Need a new wing mirror

[webby1]

I need to replace the complete drivers mirror with long arms on our Ducato.

 

I know many people on here recommend Wing Mirror Man, but they want £175.

https://www.wingmirrorman.co.uk/motorhome-mirrors/complete-units/adria-wing-mirror-units/adria-coral-wing-mirror-units/adria-coral-wing-mirror-unit-driver-side

 

Then came across Emparts on Ebay who seem to offer exactly the same for less than half that price at £65.

Link to Emparts on eBay

 

Again I know many people say you get what you pay for and I generally agree. But they do look exactly the same and I don't suppose there can be that many variations in making mirrors.

 

Any comments would be appreciated. Anyone used Emparts before.

 

By the way, the smash occurred on the A82 just North of Loch Lomond....horrible stretch of road. In searching various Forums and posts for information, I was surprised to find 3 other people whose mirrors had been damaged on the same stretch of road…....so be careful out there.

 

Then again, perhaps 2 of them were in the same “encounter”

 

(Edit to shorten link to fit page width - Keith)

[Grumpyman]

Try wing mirror man on the net..

[webby1]

Keith is there a way to put shortened links in ourselves...................then people could see I had already visited the Wing mIrror man https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/images/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Derek Uzzell]

webby1

 

This 2019 forum thread may be of interest to you

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Ducato-wing-mirrors/51922/#M610308

 

The original poster (“pike”) needed to replace the offside long-arm mirror of his 2013 right-hand-drive Ducato-based motorhome and purchased FOUR mirrors from various on-line suppliers before purchasing a ‘genuine’ Fiat mirror that worked properly from Coastal Motorhomes.

 

Coastal Motorhomes currently advertises this mirror for £178.63

 

https://coastalmotorhomes.co.uk/fiat-ducato-peugeot-boxer-citroen-relay-right-long-arm-mirror-temp-sender-250-oe.html

 

with a ‘pattern’ equivalent for £142.72

 

https://coastalmotorhomes.co.uk/fiat-ducato-peugeot-boxer-citroen-relay-o-s-long-arm-mirror-temp-sender-250.html

 

I notice that the Wing Mirror Man advert you gave a link to referred to a ‘driver side’ long-arm mirror for a RHD Adria Coral, so I assume that’s the make/model of motorhome you own and your ebay advert link refers to a 2006-on Ducato, so I assume your motorhome was built sometime between mid-2006 and now. It would be a lot simpler though if you provided such information as requested here

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/IDENTIFYING-YOUR-MOTORHOME/54713/

 

To quote John Ruskin

 

“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

 

Regarding shortening an overly-long link so that it does not ’stretch’ a posting. I use TinyURL

 

https://tinyurl.com/

 

but a GOOGLE-search on “shorten links” will show plenty of alternative ways of doing it, or there’s the ‘editing’ method Keith has employed.

 

(I’m not sure why your ‘winky’ thingie has appeared as a sort of link. Have you ticked the “Enable emoticons” box under your posting ‘window’, as all you should then need do is click on the appropriate emoticon to cause it to appear in your posting? ;-) (?) :-( *-) 8-) B-) :-D

[webby1]

Thanks for the information Derek.I dragged the emoticon rather than click :$ :$ But all sorted now..

 

I will post the vehicle details as you requested.

 

Who would have thought that John Ruskin knew all about Motorhome wing mirrors

 

I did read the post about receiving someone 4 different mirrors before paying the extra and receiving the correct one. But there's such a big difference in price that I'm tempted.At least he received an exchange.

 

I'll post back about what I receive.

[Keithl]

Webby1,

 

I only edited to put your heperlink into square brackets, you could have done this when posting, it is not a superpower only available to us mere moderators :D

 

This is now your link now looks (note I have added spaces after the [ to prevent it from actually working)

 

[ url=https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Ducato-Full-Door-Wing-Mirror-ELECTRIC-HEATED-2-Cables-Long-Arm-O-S-

2006-On/252647609865?hash=item3ad2f89609%3Ag%3AKgQAAOSwiDFYND6L&fits=Car+Make%3AFiat%7CModel%3ADucato

%7CCars+Type%3A130+Multijet+2%2C3+D%7CCars+Year%3A2009]Link to Emparts on eBay[ /url]

 

If you click 'Quote' on the edited post you will see what I mean.

 

Keith.

 

PS I have not shortened your link to WingMirrorMan, only the one to Emparts.

 

PPS There are a whole host of other operations which can be performed with square brackets, such as bold, italics or underline.

[webby1]

Thats a really useful tip........so it means I can put a link to

 

Another company selling complete mirrors on Ebay

 

And I've learnt how to add smiley faces as well

:-D :-D

 

That's enough for today

[Keithl]

webby1 - 2020-11-20 4:53 PM

 

Thats a really useful tip........so it means I can put a link to

 

Another company selling complete mirrors on Ebay

 

And I've learnt how to add smiley faces as well

:-D :-D

 

That's enough for today

Except that company is a direct link and not on eBay :D :D :D

[Derek Uzzell]

Keithl - 2020-11-20 3:59 PM

 

PPS There are a whole host of other operations which can be performed with square brackets, such as bold, italics or underline.

 

That’s true about the wide range of BBCode tags

 

https://en.scratch-wiki.info/wiki/BBCode

 

https://www.phpbb.com/community/help/bbcode

 

but only a few seem to be usable on these forums.

 

I’ve wanted to use colour in the text of my postings (and it certainly was possible to do this way back when) but I’ve never been successful more recently when I’ve experimented. The forums have a ‘rich text’ feature that offers basic word processing, but the application is way out-of-date and never worked properly on my Mac.

[Alanb]

When about two years ago, I needed a replacement wing mirror for my PVC, I used "wingmirrorman", as the price was perhaps half that for a Fiat part.

 

I have the following observations to make regarding the mirror with which I was supplied.

 

1. On the Fiat original, the bolts holding the two parts together were hexagon headed M6, whereas the replacement only used Phillips No. 2 headed M5 screws.

 

2. The cable for the mirror electrics, exited the mirror base at the wrong place. I had to file a slot in one of the base stiffening ribs, in order to allow the cable to reach to the opening in the door panel without being trapped.

 

3. The new mounting gasket, or pad was of such poor quality, that I decided to retain the original pad.

 

Alan

[Derek Uzzell]

I’d also be wary of the EMPART advert mentioned above. This is not because I’ve any knowledge of the quality of the mirror being offered, but because EMPART’s own website carries two entries for a "Fiat Ducato Full Door Wing Mirror ELECTRIC HEATED Long Arm Right O/S 2006 On” product.

 

The cheaper mirror (£64.50) refers to it having “2 cables” (visible from the photo on the advert and arrowed on 1st image attached below)

 

https://emparts.co.uk/product/fiat-ducato-full-door-wing-mirror-electric-heated-2-cables-long-arm-os-2006-on/

 

while the photo of the more expensive mirror (£109.94) differs at the ‘plug’ end (2nd image attached below)

 

https://emparts.co.uk/product/fiat-ducato-full-door-wing-mirror-electric-heated-long-arm-right-os-2006-on/

 

I’d definitely want to confirm with EMPART what the cable difference means in practice, and why one mirrori costs £45 more than the other.

[webby1]

Thanks for that observation Derek...................I'd also want to confirm with wing mirrorman why his mirrors cost even more.

 

I remember asking on one site why it was that his parts were so cheap..............I'll charge you more if it will make you happier was his reply.

 

I have now removed the mirror and to complicate things measured it at 19 cms rather than the 23 which most advertise as a long arm.

 

It appears that I now need a medium mirror so the search goes on.

[Derek Uzzell]

The Coastal Motorhomes website carries adverts for long-arm and medium-arm mirrors for Ducato X250 vehicles, and those adverts include ‘thumbnail’ photos of each type including a photo showing the arm-length. The two relevant webpages are on these links and I’ve copied the photos below.

 

https://coastalmotorhomes.co.uk/fiat-ducato-peugeot-boxer-citroen-relay-right-long-arm-mirror-temp-sender-250-oe.html

 

https://coastalmotorhomes.co.uk/body-exhaust/mirrors/complete-mirrors/fiat-ducato-peugeot-boxer-citroen-relay-o-s-medium-arm-mirror-electric-heated.html

 

(If you’d only provide identification details of your motorhome (make, exact model and year) it should be straightforward to say which mirror you need as the long-arm mirrors actually look LONG :-( )

[Derek Uzzell]

My 2015 Ducato-based Rapido has long-arm mirrors. The vehicle is left-hand-drive (so the mirrors differ from RHD versions) but - having folded the mirrors back against the cab doors and taken measurements from the cab-door end of the UPPER arms to a marking on the arm near to the mirror itself - the distance was 230mm for one mirror and 235mm for the other (see upper image attached below).

 

Coachbuilt motorhomes built on a Ducato X250/X290 base commonly have a bodywork width around 2.3 metres (My Rapido’s bodywork width is 2.35m) and this width demands long-arm mirrors for a ‘full’ rearwards view to be obtained down each body-side. In my Rapido’s case, looking forwards along the body side from the rear of the motorhome, the whole of the glazed part of the mirror can be seen.

 

There has been forum discussion in the past about replacing X250/X290 long-arm mirrors with shorter-arm versions, usually when te motorhome’s bodywork is slimmer than average). This recentish discussion referred

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Fiat-Ducato-2007-wing-mirrors-question/55899/#M661786

 

in which Steve928 included an image showing the dimensions of the short, medium and long-arm Ducato mirrors. (I’ve attached Steve’s image here for reference.)

[Brian Kirby]

webby1 - 2020-11-20 1:46 PM

 

Keith is there a way to put shortened links in ourselves...................then people could see I had already visited the Wing mIrror man https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/images/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

If I've understood correctly, try https://tinyurl.com/ I find it very useful.

[Keithl]

Brian Kirby - 2020-11-21 6:37 PM

If I've understood correctly, try https://tinyurl.com/ I find it very useful.

But you cannot 'see' where the link is taking you without clicking on it and I do not like clicking on 'unknown' links.

 

By using square brackets you can type whatever you like as the link name, eg 'Link to eBay', and if you hover over the link it will reveal the true address.

 

Keith.

[webby1]

I certainly found Keiths explanation of using the square brackets was very useful and reminded me of all the HTML language that I had forgotten

 

I was fascinated that writing stuff in html could produce an all singing, all dancing web page.

 

It seemed like a magic trick.But as they say practice make perfect

[Derek Uzzell]

Keithl

 

TinyURL includes a ‘preview’ option to "give your recipients confidence”. For example this link to the ebay EMPART advert introduces a 2-stage process allowing the recipient the opportunity of continuing to the 2nd stage or not.

 

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3vwbc2t

 

I use TinyURL when necessary because it takes seconds for me to create the shortened link rather than play about with BBCode. When I provide a TinyURL link I make it plain where clicking on the link will take the ‘clicker’ and I never bother with the preview option. Obviously, if I so chose, I could post a TinyURL link to (say) a porn site and I have (very very rarely on this forum) used TinyURL to deliberately ‘hide’ the destination arrived at by clicking on the link - but that’s just when I’ve got my comedian hat on.

 

The ‘hovering’ ploy works well with my iPad, but poorly with my iMac - it would be interesting to know how many forum members bother to ‘hover’ before clicking on a link that has been shortened using the BBCode approach.

[Robinhood]

Derek Uzzell - 2020-11-20 6:05 PM

 

I’ve wanted to use colour in the text of my postings (and it certainly was possible to do this way back when) but I’ve never been successful more recently when I’ve experimented.

"It's possible using BBcode, but you might have to search a bit for the colour code you want. "

 

;-)

[Derek Uzzell]

 

 

”Thanks for the guidance - though I don’t think I’ll bother to use colour here in future unless I’m in a really artistic mood. "

[vindiboy]

I replaced both my wing Mirrors on my Ducato Chausson, as the right side one was smashed by a passing van which did not stop, I replaced both mirrors because I could not get a match to the Mirrors on the van, so went for long arm ones from E Bay my van is 2004 , both mirrors [complete assemblies ] have two arms with telescopic rubbers covering the arms, heated and adjustable electrically, the right one cost more than the nearside one.

All ok for about three months when I noticed that the rubber arm covers were dissolving and after another week or so they fell off completely, I received a full refund from E Bay and still have the Mirrors ,, they were made in Poland it seems ,so buyer beware.

[Derek Uzzell]

Fortunately 2006-onwards Ducato mirrors don’t have the rubber cover you refer to (I notice you mentioned in this earlier thread that the covers were unobtainable separately.)

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Ducato-wing-mirrors/51922/

 

This company

 

https://www.cardoormirrors.com/fiat/ducato/2006-to-2020-wing-mirror-unit.html

 

advertises not just complete mirror-units and replacement glasses for 2006-onwards Ducatos, but also replacement ‘casings’ (wing mirror covers). So if it’s just the outer casing that has suffered damage and the rest of the mirror-unit is still serviceable, it should be a lot cheaper/simpler to replace the casing alone rather than replace the complete mirror-unit (and with less potential risk of ending up with a wrong unit).

 

These videos describe replacement of the casing /cover.

 

 

 

Note: Replacing the mirror's indicator-bulb does NOT require removal of the casing. When the upper mirror-glass is manually moved to the appropriate position the two screws that hold the indicator unit in place will become accessible. (See “REPLACING AN EXTERIOR BULB” in the Ducato Owner Handbook.)

[BruceM]

vindiboy - 2020-11-27 1:16 PM

All ok for about three months when I noticed that the rubber arm covers were dissolving and after another week or so they fell off completely, I received a full refund from E Bay and still have the Mirrors ,, they were made in Poland it seems ,so buyer beware.

 

As a connected anecdote . .

 

About forty years ago I worked for a small UK subcontracted car component manufacturer. Most of our parts were for Ford and one of the parts was the old transit chrome plated wing mirror arm. One year when the only guy who seemed able to keep the chrome plating equipment working was on holiday the equipment failed. Fearful of ‘stopping the line’, it was already ‘just in time’ supply in those days, the workaround devised was to paint the mirror arms with silver paint and send them off. Nobody complained, so we carried on. And when our chrome plating ‘expert’ came off his holiday, we carried on silver painting the arms. It was quicker and cheaper. This went on for just over three months, and then Ford spotted it. They were annoyed, but we kept the business and went back to plating again. I imagine though that a few hundred Ford Transits with flaking ‘chrome’ mirror arms ended up in circulation.

 

[Brian Kirby]

Derek Uzzell - 2020-11-21 8:35 PM

Keithl

TinyURL includes a ‘preview’ option to "give your recipients confidence”. For example this link to the ebay EMPART advert introduces a 2-stage process allowing the recipient the opportunity of continuing to the 2nd stage or not.

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y3vwbc2t

I use TinyURL when necessary because it takes seconds for me to create the shortened link rather than play about with BBCode. When I provide a TinyURL link I make it plain where clicking on the link will take the ‘clicker’ and I never bother with the preview option. Obviously, if I so chose, I could post a TinyURL link to (say) a porn site and I have (very very rarely on this forum) used TinyURL to deliberately ‘hide’ the destination arrived at by clicking on the link - but that’s just when I’ve got my comedian hat on.

The ‘hovering’ ploy works well with my iPad, but poorly with my iMac - it would be interesting to know how many forum members bother to ‘hover’ before clicking on a link that has been shortened using the BBCode approach.

I missed this question when I first read this string.

 

On this Win 10 PC running the new Microsoft Edge, if I hover over a link in square brackets as Keith suggests, nothing whatever is revealed beyond that which was already visible on screen.

 

I just go for tiny because it is quick and simple and doesn't take three lines of text - or blow the screen border across three counties! :-)