Keeping up on maintenance on your vehicle, can take a variety of forms, this applies even if you aren’t mechanically minded. Focusing on the small details can make spending time in your 4WD lots more enjoyable and can potentially even prolong the overall life of our off-road vehicles.

If you’ve been to the desert you’ll already know that red bulldust is a serious nuisance. You don’t have to get too far away from the big smoke to have it start finding gaps in your weather seals and into your air vents building up inside your vehicle and waiting for you to turn on the fan ready for a big dusting a couple of weeks later.

Keeping on top of the dust build up in your vehicle by vacuuming and wiping it out after each trip will help minimize long term buildup and prolong the life of every component in your vehicle and maintain visibility of your dials. To help combat the thick dust build up Adventure Kings make a quality set of deep dish rubber floor mats that easily catch the dust and these are a great investment. They can save a lot of time in vacuuming as you can just pick the mat up and tip the dust outside. You’ll be amazed how much red dirt can build up in a vehicle after spending all day on corrugated roads!

The Adventure Kings deep dish rubber floor mats aren’t just great for outback trips where the red dust is a problem; they’re great for beach trips as well. Consider how much easier your life will be when you have these on the floor of the back seat after your kids come in after having a swim and a run back up the beach to hop in the car! The tidy up is a pain, but the grit can become a real problem when not tended to in reasonable time causing wear and tear on your interior.

The upholstery on seats is a particular spot that needs special attention in a vehicle; especially when it starts to get a bit older. Adventure Kings make a couple of different multi fit seat covers that you should definitely consider looking at. Not only do they keep your seats in good nick, but they make them more comfortable by adding additional padding and are made from a waterproof material which makes them a breeze to clean as well. Keeping your seat covers clean also helps to minimize the amount of dust floating around the cab.

Gear rolling around the back of a vehicle can cause spills, dings and breaks. It doesn’t take much to ruin your carpet with loose gear. Adventure Kings sell a variety of storage boxes that make packing a vehicle an easy task, and they keep all of your gear in one spot so it doesn’t float around and become hard to find. Another good solution to keep your gear sorted is to put some Adventure Kings car seat organisers on the front seats. Having gear floating around the cab can actually be a safety concern when driving in steep country as it can fly backwards or forwards quickly and cause some real damage to either your windscreen, or the occupants of the vehicle.

Taking care of the little things doesn’t just refer to the inside of your vehicle. Our spare wheels are usually out in the elements getting covered in dust and mud. This doesn’t present a problem most of the time, but if you do need to change a wheel over, grit in the stud holes can sometimes wear out threads. So an Adventure Kings spare wheel cover is a cheap way of protecting your wheel and preventing this from happening. They also look great!

For those of you who want a bit more piece of mind about your vehicles bodywork and the safety of your family, a VMS reverse camera is an easy to install gadget that couples easily to a VMS touring 700HDX and makes it much easier for you to see where you are backing up. Plenty of us have gear stacked high in the back of our vehicles so it can be hard to navigate with confidence whilst reversing in both tight shopping centre carparks, or backing up along sketchy bush tracks to try a new line on a slippery ascent, it can also help you see if anyone is behind you, there is no worse thought than accidentally hitting a pedestrian whilst reversing.

Lastly, keeping an eye on our engines is one of the most important precautions we can take with our vehicles. Noticing problems early could be the difference between finishing a trip and not, or a small fix it job and a massive repair bill. For this reason you need to grab yourself an Engine Data Scan computer, this plug and play device offers readouts on all of your engines vital signs via the OBD2 port and makes sure you have an absolute heads up on what is happening under the bonnet, you shouldn’t leave for a big trip without one.

Don’t become intimidated by the little things we can do to look after our vehicles. Work through each step one at a time. Keeping on top of little issues is far better than letting them become big issues.