Hillbilly floppy mirror fix

[Steeldriver17]

The mirrors folding in on me on the highway got old really quick. I'm not ready to upgrade to the telescoping mirrors yet, so I came up with a 10 minute solution to fix the problem in the meantime.

I drilled a hole straight through the top bracket, the arm of the mirror, and the bottom of the mirror. I wasn't sure if there were wires inside of the arm for the power mirror function so I was very careful not to stick the drill bit all the way through. I drilled the mirror bracket first all the way through to get a straight line, then I unfolded the mirror and carefully drilled through JUST until the drill bit broke through. Finished it off by sticking a large nail the same size as the hole through and voila! No more floppy mirrors. The nail head keeps the nail from falling through the hole. I may finish it off by trimming the nail so it doesn't stick out the bottom of the bracket so far.

All in all, a very effective, cheap, temporary fix for a very annoying problem.

[chin_k]

I have the same mirror.... isn't there an adjustment screw with Allen head that allows you to make it more tight? It is facing you if you look at the mirror, near the pivot joint. I have not play around with it, but that is my assumption.

[Steeldriver17]

There is an adjustment screw there. No amount of tightening was able to stop the mirrors from folding in on the highway. This is guaranteed to stop t hem from folding in and should I need to fold them, I can easily remove the nail.

[chin_k]

I will try to see if I can adjust the tightness with that screw. and report back.

I would suggest you use something that can be easily breakaway instead of using a steel nail. I know I would have a much severe damage if my mirror did not fold when I pass another rig who was not in the right position in the lane, and the mirrors hit each other. If you hit something with the mirror with the nail, it would bust your mirror up pretty bad, in addition to the damage to the thing/person that it hit.

[Steeldriver17]

I had thought of that when I put the nails in. One of the safety features of breakaway or foldable mirrors is they will fold if they impact something. I have some scrap pieces of brake line that fit perfectly as well. The brake line is somewhat soft and hollow and bends quite easily. The only reason I didn't use it was because the mirrors still were able to "flop" just a little bit with it in there. Still better than nothing at all. Perhaps I'll use the softer material and log some miles to see how I like it.

Edit: I suppose I could try something even simpler like a ziptie through the hole.

[chin_k]

Even ziptie is too strong for this. I think even a plastic straw rolled into smaller diameter is strong enough. You just need it to keep the mirror from moving, nothing structural there.

[Stan Watkins]

I just put a screw in the hinge by the door with a screwdriver. I too have thought of the break away problem. I will think on the rubber idea until I can replace mirrors altogether.

[Stan Watkins]

[Stan Watkins]

I think if the mirror we're struck,the screw would just strip out . It's a drywall screw and not hardend steel.

[Steeldriver17]

I'm pretty sure that screw is just being used as a wedge. It's not serving in its capacity as a screw, that is, holding two objects together with a clamping force.