Cummins Diesel Forum banner

14-17 Chevy mirrors on my 06 Mega.

117K views 294 replies 58 participants last post by  Dave88LX 
#1 ·
This might be sacrilegious and probably frowned upon by many, but oh well. I'm tired of having moose antlers for mirrors with a tiny bubble mirror. So I decided to do something about it. I put current style Chevy tow mirrors on my 06 Mega Cab and it came out really clean. All the lights on it work too, including turn signals, marker lights, defrost, and the little backup lights. Let me know if you have questions.
 

Attachments

See less See more
4
#7 ·
Following awesome
 
#11 ·
I can't see the pics, is it my phone?
I really want to see this!
 
#15 ·
Never mind, i can see the pics on my laptop...

Looks good!

This is of great interest to me as i have manual mirrors on my Ram,... every time i hook up my trailer i have to deal with re-adjusting my mirrors. Power morrors would take care of this but i would need to add wires, switches, inner door panels, plugs.... my truck is a ST model, power nuthin!
Well, it did come with a Cummins! :D

I expect these mirrors would be adjusted and work in the 'in' & 'out' positions w/out RE-adjusting....

I found these....
https://www.1aauto.com/mirror-pair-trail-ridge-trmrp00012/i/trmrp00012?f=1093512&y=2016
 
#17 ·
So I don't have a write up exactly for the Chevy mirrors. It was more or less just a tinkering thing until it turned into a feasible project. I'll try and make a video or something when I get back home.
Also, there's no wind/road noise from these and they're more stable than the moose antlers.
 
#18 ·
subscribed! A write up, video, or any kind of install details would be greatly appreciated by all! Looks completely factory and those mirrors are a step above our stockers or even the 4th gen powered mirrors IMO...

think you might have started something here ;)
 
#19 ·
Ok so I am still out of town but i know you guys are curious, so I will kind of give a run down of what I did while I'm here in my hotel. First off, heres a link to the mirrors.

2014-2017 Chevy Silverado GMC Sierra Power+Heated+Smoke LED Signal Tow Mirrors | eBay
They are by no means plug and play.

Since I've done the hard part already, measuring and testing; getting them on is pretty straight forward, just time consuming.

The attached image is all the measurements I had to take before I was confident to spend 200 plus dollars on something that shouldn't work.
The top triangle is the dodge mirror and the bottom, the chevy. I got those by going to a chevy dealer, asking to see a mirror from the parts depot and literally stood there for 30 minutes getting measurements while the parts guys stared at me.

1. there are 4 bolts on the Chevy mirrors, you only use the 3 corners, not the 4th middle. You'll see when you get them. You will use the front bolt to measure for the other 2.
2. luckily for us with 3rd gens, the front bolt aligns everything else up to be where it should be. by using the front stud as a guide, you drill the rearward hole about 1/8 inch farther back and the top hole about an inch higher and 1/2 inch back. (this is all by memory and each truck might be different, you still have to measure some)
3. after the holes are drilled you can now start to grind the die-cast metal mounting surface of the mirror. basically everything gets trimmed ~1/4 to 3/8 of an inch all the way around. your goal here is to make the mirror sit deeper inside the mirror pocket on the door so the surrounding plastic sits flush with door (again, you'll see when you do it)
4. after everything ground and you are satisfied with how it sits and is level, you'll need to tap a few holes. you can choose to keep the bottom 2 studs or tap them and put in different studs like I did. I chose to tap because there is a lip on the chevy studs that gets in the way. the top hole will have to be changed to a longer stud or a bolt because when you drill the hole in the door for this one it goes right through a thicker part of the door. ( again you'll see) the tap i chose was a 5/16 18 just because I happened to have studs that size already.
5. after you found the right attachment hardware and done being giddy about how it looks on the truck, you'll need to get a different gasket. this is because the plastic surround is ever so slightly lacking in length towards the back. luckily for us 3rd gens, you can just use the factory dodge gasket. its longer that the chevy one and offers more sealing power. WIN WIN.
6. now if your truck came with power mirrors and heat, your in luck, if not, god speed then. mine has power and defrost and so do the mirrors, however, the plugs are way different and reversed male to female. so now you have to do a bit of wiring. i chose to cut the female plug off my dodge mirror and attach to the wires on the chevy mirrors then theres no fuss. I wrote down which wires go to what but its at home and I can upload it at some point.
7. as far as the other lights go (turn signals, marker and back-up lights) you can wire those to whatever you want. I chose to wire the turn and marker to the front turn signal lights and the back-up to an auxiliary switch panel I made a while back.

an optional thing you can do is turn those marker lights into turn signals and marker lights by way of using a couple diodes and a resistor. I did this and its amazing. also the red turn signal built into the mirror face is bit bright so I added a resistor to that circuit as well.

now I know this is not very detailed but it should help to paint a picture of whats involved in doing this.

I also appreciate all the positive feedback and I hope a I started a new trend to get rid of those abortions dodge decided to call a mirror. adjusting them every time you go from moose to non-moose? F off, what stupid design, no wonder we get so much $h!t from people about towing ghost trailers, its because its a pain to adjust them every time, especially if your motor functions don't work. Ok, I digress. I hope you found this helpful
 

Attachments

#20 ·
Thank you Sir, this is good. I totally agree with the last part of leaving the mirrors up because of the pain of re adjusting...

I wish i could find more pics of Rams with this kind of mirrors... I would like to SEE it before i buy!
 
#21 ·
thank you for this! This is the info I needed...basically sounds like once you get them and look at it all with a critical eye you can see how it needs to be modified to fit and "plug up" so to speak...great info and I am willing to bet you will see more of these mods in the near future :thumbsup:
 
#22 ·
Here's a few different pictures before everything was wired up.
 

Attachments

#24 ·
Nice mod, beautifully done! Looks great, and it is a practical improvement. Nothing not to like about it! Thanks for sharing on here!

I have added this mod to my list and I definitely plan to do the mod to my truck at some point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cummins925
#25 ·
Have you been getting strange looks when your on the road yet?
:nerd:
:hehe:
 
#26 ·
Well I am about to order these mirrors off ebay...FYI for anyone interested the ones with amber lenses are $10 cheaper at $188 and I like the amber lights on my red truck so those are the ticket for me...anyways I've had a few things in my ebay cart and needed to pull the trigger on it (making my own battery cables, 6 months after first discussing it no less, plus a hydraulic motor for my boat, etc...ugh) so figured I would toss these in there as I have ALWAYS hated our truck's stock mirrors...

I just wanted to give you a shout about the wiring aspects...I know you said in your post you don't have the wiring diagram on you at present and since I am a get-around-to-it kinda guy no rush but when you get the chance please post that here or send me a PM!

I can cut and trim metal, plastic, rubber, etc., til my heart's content, but when it comes to wiring and electrical items I definitely need some guidance! And I would really like to get the back up lights working along with the turn signals but just not 100% keen on how to accomplish that...

so thanks again and I look forward to your update and any other user pics who do this mod! :D
 
#27 ·
I'm really interested in this mod.

To the above poster about the wiring, and the OP, check out this product:



https://www.customled.com/products/...SzsAjcsxGqyAAhKhI-pr23oTi3NPBJ07kgaAmRn8P8HAQ

I've used these on my MC to turn the front running lights into blinkers/running lights.

Here is the wiring schematic for them:



Now I'm not sure what the wiring consists of for the Chevy mirrors as far as the marker lights, blinker, and back-up lights.
I'm assuming that the marker light draws it's own power, and the blinker on the mirror would draw it's own power, and the back-up lights the same.

We have running lamp power and turn signal power on our trucks that run to the side marker bulbs, since they pull dual duty as a running lamp and a blinker.

I'm guessing one would tap the blinker power for the mirror arrow (red) as described in the post. If you just want the running light/marker, you would tap into the running light power from the harness leading to the marker bulb.

If you want the marker on the mirror to have the functionality of a blinker and a constant marker, you would wire in the circuit that I posted above between the vehicle harness running to the marker bulb, and the mirrors.

You would need to pull 2 wires from the blinker power up to the mirror...one would go directly and hook into the "red" blinker on the mirror, and the other would go to the white wire on the circuit above for "blinker". You would run 1 wire from your running light constant power up to the red wire on the circuit. You would ground the black wire of the circuit however you want. Then, that yellow wire, would run to the power of the marker of the mirror. That circuit with this wiring would allow the marker light in the mirror be constant when the parking lamps are turned on. When you hit the blinker, the marker and the signal on the mirror will blink on and off (the circuit will be interrupting power to the marker on the mirror to cause the "blinking", while the red arrow on the mirror will be blinking based off of the blinker hot wire controlled by the vehicles computer.)

Dang this mod is really tempting...
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top