Foretravel Owners' Forum

Foretravel Motorhome Forums => Foretravel Tech Talk => Topic started by: bigdog on March 18, 2016, 09:48:03 pm

Title: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: bigdog on March 18, 2016, 09:48:03 pm
Found nothing in a search. So here it goes.
My passenger side rear view mirror decided to come loose whilst going down the road. Wires held and mirror is ok. I bought some black RTV sealant. My question is: do I need to scrape off all the old sealant where the motors are or can I clean it up with alcohol and go from there?

Thanks
Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: Travelin' Man (RIP) on March 18, 2016, 11:36:50 pm
I would clean them thoroughly before RTVing,
especially if silicone was used initially.
Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: wolfe10 on March 19, 2016, 08:27:59 am
Contact Ramco-- this number is a couple of years old, but may still be accurate:

Ramco (mirrors) 800 321-4819
Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: Mike Leary (RIP) on March 19, 2016, 10:10:35 am
My passenger side rear view mirror decided to come loose whilst going down the road. Wires held and mirror is ok.

Can you post a pic, Jerry? Odd there are no screws holding the mirror on, or is it just the glass part that came loose?  :o  Glad to hear you've got the coach out, though!  b^.^d
Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: bigdog on March 19, 2016, 10:48:27 am
Can you post a pic, Jerry? Odd there are no screws holding the mirror on, or is it just the glass part that came loose?  :o  Glad to hear you've got the coach out, though!  b^.^d

Just the glass mirror which is mounted on an aluminum sheet and that then is stuck to the round apparatus that has two adjustment motors. I'll try and take a picture of the offending items.
Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: Travelin' Man (RIP) on March 19, 2016, 11:27:56 am

You got lucky Bigdog.

There's a bridge on I-84 just east of the I-81/ I-84 split near Scranton, PA that has expansion joints at each end that that are real rim-benders.

A few years ago as I hit the first joint  my driver's side mirror became detached and was doing aerobatics with just the wires holding it.  Before I could pull over it finally broke the wires and the mirror went sailing off into the median.

I pulled over as soon as possible and walked back to get  my mirror only to find so much debris (ie: mirrors, hubcaps, litter, etc.) that it was impossible to locate it.


Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: lenspeiser on March 19, 2016, 07:59:45 pm
Halfway across the Will Rogers turnpike in OK my passenger side started flopping around and fell out before I could get over. It was still hanging by the wires and zip ties with duct tape got me home. I used black silicone after completely cleaning the back of it and filled the gaps between the mounting bracket and the glass so the wind would not try to separate the two.
Len
Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: bigdog on March 20, 2016, 12:32:49 am
I just ended up scraping off all the old sealant I could and applied a liberal amount of new black goo, Put a spacer under the bottom edge and put a folded towel on the mirror then wrapped it with a self sticking ace bandage. Tomorrow will tell the tale if that was the thing to do. Also did a sodium Dichlor water system clean out as the coach hasn't been used for a long time. 
Title: Re: Reattaching an outside mirror
Post by: Travelin' Man (RIP) on March 20, 2016, 11:10:30 am
I neglected to say that my mirrors were new replacements, only six months old.  Velvac sent me a new one.