Installed New Towing Mirrors

[Willywalderbeast]

My biggest complaint about my cross country trip home was the mirrors! Besides being faded and yellowing, they didn't stay out. At highway speeds they would slowly fold in and I would have to always be adjusting them. So first thing I ordered was a set of later E350 power towing mirrors.

Reading online I thought it was going to be a easy swap. Turned out it was a little more involved but not bad at all. I had to drill two new holes and open up the existing holes with a step drill bit.

Overall I'm very happy with the outcome, should look better once I do my 08+ front end swap with black grill.

[Willywalderbeast]

Little more info on the mirrors. I purchased them on Amazon for $127 shipped with Prime. Obviously they are not OEM but for the price I couldn't justify the OEM ones. The quality is really nice, but will see how they hold up over time. They have power glass but no heat which I wasn't too worried about.

Here are a couple pictures of the base of the two mirrors so you can get a idea of the difference. Also pictured is the difference in the plugs, which I cut and spliced the plug from the original mirror to the new mirror.

[Blue~Go]

Nice mod! My previous camper van had "regular" Ford mirrors and the Ford telescoping towing mirror mod was popular for obvious reasons.

I have a question and a comment:

1) How far do the mirrors project when telescoped out? I guess a good measurement would be to the side of the mirror that is still closest to the van body. I like the "reach" on my Velvacs, but don't remember how far the Ford mirrors project. Plus of course no need to ever "un-telescope" them since the Chinook body never gets narrower like the varying widths of the combo of a "thin" van and possibly wide trailer.

2) Sounds like you have (or I should say "had") the Velvac 2015's. When I got my Chinook the mirrors did the same thing - the whole arm would slowly ease back toward the coach, rendering them useless. I contacted Velvac and they explained how to tighten them. It's just one screw. It's been close to two years and they have not moved since (but can still fold as designed). I mention this in case you find you'd prefer them again for any reason -- or in case anyone else reading this who has the problem would prefer to keep the Velvacs. Here is a link to the thread:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=50&hilit=velvac+2015

[A Rooney]

right on blue,I had the very same experience when I bought about the same time with my manual mirrors,don't know why the previous owners of our rigs didn't tighten or could possibly drive them on the highway?but my experience is exactly the same an Allen head screw tightened and no further problem going on 2+ years.Rooney

[Willywalderbeast]

Thanks Blue! Wish I knew that when I was driving her back. Mine must be the old style because I looked and couldn't find the adjustment screw while it was in the driving position. The pass side mirror had a crack in it anyway and I like the look of these better. Going to hang on to the old mirrors just in case. I'll take that measurement for you tomorrow when I finish the driver side.

[Blue~Go]

Well shoot, and the info was here the whole time you were driving back with the "self folding" mirrors. I drove all the way from Texas to Arizona with that "feature" before I found out how to adjust them Options are good, so I'd keep the Velvacs around too, if I were you. BTW, folks have painted the mirror heads (which seems to be what gets grotty, not the arms or bases).

There are some limited replacement parts for the 2015 series, which did include mirror glass last time I looked (Ryder fleet has good prices and selection) - so you could make yours whole again. But some of the other 2015 parts are no longer available. The 2020 series is still current.

[Willywalderbeast]

1) How far do the mirrors project when telescoped out? I guess a good measurement would be to the side of the mirror that is still closest to the van body. I like the "reach" on my Velvacs, but don't remember how far the Ford mirrors project. Plus of course no need to ever "un-telescope" them since the Chinook body never gets narrower like the varying widths of the combo of a "thin" van and possibly wide trailer.

Looks about 10" to the inside of the mirror from the body.

[Willywalderbeast]

Also just a tip if anyone else plans on doing this...

The wiring goes like this:

The new mirror has a White, Yellow, and Orange wire.

On the plug from the original Velvac mirror you will only use three out of the five wires. You will use the Black, Yellow, and Orange. The light orange is a ground wire that's not needed as the mirror itself is grounded. And the white wire was for the heated feature which the new mirrors don't have.


Connect the Black wire to the White, the Yellow to the Orange, and the Orange to the Yellow. Took me about 5mins to figure this out so I wanted to post the information up to save time for someone else.

[Blue~Go]

Thanks for measuring and the other details.

I'll compare the 10" to the Velvacs when I get back to my rig, and post back.

[vacuumbed]

Many nice upgrades to that Chinook! Looks awesome.