5 Must-Have Truck Parts and Modifications

Tonneau Covers

Adding a tonneau cover is a great way to personalize your truck. Not only does a tonneau cover give your truck a sleek, aerodynamic look, but it can also help improve gas mileage. Over time, this money savings can pay for the tonneau cover itself. Whether you choose a tonneau cover that is soft, hard, roll-up, tilting, or folding, you will also benefit from the added security of potential thieves not seeing personal items in the truck's bed because it's covered. Buy a tonneau cover today and git er covered!

Tires

Does your truck have some skinny, all season radials that look like they came off a station wagon? It's time to get some serious truck tires for enjoying off road trail time. Upgrading tires can significantly improve your truck's off-road capabilities. Choose the right tire for your conditions, whether it's all terrain, mud terrain, rock crawling, or Baja racing. When you go with bigger tires, make sure you don't go too big for your existing setup. Tires that are too wide will rub on truck parts such as fender walls and suspension parts, and may not allow for proper steering of your truck.

Wheels/Rims

When those stock wheels that everyone else has just won't do, get a set that makes your truck stand out. You may want to buy larger wheels or wider wheels depending on the size of your desired tires. Some of the hottest wheels on the market now come in high gloss black, flat black, black and chrome, or in just pure chrome *bling*. Besides wheel diameter and width, you will need to know the number of lug nuts and lug nut spacing to ensure proper fit. Also, you may want to choose a wheel offset that is the same or similar to your stock wheel's offset. A wheel's offset is the distance between the centerline and the plane of the hub-mounting surface of the wheel. Wheels are often stamped with the offset using the Germen prefix "ET," which stands for "Einpresstiefe" or "insertion depth." An example would be "ET38" for a 38mm offset.

Lift Kit Suspensions

It's time to raise it up. Increasing ground clearance means you can get over obstacles that would have caused damage at stock height, or you'd get stuck. A 2" lift is great for accommodating larger tires, but you can go higher. How about an 8" lift kit for some serious rock crawling?

Exhausts

Adding an exhaust system is another great way to personalize your truck with an authoritative sound, great looks, and improved horsepower, torque, and MPGs. Look for an exhaust system built with stainless steel and minimal bends to improve airflow. The smoother your exhaust flows, the easier your truck breathes. This would be a great time to add an intake or drop-in air filter to further increase the engine's intake/exhaust flow.

By making these 5 modifications to your truck, you will transform a stock, off-the-showroom-floor truck into your unique and personalized transporter with improved off road capabilities and performance. Now, take an Internet break and go get your truck dirty!

Barth Mauler is an off-road enthusiast and part-time writer. He is an expert on performance truck parts and accessories. Barth is experienced with lift kits, wheels, tires, tonneau covers, exhausts, and other truck parts.