Boost Auto Parts vs Trail Ridge - Power Tow Mirrors

[DeathByNissan55]

Considerable price difference between the 2.

From what I can tell, the boost auto parts tow mirrors dont have puddle lights but trail ridge does.

Trail ridge tow mirrors have a less reliable but easier to perform wiring harness mods than boost auto parts.

The led strip turn/running lights are different functionally between the 2 but look semi similar (referring to switch back clear style for boost auto)

Boost Auto can do heated lower mirror, and trail ridge doesn't from how I interpreted website.

 

Why is boost auto parts lights almost 300$ more expensive than trail ridge, when similarly optioned out?  Trying to understand if I'm missing something.

 

Is there a quality difference, feature difference? 

Having difficult time rationalizing paying 300$ more for one over the other.

 

I also wanted to know if anyone has tried using boost auto parts harnesses below with a trail ridge tow mirror, might be best combo for the buck?:

https://boostautoparts.com/collections/wiring-harnesses/products/pnp

https://boostautoparts.com/collections/wiring-harnesses/products/reverse

 

The example I priced at was:

 

- 2016 gas silverado (means mirror without temp sensor provisions)

- textured black finish

- heated (upper and lower heated where available)

- power folding (my truck came with power folding from factory, someone just put in manual tow mirrors for some reason)

- spot light (high power spot light where available)

- manual telescopic

- turn signal built into mirror lens

- for harness work, for trail ridge there wasn't a special option for harness just whatever it comes with / for boost auto I picked the one that you depin&repin the factory connectors which is the more reliable way to do it, not a fan of the t-tap slice splicing for the reverse cargo combo spotlight option, would use something other than t-tap slice splice. 
Would cut the wire and resplice with heatshrink style butt splice and then stick an extra wire in the side of the butt splice that is away from the factory connector, and then terminate that with the mating spade that works with their fancy module that has a spade on each end, then do the same for the wire that gets spliced into on the other factory connector, see their website for detailed videos of what they do.

 

boost auto parts:

https://boostautoparts.com/collections/tow-mirrors/products/2015-2019-gm-tow-mirrors

Trail ridge:

https://www.1aauto.com/chevrolet-gmc-driver-and-passenger-side-2-piece-mirror-set-trail-ridge/i/1amrp01786?f=1106730&y=2016

 

[REDOO2000]

Boost auto mirrors are great. Nothing to complain about. Everything was easy to install with instructions


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[Cwildman]

I went with boost auto and it was a straight forward instal and the mirrors work great, the only thing I would have chose differently was instead of the spot light on the puddle lamp I would have gone with the floor, the spot light is really bright to the point where it's not very useful. Blinds you if you look anywhere near it.

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[DeathByNissan55]

9 minutes ago, Cwildman said:

... the only thing I would have chose differently was instead of the spot light on the puddle lamp I would have gone with the floor, the spot light is really bright to the point where it's not very useful.
 

Did it have the option for floor? I only saw the spotlight thing for the boost auto parts, it was either standard spot light or bright spot light

[Cwildman]

Sorry that was atypo, flood light not floor.

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[Cwildman]

If it only gives you the option for standard or bright I would go with standard but that's just me

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[DeathByNissan55]

I forgot, the boost auto parts one has turn indicators built into the mirror itself.  Also its harness incorporates oem style connectors so its, but i already mentioned it has the superior harness.

 

After asking Boost auto parts, they said I had too many options selected to compare to the trail ridge ones, the one that they configured that matches what trail ridge would provide is as follows:

 

Same as what i had except no heated bottom mirror, no reverse/cargo combo option, includes the slightly less superior harnessing but it at least is included for free, no switchback feature to the front facing turn signal.

 

So removing those options, you're left with a total difference of around 100$ more when compared to trail ridge, but that is just a difference in harness quality and that in-mirror turn signal indicator.  So they're pretty comparable when configured like that.
They also seem to have done a lot more research into each individual year and the differences between them all to make sure you get the right version to work with your truck.

They both state they have high quality standards with visual proof, so its not something worth critiquing.

[DeathByNissan55]

I pulled the trigger on boost auto parts one, will let you all know what I think when I get them installed.  I got it with all the options, since I was already going to be paying the 700$ i just added on all the features.

 

I have an idea how to address that spot light blinding you when looking in the mirror, but if that doesnt work I still have my backup camera (now assisted with bright lights) to help me see where I'm going haha.

[DeathByNissan55]

update:

You will either need to rewire the harness exactly how boost auto parts says to, OR contact dealer - give them VIN - then they tell you what door harness you will need.

I had intermittent issues with my existing harness, so I opted to just get new OEM harnesses that were correct for the mirrors I was planning to change to.

 

YOU WILL HAVE TO DRILL A HOLE 4TH HOLE IN YOUR DOOR IF YOU HAD NORMAL STYLE MIRRORS BEFORE

 

Got passenger side done so far, and it works great!

[DeathByNissan55]

Installed driver one a couple weeks ago, motor wouldnt fully fold every time and sounded like it was struggling.  Ended up having to ship the driver mirror back so they could work on it to get it right.

 

Boost Auto Parts not only paid for the shipping to and from them, they were nice enough to swap the shell that I had ceramic coated onto the new fold motor so I didnt have to pay to get it re-ceramic coated.

 

Turns out the original motor just had a little too much physical resistance to folding and was causing the load sensing switches to trip earlier than intended.

 

They swapped it out, sent it back, I installed it, works great so far.

 

So far happy with them, wish the lower mirror would angle a little more, but I can't complain too much since they're at least convex as opposed to the ones that came with the truck that were flat and basically useless.  Heated lower is nice, but if I were to buy them again, I'd probably go without them, I overestimated how useful they would be.  They perform as advertised 100%, its just the top mirror allows me to see just enough to the point where it makes the lower heater not worth the money in my opinion in hindsight.
(Also found out the heaters are triggered by your rear defog button when rear defog is equipped at least, never knew that)

 

I also haven't wired in the thing that allows me to tie the spot lights on the outer edges of the mirror to reverse lights, just haven't found the time.  Will probably wait until next summer to do that mod.