I managed to crack my passenger side towing mirror yesterday. It is a pretty minor crack running vertical under the convex mirror (when mirror is in horizontal setting). The convex mirror is not affected. The crack is slight and does not alter my view too much; mirror is still very usable; if you look at the mirror long enough, you can see the slight alerted image. It is more of an annoyance for me than a problem; I like my truck to be in great shape. The way I see it, I have 3 options on fixing this and I need your opinion:

1) Replace the mirror glass. How easy/practical is this. I know it will be cheaper to get it from a glass shop vs the dealer.
2) Get a whole new mirror head from junkyard/eBay/classifieds. How difficult/practical is it to replace the whole assembly?
3) More of a PITA than it is worth. Leave it alone and deal with it.

Thanks for the help and advice.

 

I don't know about your model year, but for earlier models you could buy just the glass. The glass mounted into the housing with a couple of plastic snaps.

Just a be careful operation.

I guess you should check forst, however.

 

A good glass shop can either order one for about $15 or cut one. They explained to me that if they cut one it is not the tinted glare glass that is used.

 

The passenger side mirror on our 2001 nearly fell out. I carefully pulled it off the plastic backing plate and reattached it with RTV adhesive. Dodge attached it with six spots of RTV. When I would adjust it for towing the edges would raise up. I put a good coating of RTV across the whole surface and held the glass in place till it set up. As Haulin in Dixie wrote, glass from a glass shop won't be the anti-glare type glass. Enter the words "replacement automotive glass" on Google search and you'll get several companies that can sell you replacement glass for less than $100. What you can't get new except from Dodge is the spot mirror. For that you have to go to a wrecking yard.

 

Honestly, I'd just call up a good local auto glass store and tell them exactly what you need. Say you need JUST the mirror glass for the regular/large (NOT the convex) mirror on the XXXX side of your XXXX year Dodge Ram x500. They'll have it there the next day, you can bring your truck in, they'll put it on, and you're done. That's what I did for both mirror glass pieces on my passenger side trailer tow mirror and it worked great.