Wider mirrors for carrying a camper on D130 CC

Hi,
Yep it is an old post, but the story continues.....

While the wider mirror arms are really good, it comes with greater leverage on the spring loaded hinge, which blows the mirrors back against the door in head winds or with passing trucks.

It drove me nuts on a recent trip on the mainland, and I could get some peace with cable ties to add a bit more tension.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/04/1185.jpg

Not exactly elegant, and it does fail occasionally.

I'm trying a new fix.

Remove the bottom cover.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/04/1186.jpg


Knock the top cover out with a Philips screw driver.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/04/1187.jpg

Drill a hole in the bottom cover and put a bolt, nylock and a wing nut and a washer into the hinge assembly as below.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/04/1188.jpg

It ends up like this..

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/04/1189.jpg

This seems to stop the swing back problem.

1.The idea was to have the nylock nut to stop the wing nut unwinding and getting lost.

2. I was only going to tighten it up when doing highway stuff.

Have yet to use it, but I'm thinking already that a small length of fuel hose between the washer and the bottom cover may be a useful safety spring in case I do hit some thing with the mirror.

Time will tell.

On a slightly different note, but same subject; I did notice the Defender mirror pivots on a 1" ball - same size as a 'B' Ram Mount.

It occurred to me that a handy extension to the Defender mirrors could be achieved with the following items.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/04/1190.jpg and https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/04/1191.jpg

It would give another 100mm or so to the mirrors, and there is a longer arm available if wanted.

I'm tempted to try it for a bit of extra rear vision.

cheers

I cheated by spacing the original mirrors out on extruded aluminium square hollow section about 80 x 40. They aren't out as far as the wolf arms, but it suits my needs and they're firm 'at speed' ( a little 300tdi joke)
Don.

I did the same with galv SHS & longer screws , works a treat .

Wondering if anyone has 1st hand experience with this particular aftermarket mirror?

Quote:

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Paddock PM009 Regular Defender Mirror Head with Extended Wolf Type Arm. Fixing Bolts Included.
Defender Mirror with Extended Wolf Type Arm

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...14/05/1108.jpg

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I think that's the same mirror I have fitted to my 130, the original owner had fitted horrible truck mirrors. I've had no problems with these, only once can i recall having them blown back by a passing truck, and that was in very windy conditions.

Just fitted a pair of RRC8443 from LR Direct (https://www.lrdirect.com/RRC8443-sup...randed-BM.html). This installation was straight forward enough, but it wasn;t until they were fitted that I noticed the arm has a fair bit of up/down play in it. I haven't driven it yet, but fear they'll shake around a bit in the wind. Anyone else have this play in theirs?

Drove the Defender today for the first time over 90km/h. Very disappointed to find that the mirrors get blown back enough to eliminate useful rear vision. They don't fold back to the next stage, but enough so I can only see the side of my vehicle.

Not sure whether to return them (to the UK!) or try and modify them. I think the lack of tension like AusTasTar encountered is the problem.

Hi Ranga,
Mine only fold back with the wind blast of trucks at highway speed. Even then, if the cross or tail wind is favourable, sometimes they stay put.
The tensioner nut/bolt that I posted about solves the problem.
I don't have any of the up/down ,ovement that you mention.
Cheers

Sent from my GT-N5110 using AULRO mobile app

Quote:

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Originally Posted by austastar

Hi Ranga,
Mine only fold back with the wind blast of trucks at highway speed. Even then, if the cross or tail wind is favourable, sometimes they stay put.
The tensioner nut/bolt that I posted about solves the problem.
I don't have any of the up/down, movement that you mention.
Cheers

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I have today identified an issue that may be the cause of some vibration in the longer mirror arms.

I was modifying the mounts to use in an alternate position, this required me to disassemble the arm from the hinge bracket by cutting the bottom end off the internal post. This action released the spring and allowed the assembly to dismantle. What I found was that the post is a tube riveted over at each end, unfortunately the top end of the arm was loose on the tube because of inadequate riveting at the top. (This malfunction would be hidden in most arms by the spring tension.)

What I did to resolve the problem was to use two mandrels: a 1/2" bolt up from the bottom (in my case 2 3/4" long) and then two nuts 12mm across the flats with an 8mm x 30mm bolt in the top to locate the nuts in the top of the tube/post. My partial assembly with the mandrels were placed into a press and the riveting process completed. The result is an arm firm on the post.

You could do the same process on the complete assembly by removing the top plug, push off the bottom cap with a long screwdriver and then with the process above, but using a 1/2" x 3" bolt in place of my 2 3/4".

Worth a try if you are suffering vibration on your external mirrors. It would also increase the tension on the spring which may fix the problem of fold back, or at least reduce the frequency of fold back happening.

Probably also work with standard length Defender mirror arms.

Thanks - I did wonder whether pressing the 'rivet' more would help, but wondered about the correct process.

Incidentally, since fitting slightly smaller mirrors (that came off a new Puma I believe), the problem has mostly disappeared. I've only had them fold back once, after a truck came past in the opposite direction.