With dual cab Utes far outselling sedans, and compacts cars as the top selling vehicle in Australia, their practicality cannot be ignored, they offer luxury options that rival the interiors of fancy European cars, enough space for the better half, three kids and the dog in the back, and are the perfect lifestyle vehicle, offering people plenty of cargo space.

No matter how great your 4WD is when you roll it off the showroom floor, we all know there is plenty of room for improvement when it comes to performance upgrades, some of these upgrades can be seen with the new racing series floating around on telly, featuring ONLY the big selling diesel 4WD Dual cab Utes such as the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, Isuzu D-Max, Holden Colorado and Mazda BT-50.

But these performance upgrades aren’t reserved for racetracks – you can upgrade your 4WD’s seat of the pants performance in a couple of afternoons with some very easy to install accessories that will free up some of the ponies, that have been hiding under your vehicles bonnet!

EXHAUST SYSTEMS

The first step to letting your 4WD Dual Cab Ute roar is to fit a less restrictive exhaust system, when mass producing 4WD’s there are many reasons less than adequate pipes are fitted to your rig – the first being the price of a mandrel bent exhaust adding to the cost of production and may not be in the budget of the exhaust engineers. Another reason your 4WD may be fitted with a restricting smaller diameter exhaust is because of strict noise and emissions standards setout by government agencies – by minimizing the tested sound output at particular RPM’s manufacturers will less likely experience rejections from the certification authorities in many importing countries.

There are dozens of exhaust upgrades you can be convinced you need, like a massive tailpipe, or even just upgrading the factory muffler to get more sound, however it takes more than just making noise to get more grunt from your 4WD!

Luckily for you we’ve done all the hard work in sourcing custom built, mandrel bent high flow exhaust systems which feature sports mufflers and a catalytic converter for maximum exhaust flow with minimal restrictions. Available in both an Aluminised steel and a 409 Stainless steel version, a Domin8r Exhaust system, can be installed in your driveway at home using just some simple hand tools in an afternoon (depending on how corroded your hardware might be).

Because these exhausts use top of the line components and are custom built for specific makes and model the Domin8r Exhausts require no welding and no power tools to install!

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THROTTLE CONTROLLER

With your shiny new exhaust fitted, your 4WD will breath much better and as an added bonus you will be able to feel the roar beneath you. There is another thing holding your 4WD back, most modern 4WD’s use a “fly by wire” accelerator which gives full control of acceleration to your vehicles ECU (Electronic Control Unit), instead of a traditional accelerator cable which manually opens the throttle butterfly valve.

Because there is a digital signal which has to trigger a handful of responses from the computer, coupled with manufacturers pre-setting their ECU response to “delay” throttle inputs and reduce pedal sensitivity they get much better numbers for fuel mileage tests.

To add another element to your 4WD’s performance is to fine tune your 4WD’s electronic throttle response – By adding in an Adventure Kings Throttle Controller, you plug it directly into your throttle pedal and effectively “intercept” and “boost” your vehicles throttle response.

With more sensitivity you reduce any lag in your acceleration and via Bluetooth and a smartphone app, you can control the level of sensitivity from FAST to even slower than your factory settings to increase traction in slippery surfaces and get more low end grunt from your 4WD when you just need that extra boost!

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SUSPENSION UPGRADE

With a free-flowing exhaust setup, and a custom tuned throttle response, you now have to make sure that all your freed-up horsepower has a way of staying stuck to the road!

This is where your bog standard factory springs and shockers need to be chucked in the skip out the back of work – by upgrading your suspension with custom profiled spring rates, and heavy duty shock absorbers you will find that even sitting a little more proud than the factory may have intended, that your 4WD will feel much more stable and pliable handling both on the road and off the beaten track than when it sported the old worn out factory suspension.

By installing a RAW Suspension Kit into your dual cab Ute, you’ll get all the benefits of a kit that is tailored specifically to your 4WD – that means you aren’t just buying a random spring and generic oversized shocks that are designed to fit vehicles that weigh hundreds of kilo’s more than your pride and joy!

Because the kits are specifically designed for your 4WD you aren’t wasting money on variable valving shocks which allows users to “adjust the firmness” of their ride, whilst in concept this idea is great, when push comes to shove 99% of us will set it once and forget the feature is even there- with shock absorbers that are internally valved specifically for your ride height and spring rates, you won’t ever need to adjust a thing!

EDS

Finally, the last upgrade you should make if you are into getting more out of your 4WD is an Engine Data Scanner – This epic Plug-n-Play tool connects to your vehicles OBDII port which is a universal port that mechanics use to read your motors diagnostics and ensure everything is running smoothly and that all your engine sensors and readings are where they need to be.

With access to the Engine Data Scan tool you can plug in and constantly keep an eye on all your engines temperatures RPM, fuel usage, and anything else that may cause issues in remote areas. The EDS gives you realtime updates, and acts as a black box recorder to make sure if anything goes wrong you have a thumb on the pulse.

The added benefit to installing an EDS is the ability to easily clear pesky “check engine lights” that can, with the wrong type of engine fault, disable your vehicle, or severely depower it.

This self protection mode (referred to as “limp home mode”) is excellent for protecting your vehicle in the case of a serious incident, however, can be caused by sensor issues like dust or even damaged wiring corrosion or even mud – this presents itself as a serious issue if you have rectified the issue in the bush and the code is still preventing 100% vehicle performance.

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There is no excuse to not upgrade your 4WD’s performance for use on the way to work or for weekends away – a 4WD is meant to be fun, and if you aren’t smiling every-time you get behind the wheel it is time to do something about it with top quality excellent value gear from 4WD Supacentre and Adventure Kings!