Not everyone has a bottomless bank account for 4WD mods, and we’re keen to save our money, so it makes sense to find out exactly what best bang-for-buck mod is – and if you’re like us, then you’ve probably got the funds minister breathing down your neck too!

“WE INSTALL AND TORTURE TEST THE BUDGET GEAR YOU NEED TO GET FURTHER OFF-ROAD”

The team at 4WD Action took a HiLux out on the tracks to determine what mod would get the little IFS beast further off-road for less!

THE ESSENTIALS

DOMIN8R WINCH

Everyone knows a quality winch will get you out of any sticky situation. But what if you don’t have anything to winch off? The winch worked well when you had somewhere to pull from, but where we didn’t have an anchor point it was useless. Take a sand recovery for example; unless you are close to the edge of the beach or know how to make a sand anchor, a winch isn’t going to get you far.

To prove a point we ran the Lux up our test track without having the winch installed, this was to show how much mucking around there is to do a recovery if you are the first one through. We then fitted up a brand new Domin8r Winch out and went and tried the tracks again. Having the Domin8r fitted made it safer to do a recovery as we didn’t have to use two 4WDs and one winch to get up a gnarly hill.

SNORKEL

For trips anywhere from Tassie to the tip of Cape York, fitting a snorkel should be the number one mod on any 4WD, whether it’s a diesel or petrol. From a $90 internet special up to a $600 custom staino job, it’s money well spent. Think not only about the price to get your old bus home after you sink it, but also how much it’s going to cost to get it up and running again, and it’s clear that a snorkel pays for itself. So do yourself a favour and get a snorkel on your 4WD today.

“IF WE DIDN’T HAVE THIS MOD, WE WOULD HAVE BEEN PUSHING THE TRUCK HOME”

SUSPENSION

Most 4WDers would class suspension as a pretty essential mod, so we put a Raw 4×4 2in lift in Jock’s little Luxxy to see just how much difference it would make. When you think of a 2in lift in a bigger live axle truck, you think about room to run bigger tyres and get more flex. In any older independent front end 4WD, a 2in lift can have the reverse effect as you lose your downward travel as you have wound the torsion bars up to match the new rear springs.

We found with the Luxxy that we got a lot more flex from the new rear springs but the front was that hard it didn’t like flexing up and had bugger all drop. The advantage though, is that you raise the diff above the ground nearly two inches more in some vehicles; this gives you more clearance when going through rutted tracks even before you fit bigger tyres.

“THIS IS THE BEST BANG-FOR-BUCK WAY TO GET FURTHER OFF-ROAD”

THUMPER AIR COMPRESSOR AND KWIKY TYRE DEFLATOR

We all know that we need a good compressor and a tyre deflator when we hit the tracks. If you don’t have a proper tyre deflator and you use the old trick of poking a stick in the valve, how do you know what pressure your tyres are at? We put the old stick-in-the-valve technique to the test and found we had an 8psi difference in pressure between the four tyres, which will lead to uneven wear and inconsistent traction. Get yourself a Kwiky Tyre Deflator to chuck in your glovebox so you have a dedicated deflator along for the ride when you need it.

Once your tyres are down, it’s super important to ensure you get the pressures back up when you hit the blacktop, especially when the closet servo is 50k’s or more away. A good compressor doesn’t have to be an expensive one; we used our ever trusty Thumper MkII to pump the tyres up on the Luxxy and the GU before we headed back down the road. It really is a necessity if you want to get anything resembling a long life out of your tyres.

“IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU DRIVE, HERE’S A COUPLE OF UPGRADE OPTIONS THAT’LL HELP OUT ON THE TRACKS”

RECOVERY GEAR

HERCULES COMPLETE RECOVERY KIT

A quality Recovery Kit isn’t exactly a mod, but it’s an absolutely mandatory bit of gear and could be the difference between getting towed out or towed home. A good recovery kit has all the fruit; gloves, a shovel, a snatch strap, bow shackles, a winch blanket, a tree trunk protector, a snatch block and a winch extension strap all in a handy to grab bag. You have to think of it this way, if you don’t have a winch when you need to recover a mate or yourself, what’s the next best thing? Relying on your mates gear isn’t a valid excuse. Get yourself a Hercules Recovery Kit for cheap insurance when you’re out bush.

“THEY’RE NOT EXACTLY “MODS”, BUT THESE BITS OF KIT WILL GET YOU OUT OF ANY STICKY SITUATION”

During our testing, the Luxxy got caught in a spot and because he had no winch, we had to connect the snatch strap to the front right hand tow hook and use the ever trusty Project GU that was along for the ride as the camera truck to pull him up the step that he was stuck on, and up to the top of the hill. If we didn’t have a decent recovery kit it would have been game over.

HERCULES OFFROAD JACK

When used the right way, an Offroad Jack can be one of your most effective purchases. The emphasis with these is using them properly. Safety is an extremely important part of using one as they only have a small base area and things can go downhill really quick when things go wrong. That being said, using your high lift with your MaxTrax or adding a Hercules Offroad Jack Base to your kit will get you out of the softest sand or a big boggy hole nine out of ten times.

“IF WE DIDN’T HAVE A DECENT RECOVERY KIT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN GAME OVER”

MAXTRAX

Maxtrax aren’t exactly a mod, but we bet you Jock’s wage that they’d be more useful than a new suspension set up in some cases. Over the years we’ve used our MaxTrax for everything from mud to sand and whatever else in between. Just to show you the uses for these things, we went and found some nice muddy holes and some really soft sand to prove just how handy these little bright orange beauties can be. We’ve even used them as ramps; this is done by double or triple stacking them in front of a rock step to reduce risk of tipping on a big hill. Maxtrax are just so handy, that having a set on your roof for insurance is a smart idea.

RECOVERY POINTS

One of the most important elements of 4WDing is the recovery point on your 4WD. Whether they be factory or aftermarket, if you don’t have the right recovery points you could be in for a world of hurt, either to yourself, your truck or both.

Aftermarket recovery points are usually made of 8-10mm plate and bolt up to your bulbar mounting points at the front. The rear recovery points are either hard mounted or in the form of a hitch that slides into your tow bar and secures using the hitch pin. These are the correct components to use in a recovery, as most factory points are just for towing and no good for a snatch style recovery.

TYRES AND SUSPENSION

WHEELS AND TYRES

We all know that a decent set of shoes on your truck will make a big difference, but we’re going to show you how true that can actually be. Jock’s Luxxy had a set of factory alloys with OEM spec highway terrains that most would say are definitely no chop in the bush, so we hit some gnarly tracks to put that theory to the test. The results? Even when we dropped the pressures to 18psi, we couldn’t get enough grip or traction to get a mere half a truck length up our test track.

The next step was to throw on a set of 31in Bridgestone Dueler muddies on a set of neg22 Dynamic Soft Eight rims to see how that improved things. You might be surprised by this, but the wider track from the rims combined with the muddies only got us two feet further up the track – that’s right a mere two feet!

Why? Simple – as soon as the unlocked Luxxy lifted a wheel, it was all over. That’s the thing about tyres – you have to remember that in an unlocked truck, if you lift a wheel you’re gonna lose drive and momentum. It doesn’t make any difference as to what tyres you are running. No contact means no go.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t be running a set of proper off-road tyres – they’re far tougher, and will go the distance once you’re off the blacktop – definitely a necessity of any 4WD.

If you’re short on coin (like the most of the boys here at 4WD Action) then get on the computer and do some scouting, as you might be able to pick up a set of tyres with 70% or 80% left on them for about the $500 mark.