DieTech Off Road Mirror Brackets (for going doorless!)

[UselessPickles]

Product Link: http://www.dietechoffroad.com/produc...rorbracket.htm

I want to drive my Jeep topless and doorless in the summer, so that means I need a mirror solution. I need something quick and easy that allows me to swap doors/mirrors on and off quickly. My jeep stays parked outside, and my other vehicle is a motorcycle, so I can't really keep it doorless/topless for long periods of time. The easier it is to take the doors off, the more likely I am to do it on short notice for a nice day.

I tried the cheap option of a motorcycle mirror. It technically worked, but the mirror was small, in an awkward location, and it looked kinda ghetto. I also don't like the idea of relocation brackets that mount the mirrors to the A-pillar. Some people say the mirrors are quite a bit less usefull in that location when the doors are on.

For maximum ease of swapping, best appearances, and best mirror location/size, I opted to go all-out on a set of Dietech Offroad mirror brackets and a spare pair of OEM-style mirrors off of EBay.

The DieTech brackets are compatible with 2007+ JK Wranglers and OEM-style non-powered mirrors (including Bestop's HighRock mirrors), and put the mirrors right in the stock location as if they were mounted to the door.

First thing I noticed about the brackets is that they are bigger and sturdier than I expected. They appear to be made from a mix of 1/16", 3/32" and 1/8" thick steel. They are e-coated and powder coated, and the powder coating has a textured finish that almost exactly matches the textured plastic of the OEM mirrors (both in color and texture).






I'm also impressed with the OEM knock-off/clone mirrors I got from EBay. I cannot see a difference between them and OEM mirrors. And they were only about $65 for the pair! They include foam padding for a nice vibration/noise-free fit, but they did not come with mounting hardware.






If you were to just swap your stock mirrors over to the DieTech brackets, then you would re-use the original mounting bolts. Since I'm using a second set of mirrors, I went to the local hardware store and found bolts that would work (M8, 1.25 pitch, 50mm long).






NOTE: I would NOT recommend using these to mount mirrors onto a door! The OEM bolts have a large flange to spread the load across the relatively thin sheet metal of the door. I'm not worried about the lack of flange on these bolts because I'm only using them on the DieTech brackets, and they are being tightened up against a 1/8" thick steel plate.






Now that my spare mirrors are mounted on the brackets, they will stay together forever. With the doors off, first you need to loosen the middle bolt of the upper hinge. My only complaint here is that the bolt head is painted, so it inevitably chips/peels off on the corners the first time you tighten them back down with a socket. It's relatively unnoticeable, so I don't really care. Still better than a shiny non-painted steel bolt head.



Slide the pin of the mirror bracket down into the top hinge, making sure the support arm slides down behind the loosened hinge bolt. Instructions recommend tapping the bracket down into the hinge with a rubber mallet if it doesn't slide in nicely. I got lucky and was able to push it down. Now re-install the stock hinge pin screw/cap (you know, that little thing that holds the door hinge pin in the hinge that many people never bother re-installing after removing doors for the first time), and tighten the hinge bolt against the support arm. That was easy.








Everything fits very nice and is solid. Due to approaching rain, I had to throw the door back on and haven't actually driven with the mirror brackets yet. I'll report back later on whether there is any vibration blur in the mirrors while out on the road, and then again at some time in the future when I get off-road with them. I'm not too worried though. According to DieTech, "This design eliminates the vibration caused by wind and the amplification of road vibration that other simple hinge-mount designs cannot offer."

Costs:
DieTech Mirror Brackets: $70.99 + $15 shipping
EBay Mirrors: ~$65 with free shipping (depending on seller and timing)
Bolts: $3.60
Total: ~$154.59

A bit expensive, but I don't think I would be happy with any alternatives, so it's definitely worth the cost to me.

[Snarf77]

Excellent write-up pickles. I've been pondering the best solution all winter and I've just never liked the small mirror look. I'd never pull my mirrors off my hard doors either, so a second set would be essential. Those brackets look pretty serious - and I like good build quality. I'd rather buy something once at a higher price, than have to replace it when the cheapo item breaks or doesn't work out (part of the reason I went with metalcloak for my lift).

I'm going to check the local pick-n-pull yard for a set of jeep mirrors. I'm guessing any JK mirror will work. Hopefully I can find a wrecked JK to pull from.

[JeepLab]

I didnt even know this existed.

Great find.

[UselessPickles]

Excellent write-up pickles.

Thanks

Those brackets look pretty serious - and I like good build quality.

They feel very solid/serious when holding them. I think they could work as an emergency zombie apocalypse weapon. Tie a rope through the mirror mounting hole and you've got a nice heavy swinging weapon.

I'm guessing any JK mirror will work.

Any non-powered JK mirrors. Has to be the plain old manual mirrors. That might be tougher to find in a junk yard. People generally seem to like power/convenience packages on their vehicles.

[UselessPickles]

I finally got an opportunity to do some driving with these mirror brackets. Brackets are awesome. Cheap ebay mirrors aren't quite as awesome.

The mirror glass shakes a bit inside the housing while driving. I can tell it is an issue with the mirrors rather than the brackets because it happens on smooth roads (from turbulence) in addition to when hitting bumps and rough spots. I can place my hand on the mirror housing while this is happening and feel absolutely no vibration.

It's not horrible, and for the $70+ I saved vs buying genuine OEM mirrors, I'm not upset. I'll probably get bored sometime and see if I can modify the mirror in some way to improve it.

[UselessPickles]

Experiments with OEM vs cheap OEM-like mirror shaking have begun, but some results are invalidated already because I discovered I didn't have a mirror fully tightened onto the dietech bracket. Now I need to start over.

[UselessPickles]

Results are in!

I swapped the cheap OEM-like mirrors around with the real OEM mirrors.

When mounted to the doors, both mirrors suffer from slight shaking of the mirror glass when hitting bumps. The cheap mirrors shake a little bit more, but I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference if I wasn't specifically looking for and comparing the shaking. Before this, I also never even noticed that the OEM mirrors shake a bit on bumps.

When mounted to the DieTech brackets, both mirrors shake noticeably more when hitting bumps. They also both suffer from slight occasional shaking on apparently smooth roads. Like on the door, the cheap mirrors shake a little bit more than OEM. If I'm just driving and not thinking about the shaking, it's not shaking bad enough to bother me and call my attention to the fact that it is shaking. It's definitely there, but has not yet made itself noticeable by interfering with the effectiveness of the mirrors. They still do the job.

Neither mirrors have ever shaken out of adjustment.

Knowing what I know now, if I had to do it again, I would still buy the cheap mirrors. They shake a little bit more, and they require less force to adjust (which increases the chance of accidental adjustment, but also makes it a bit easier to fine-tune the aim of the mirror), but the difference is not big enough to make it worth paying twice as much for OEM.

I decided to put my OEM mirrors on the DieTech brackets and the cheap mirrors on my doors. I'm basically trading slightly more shaking with doors on for slightly less shaking with doors off, bringing them closer to each other for a more consistent experience.


This does makes me wonder about DieTech's "no vibrating" claim. I've also seen other people claim there's no vibrating with their DieTech brackets. Did I get a bad set of brackets, or am I just more nit-picky? Do other mirror brackets vibrate so much more that the DieTech brackets are relatively vibration-free in comparison?

[JeepLab]

no vibrating, means no vibrating where I come from.

If your looking in the mirror at speed, and you can see things shaking....thats vibrating.

Regardless, your truck looks great. Im a step behind as my girlfriend, keeps trying to keep me from stripping the doors....for her hair.

[UselessPickles]

Sounds like your girlfriend needs to adjust her priorities

My family (wife, and 2 boys age 4 and 5) has been thoroughly enjoying the naked jeep. Last night, we went for a sunset drive around a few lakes. During the entire ride, there was not a single time that the mirrors detracted from my enjoyment or ability to safely see what was beside/behind me. No one complained about their hair either, but I did cover myself with the "jeep hair" warning on the passenger visor.

[WhiteRavenRR]

I'm running the Rugged Ridge Quick-Release Mirrors. You just mount the base bracket to the upper two bolts of the A-post and leave them. Remove the doors and attach the mirrors using the thumb screws and off you go. So much faster than the Rugged Ridge Relocation Brackets that I used before. I did have to modify the passenger side bracket to fit under my snorkel. I had to go to the hardware store and buy a new bolt to use there as opposed to the thumb screw but its still pretty quick.