Reviews for Crown Automotive RT30021 Quick Release Mirror Set for 76-18 Jeep CJ and Wrangler YJ, TJ, and JK
Install is no problem and quick, installed over/on the roof rack frame
nice product, keeps you legal with the doors off
Pretty good after a little modification.
I selected these mirrors because I like the style, they can be installed with the doors on, and unlike some similar mirrors, the left and right are mounted symmetrically.
You can change how much force it takes to adjust the mirror angle by adjusting the 3 screws on the back side of the mirror.
Ease of installation is going to depend on whether you can get the windshield hinge bolts out. Once you've dealt with that, the rest is easy.
The arm goes into two plastic cups, and the thumb screw goes through all 3 pieces to squeeze them together. I couldn't tighten it enough by hand to keep the mirrors from folding in from the wind. I ended up putting a thin layer of Plasti-dip on the flat side of the cups to give them some friction. This worked to keep the mirrors in place, but they should still be able to swing out of the way if they get whacked. Putting the thumb screw through the 3 pieces can be tricky. You'll probably want to mount the arm to the bracket before you mount the mirror to the arm.
The heads of the screws for the mounting brackets rusted almost immediately, but a squirt of touch up paint took care of that.
At 40 MPH or so, the mirrors whistle. This turns out to be caused by the rubber seal overhanging the back of the mirror. I ran my finger around the outside edge and the whistling stopped, so I just trimmed the rubber flush with the metal at that spot. No more whistling.
Finally, the brackets do make installing the full doors a little tricky because there is very little clearance between the bottom of the bracket and the corner of the door under the window when you're trying to line up the post with the hinge. I might swap the top and bottom hinges on the door to put the longer post on the bottom, so I can drop the door a little before lining up the top post.
Overall, I'm very happy with these mirrors after dealing with some minor issues.
Nice looking set up, seems solid, reasonably priced...BUT. it would be nice if the bolts attaching to jeep had actually fit the attachment points. They absolutely were NOT the same threads as the the holes they screw into. AND it would be very nice if they were standard- or metric- Allen key bolts, instead of the V-5 things (SP??) they are. An installation that should've probably taken 15 minutes and a couple of wrenches turned into an hour of filing, hammering and vice grips to get the stripped bolt out of the hole that had stripped its threads. Also, are both the arms supposed to be identical?
Both have the same dimensions and geometry? even after swapping them back and forth, I still had to tweak and twist to get a decent rear view.
I also don't have a lot of confidence in the plastic tightening knob, or the plastic bushings. It's solid now but we'll see.
I suppose I should have studied the other reviews before I purchased these mirrors. It's clear the manufacturer has some QA/QC issues. Yes, the wrong bolts for my CJ7, but I was able to supplement my own hardware from my garage. However, when I attempted the install the mirrors I realized the arms were both the same and worked fine on the passenger side but could not be used on the drivers side. The arm is drilled for two mounting angles, and if installed on the drivers side the mirror could not be adjusted to view behind the vehicle. The mirror could only be adjusted to look up or down. I do realize the three little screws in the back of the mirror are there to loosen the swivel ball to adjust the mirror angle, however, you can only adjust the mirror stem just so far before it meets with a mechanical stop...?
The up side, the mirrors were the right color and the two holes in the windshield mount have the proper center spacing and were installed after I substituted the mounting hardware. As for the mirror arms, I had to cut off the end that was drilled for the mounting bolt and re-drill the arm for the correct mounting angle and then installed my "Short Arm Mirrors."