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Ramco (Crapco) Mirrors
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This is sad on two levels.
First, Crapco either does not care about the lousy plating and shaking mirrors, or worse does not possess the skills and understanding to actually make a product consistent with the high price.
But probably more importantly is that Prevost knows the product stinks and either doesn’t care or isn’t willing to use its muscle as a volume OEM buyer to bring about changes. Any time I see a product with obvious issues I begin to wonder if the same attitude about quality extends to those things that are not so obvious.
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Well it’s been 3 years since I started this thread and nothing has changed, the mirrors vibrate and shake even though they were the latest and greatest. So, I have come up with a possible solution and will be testing this week with a 700 mile trip.
I found this caulk that dries crystal clear and is removable. I ran a small bead of caulk between the mirror edge and frame and will see if that stops the shakes. It looks promising, it stiffened the mirror substantially. The caulking peels right off if you want to remove it.
The bead is hard to see unless you’re looking for it. -
I have had an issue since I got the present coach with the driver’s side shaking so badly it is hard to see out of it. It is at Liberty in N Chicago now, and Bill is looking at fixes, but is not sure he can really do much. They did that Prevost repair involving Sikaflex around the motor about 2 years ago. That helped for a couple of months, but the shakes are now as bad as ever.
I will be very interested in how your experiment works out.
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It is amazing how I can buy old wore out dump trucks and not a single one had a mirror that shook or corrosion on the mirror paint or plating.
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Yep, mirrors on our trucks did not shake like these expensive POS Crapco ones do. I just don’t get why Prevost still uses them.
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And apparently NOTHING can be retro-fitted to the existing brackets.
When one of my glass mirrors “fell off” its backing and I had to reattach it, I noticed the glass came from Muth Mirrors in Sheboygan, WI. I wonder if they make the mechanism too that rattles and shakes on so many coaches. I’ll try to find out. Maybe we should be talking to them instead of Ramco.
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Talking to Ramco is a one sided conversation because they truly do not give a damn.
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Maybe I don’t have a problem with my mirrors shaking because of 24 years of riding a 1200 CC Harley without isolation motor mounts. Anything below 65 MPH and the mirrors made it look as if you were being pursued by a dozen cagers. Anything above 65 and the mirrors were absolutely dead still. Of course I am not immune from having mirror problems. On one of our cross country trips the big flat mirror section came apart from the mount used to aim it. The wiring held it in place so no breakage. I had some clear silicone caulking in an underbay. Got it out and ran a couple wavy beads on the mount. Put the mirror back in its place. The key I believe was my use of Duct Tape to hold it under pressure for the rest of the day and through the night. I gently removed the duct tape and the mirror has been in place, and adjustable, since that day.
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Will: The harmonics of the 8V92 end up cancelling out the amplitude of the assymetric waves near the front bumper of a 40′ coach, hence you shouldn’t experience any vibration in your mirrors.
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Reporting back… The caulking makes a big difference, it probably took out 75% of the shaking and vibration. To remove, you just grab the end and it pulls right off. The photo makes it look cloudy, but it’s not.
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Prevost should eliminate the controls to adjust the mirrors and instead ship a boatload of the caulking.
If the gadget guru wants to do a video this is one to do, showing people who want to spend more than $2,000,000 for a conversion can select the no adjust option with mirrors that do not vibrate or the adjustable versions with vibrations so bad you cannot see anything in the mirror.
Apparently commercial bus drivers aren’t bitching enough or Greyhound and others just don’t care.
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Jon,
Here is an idea… Next PC member that buys the next two million dollar coach…tells the converter no deal with Ramco Mirrors. My guess is they will figure it out.
I will vollunteer if we can start a go fund me page to help raise the money 🙂
Bill
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The sad part of this is Prevost does not seem to respect feedback from folks such as conversion owners.
There are two problems, both easily resolved. First, stop the mirror from vibrating in the housing. It seems silly to have controls to move the mirrors from the driver’s seat when most of us have wedged rubber between the glass and the housing to stop the vibrations.
But we still have the plating issue, also easily solved. Just insist that the plating process include an intial copper plating as part of the process. It will cost a few bucks more but at the price level we are dealing with it is a meaningless increase.
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Bill at Liberty N. Chicago replaced the drivers side mirror head when I had the coach there as the old one was very, very loose and almost impossible to use. I can report that the new one is much better, but still does shake a little bit. At least I can see what is out there now.
We debated trying to repair the old one, but we decided it made more sense to replace the entire head as the old one had been worked on before and had been glued up in an attempt to fix the shakes about two years ago. We had no idea what it looked like inside, or if the screws would even come out to swap parts.
I still do not understand why Prevost uses this junk. There are better products out there that I am sure would cost less than the inflated Crapco price.
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Nothing like having a million dollar bus and shaky mirrors.
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