Rear view mirror for my B2650

[rkidd]

I have been wanting a rear view mirror for my tractor. Looking at what most people did, the most common place to mount one on a rops machine if the front loader frame, which is a good place except when you take the loader off, you loose your mirror. I use mine quiet a bit with out it mowing and things. I had researched and found alot of people used golf cart mirrors which is really I thought a good size, and found one that mounts to a 1" square tube. Finally got time to get serious, and looking the tractor over, the one place I found was to mount a 1" square tube to the main support for the floor pan. I had to make a notch in the floor pan to be able to get the new 1" tube bolted flat to the floor support. I drilled 2- 1/4" holes thru the 1" square tube and thru the floor support to anchor it. My only concern for all of this to work, with a long tube sticking up, and a mirror attached to it, was if there would be to much engine vibration to see clearly out of the mirror. As I got more into the fab project, I felt my chances were 50-50 to work. I had 36" of 1" tube,cut long, then cut to correct height, then clamped on the mirror on. I fired up the tractor and took it out to try. To my amazement, it worked perfect. Better then I ever thought. My tractor idles at 1050 rpm, and there was a touch of vibration in the mirror. At 1200 rpm it totally cleared up, and stayed like that all the way to 2500 rpm. I took it down the road in medium and high range, at all rpms and was clear as could be. Success!! I ended up with 31" of tube. When I got back to take the tube off and weld a cap on and paint it up, I noticed some flex in the floor support when I grabbed on to the mirror tube. Looking at the end of the floor support, it is a square tube also, but over by the hood there is a notch in it for the plastic guard under the hood. The top is gone and half of the sides. There is a factory 3/8" hole in it, so I took a 3/8" nut and welded over the hole, then ran a 3/8 bolt in and put pressure on both sides to stiffen that part up, and locked it down with a lock nut. That took 90% of the flex out, and I am now really happy with the install. The mirror is really perfect size and folds back to you if it gets hit or you want to fold it back out of the way.



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[Yooper]

Very nicely done! And once again, your attention to detail is to be congratulated.

Just for the record (in case somebody wants to copy your design), what wall thickness is the square tube?

 

[Stmar]

How about on a cab model, has anyone put one on the front windshield similar to a car? I have the two side mirrors but as I was doing some grading I was thinking it would be nice to have one in the cab.

 

[rkidd]

Very nicely done! And once again, your attention to detail is to be congratulated.

Just for the record (in case somebody wants to copy your design), what wall thickness is the square tube?

Thanks Yooper. Good point on the wall thickness. It was .0625, or 1/16"

 

[rkidd]

How about on a cab model, has anyone put one on the front windshield similar to a car? I have the two side mirrors but as I was doing some grading I was thinking it would be nice to have one in the cab.

I havent looked at one, but I sure would not think it would be too hard. There is alot of heavy equipment, (loaders, and rubber tired backhoes with them) to look at for some ideas or place to buy one.