When kitting up your 4WD to get ready for trips away the list of so called “upgrades” you can add to your 4WD for better performance off road is seemingly endless! – but do you know what you really need to get the most out of your 4WD when you hit the tracks? or are you taking a punt in the dark?

We’re here to help you decide on the best upgrades you can make for value for money, and the best bang for your buck, so listen closely!

Tyres

Without good tyres you are going to have a tough time off road they are your point of contact and equipping your 4WD with less than adequate rubber you will surely sentence your trips to an extended string of recoveries, ultimately resulting in you shouting all your mate’s drinks for every rescue!

By going shopping for an appropriate tyre for the task, you will usually end up with something that offers a lot more grip on the slippery stuff and a tyre carcass with enough stiffness and durability to handle the rigours of offroad driving.

A 4WD has a lot asked of it, and a heavy duty tyre has to perform not only on the road, but with tread that evacuates mud quickly and easily – as well as being able to handle the intense sidewall flex encountered when you deflate your pressures for enhanced offroad grip.

When choosing tyres, you will have many choices, but something with a chunkier tread than normal highway tyres in what is commonly referred to an “A/T, or ALL TERRAIN” will do 99% of offroad work, with minimal fuss, as well as fetching many more miles before needing replacement, than their heavier duty, “M/T or Mud Terrain” tyre counterparts.

Don’t be fooled by the hype, bigger diameter tyres aren’t always better, your 4WD was engineered and put together by some pretty clever people and one of the biggest problems people overlook when fitting large tyres is the difference low end power off road as well as how effective your brakes are in an emergency, by changing the diameter of your tyres your vehicle will struggle off the mark, and also have less guts when it comes to “Low range” offroad crawling!

After deciding on a good set of tyres under your beast you more than likely have forked out a pretty penny, so making sure you take care of your rubber will now be high on your list of priorities – by using the right tools to not only deflate but re-inflate your doughnuts when hitting the tracks – in our opinion there isn’t a better tool for the job than with a Thumper MAX fitted with a 3-in-1 Tyre Deflator, you can connect the double barreled compressor directly to the hand held unit, with its integrated gauge and trigger, for blisteringly quick inflation and deflation times!

With you’re 4 corners (and spare) sorted, the next step is keeping them firmly planted no matter what the terrain…

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Suspension

When selling 4WD’s in the global market, they are designed to meet some pretty specific rules and regulations as well as being limited by cost constraints requiring them to sacrifice off road performance for a more budget friendly price tag.

Some of the benefits to upgrading your factory suspension components like your springs and shock absorbers is that springs that are specifically engineered for your 4WD can allow your wheels to not only travel more, but also offer more ground clearance, and in many cases enhanced road holding ability with variable rate springs, and large bore shock absorbers.

Modifying suspension components can be complicated, and when considering the state governments cracking down on modifications made to offroad vehicles in recent months not jumping on the “bigger is better bandwagon” may help keep your hip pocket a little bit heavier.

Most state regulations (at the time of writing this article) allow 50mm suspension lift kits to be installed without requiring expensive engineering certificates and this is why RAW Suspension offer a range of suspension kits that can give your 4WD up to 50mm of lift, whilst improving shock absorber performance and off road suspension articulation, which is where the front and rear of the vehicle are lifting and dropping wheels on alternate sides.

With a suspension kit fitted to your vehicle using the included hardware required, you will find your 4WD performs many times better around corners, braking and when on uneven surfaces!

Bull-bar

What is a 4WD without a bull bar? In our eyes, it’s a sitting duck – with a heavy-duty steel bull-bar your vehicle is protected from high speed animal strikes, which have been known to cause thousands of dollars of damage to 4WD vehicles in remote areas’ leaving their drivers/passengers stranded with no way to get back to town to get their vehicle repaired.

A bull bar is cheap insurance and also offers 4WDers a handful of places to mount other aftermarket accessories – if you are a gear junkie like us, having a bull bar is the perfect platform for adding useful gear to our 4WD’s!

One of the best additions you can add to a Steel bull bar is a set of insanely bright LED driving lights like the Domin8r 9” driving lights – they pump out a HUGE 22,900 Lumens of clear white light out to an impressive range of over 860m+.

With all of that additional light, the risk of sudden animal strikes is reduced by many factors due to the increased awareness and ability to travel with less eye strain.

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Another essential you can add to the front of your 4WD is a powerful 5W UHF system, designed to broadcast on citizen access frequencies, you can keep in touch with your mates on the road, and even call for help in an emergency using what is called “duplex” and a repeater station, you can replicate your signal for hundreds of Kilometers, resulting in your distress signal being more likely to be intercepted. Powerful 5W kits like the Oricom UHF380PK are available for extremely affordable prices, and include ABOSLUTELY everything needed to install your UHF without even needing to solder wires or cut any holes!

The final popular accessory many people add to their 4WD bull bar is a powerful winch – a winch is used to pull a stuck vehicle free from slippery terrain on the tracks and is one of the most useful self recovery devices available. Generally winches were priced well out of reach of many 4WDers and until recently would cost somewhere in the thousands of dollars to purchase and then a couple of hundred to install.

That all changed with the introduction of the Domin8r X 12,000lb winch, with an included wiring harness, wired and wireless capable controller and pre-spooled with a heavy-duty synthetic winch rope, the Domin8r X winch is one of the most versatile winches, without sacrificing quality, performance or sheer pulling power cannot be beaten as a bang for buck winch!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP35WOi7Z5s[/embedyt]The next gear recommendations are less about capability and performance, and more about getting to where you want to go!

Electrical Upgrades

Factory electronics are becoming insanely technical, and whilst more technical means you can run your built in touch screen Bluetooth sound system for a while, eventually even the most adequate systems begin to run out of juice.

This is where a Dual battery and auxillary charging system come in – when considering the power demands of a modern campsite, with 12v fridges, LED campsite lighting and even able to crank your sound system well into the night!

An Advenuture Kings AGM battery is exceptional value for money and offers campers reliable power without effecting their ability to start their 4WD in the morning!

And whilst setup on their own, adding a reliable monocrystalline solar panel to the setup will make sure that no matter what demands you put on your camping setup, there will be plenty of power to keep your campsite party going well into the night!

No battery setup is complete without a power management setup like the powerful and simple CTEK D250SA, not only will this system isolate your starter battery from your backup battery it will divert power from your Adventure Kings Solar Panel directly to the battery that requires more charge, to ensure not  only that your batteries last longer, but also that they are always ready to go when you call on them for power!

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STORAGE

The final Important upgrade you can make to your 4WD is adding more storage….

With a range of storage upgrades, from adding a set of heavy duty drawers into the back of your 4WD or chucking a set of solid steel roof racks to the roof you will always find a way to refine the way you pack your 4WD for trips away!

A set of Titan Rear Drawers are the go-to Drawer system on the market, offering not only a secure place to store your gear, but with its integrated tie down loops, offers you a way to secure your bulkier gear in place, making travel much safer, and your load much more stable!