I'm sure there are a lot of people who buy pickup trucks not only for transportation but also as a companion that can take you on trips and camping trips. Just like when you go out on your own, you need to bring enough food, water, clothing emergency items, etc., pickup trucks also need to be fully equipped to be your "good partner" on long-distance trips. So what kind of modifications do you need to make to a pickup truck for outdoor use? We will introduce you to them in this issue.

All-terrain or mud tires

• Advantages: suitable for a variety of road conditions, large-size tires can improve approach angle
• Disadvantages: Can increase fuel consumption and noise

As the only medium of contact between the pickup truck and the road, tire modification is especially important in long-distance travel, so let's talk about tires first. Currently, there are three common types of automobile tires, mainly including HT, AT, and MT tires.

• The most common is the city road tires, most pickup trucks use this type of tires, called HT tires.
• AT tires are all-road tires, and many hardcore off-roaders and people who like to play with off-road pickup trucks will choose these tires.
• MT tires are mud tires, a type of tire suitable for professional off-roading, these tires are usually not factory-fitted.

As long as you want to go on a long drive, it is inevitable that you will encounter a variety of road conditions, the most common is definitely dirt roads, and then add some gravel roads and so on. That's why it's especially important to use all-terrain tires because the wall of an all-terrain tire is also thicker, which can effectively prevent flat tires when encountering sharp gravel and hard bumps. Compared with road tires, all-terrain tires have a larger tread pattern and a larger gap between the tread patterns, which makes it easier to shake out the dirt at high speeds and also provides enough grip when riding on unpaved roads. So, all-terrain tires are well-rounded because they can handle both on and off-road. Of course, if the place you want to go is in the rainforest or where there is a lot of mud and water, switching to mud tires is also a very good choice. In addition, if you choose all-terrain tires and mud tires that are larger than the stock tire size to some extent, they can also have the effect of improving the approach and departure angles, which is multipurpose.

Modify the front and rear bumpers.

• Advantages: Protect the body, improve the approach and departure angles
• Disadvantages: Increase the weight of the car

If the larger tires are not enough to meet your approach and departure angle requirements, you can directly choose another modification - the front and rear bumpers. Most of the original front and rear bumpers on pickup trucks are designed to achieve aesthetic and uniform style effects, so they may have less-than-ideal angles. The better-modified front and rear bumpers are thinner compared to the original bumpers to achieve the effect of improving the angle. At the same time, in order to be able to achieve the purpose of protecting the body, the modified bumper bar is usually made of metal material, so it will be heavier than the original plastic bumper bar, which is also one of the disadvantages of modified front and rear bumper bar. In addition, if the pickup truck you choose is some cold model, you may also encounter the problem of not finding a more suitable modification bar, which should also be noted.

Roof racks/trunks

• Advantages: makes the pickup more loadable
• Disadvantages: may increase wind resistance and wind noise

Although the pickup truck has a very huge cargo box that can accommodate long-distance traveling supplies if you really want to face the extreme environment, then more supplies are not too much, so at this time opening up some other cargo space is imminent. At present, more and more pickup trucks come with roof racks, very convenient to add luggage racks or luggage boxes on the roof, so that items that are not suitable for the cargo box have a place to rest. The roof box and shelf installed on the roof, these things are much smaller than the cargo box loading capacity, but with small cargo (such as school bags, small packages, and other items) closer to the size of these things will be more appropriate to put here, when encountering bumps will not fly into the cargo box, more secure.

Trailer Hook

• Advantages: convenient for rescues, towing RVs/trailers, etc.
• Disadvantages: or have an impact on the launch angle

Maybe there are some deep cross-country players, even if the cargo box of the pickup truck is large enough or not enough to load their long-distance crossing supplies, especially to pass through the no man's land and other high-risk areas, then it is likely to have to tow a small trailer to pull up tents, generators and other items. Or, if you usually like to play with motorcycles, motorboats, UTVs, etc., transporting these toys will require towing a small trailer in the back of the pickup. At this point, it becomes necessary to add a tow bar and hitch to the back of the pickup. Trailer hitches are typically mounted to the two longitudinal chassis rails, with the rear end protruding from the outside of the hitch. Some come with integral tow hooks, while others have a square opening at the rear of the tow bar to facilitate the addition of other equipment such as tow hooks and tow loops.

Regardless of the type of towing equipment added, the exposed portion of the rear of the tow bar will more or less affect the departure angle, so pickup trucks with this configuration must be careful when going through a ditch to avoid damaging the tow bar and tow hooks, making it impossible to rescue or tow.

Winch

• Advantages: Improves self-rescue and rescue capabilities.
• Disadvantages: aggravate the weight of the installation part, and must be connected to the battery use.

Winch should be a lot of heavy crossing players need to have items, so if you only excursions or occasionally go to the country to run a run, the role of installing a winch is not great. It can be seen as an upgraded version of a tow rope: a stronger metal rope is used and a motor is used to drive the rope cable to recover the rope. With a winch, rescue is possible as long as there is a fixed anchor point. Especially in the case of a single-vehicle outing, finding a fixed point for self-rescue makes single-vehicle self-rescue much more likely.

The winch to use the motor for cable recovery, it will use the battery to connect the power, which is undoubtedly a great test of the battery. In addition to the use of winch rescue time should also pay attention to, to hang on the cable to the weight, to avoid the rescue process of cable disconnecting and collapsing on people or the car caused by loss. Adding a winch to a certain extent will increase the weight of the front or rear of the car so that the weight distribution of the car breaks the original balance.

To summarize

These modifications were only very primary modification parts, and did not carry out power and chassis performance modification, but has been able to make most of the pickup truck consumers to make their pickup truck play the maximum performance. In addition, not all of these parts of the pickup truck are to be modified, the main thing is to look at the driving conditions that will be encountered, modified for road conditions, both efficient and practical, but also save a lot of unnecessary modification costs. Please pay attention to our website, we will provide you with the most professional pickup truck accessories, so that your outdoor journey is more hassle-free.