven't found one that would mount in our dash looking stock. I have come close. I spent $30.00 dollars on other switches that looked good but not close enough. Haven't given up but will do more research. Here are the two switches and then there is a picture from the sides of the switches showing the stock Toyota at the top of each set of pics. You can see that the mounting in the Toyota dash is wider and shaped special for the Toytota switch.

2003 Acura TL switch which is not quite as wide



1992 Acura Legend switch wich is closer in size but not the right corner contours



Mounting hole not square special shape for toyota switch right lower corner build up could dremel.



And showing how thick mounting of dash is again could dremel to thin for other switches.



cont.

[05silverTaco]

This picture is of the three switches on their sides to show the different thickness mounting of the switches. Also one mounts with springs at top and bottom of switch to hold switch in dash.



I hope that I blazed the trail for some of you to follow if you are unhappy with your stock mirrors.

Any questions feel free to ask.


vince

[phantom]

great job and write up
ok dumb question do the mirrors retract when not towing?

[05silverTaco]

Originally Posted by phantom

great job and write up
ok dumb question do the mirrors retract when not towing?

phantom,

The mirrors fold down for normal driving and unfold into the up position when towing. The folding of the mirrors is done manually. The adjustment is power.


vince

[wushaw]

That is a very good mod

[Kooltaco]

Originally Posted by 05silverTaco

As too my wish to use a different mirror switch with heated switch on mirror switch I haven't found one that would mount in our dash looking stock. I have come close. I spent $30.00 dollars on other switches that looked good but not close enough. Haven't given up but will do more research. Here are the two switches and then there is a picture from the sides of the switches showing the stock Toyota at the top of each set of pics. You can see that the mounting in the Toyota dash is wider and shaped special for the Toytota switch.

I may have the perfect switch for you.

The defrost switch from a 2003 Toyota Highlander also controls the heated mirrors on these models and comes with a built in timer. The switch fits perfectly into the Tacoma dash and retails for around $50.00

http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...layCatalogid=0

I plan on adding Heated Mirrors sometime but I will need help wiring up the switch I have.

[canadiankid]

Well done 05silvertaco it looks great. If we could just get someone with a CNC mill to mass produce some exact transfer blanks he or she could make a few $$. The nice thing is that the mirrors are cheap enough so if we spent a bit on a transition piece it would be no big deal. Great write-up thou and thanks for doing all the hard work on the prototype. As far as the wiring goes you should be able to figure it out with a volt meter and just trial and error for left right up and down. Good luck and looking forward to hearing more from you on this great mod.

[jrsmokestacks]

Did you look into chevy or fords tow mirrors? What about the tundra's tow mirror? Btw, those dodge mirrors are great, i've had them on my 04', 05', and 07' cummins trucks.

[05silverTaco]

Originally Posted by jrsmokestacks

Did you look into chevy or fords tow mirrors? What about the tundra's tow mirror? Btw, those dodge mirrors are great, i've had them on my 04', 05', and 07' cummins trucks.

jrsmokestacks,

I looked at the 2002 chevy mirrors and you could get them to work the ford and the Tundra have to big a triangle base to mount to our doors.

If you want to get a mirror to fit measure the triangle of the mirror mount on the outside of the door. Then if it is smaller than what we have you can make it fit more than likely.


vince

[rachunter]

Can you post some pics with the mirrors folded in? I would love to have some better mirrors for towing but they will also have to look good when not towing.

[05silverTaco]

Originally Posted by rachunter

Can you post some pics with the mirrors folded in? I would love to have some better mirrors for towing but they will also have to look good when not towing.

rachunter,

Here are a few with them in.









vince

[CtryBoyInMT]

Originally Posted by Kooltaco

The defrost switch from a 2003 Toyota Highlander also controls the heated mirrors on these models and comes with a built in timer. The switch fits perfectly into the Tacoma dash and retails for around $50.00

http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...layCatalogid=0

Has anyone had any luck with this switch?
I'm going to purchase it and see if it will work.