We have to admit that the 4WD accessory industry has undergone a major boom recently. Buying 4×4 accessories online was never as fun as it is nowadays since the market is flooded with 4WD accessories. You can buy anything from chassis extensions to battery chargers, the variety is seemingly endless. With so many options, you can easily enhance or even twofold the performance of your vehicle along with upgrading its appearance.
However, this ease of purchasing has a huge drawback associated, which is that we often make the wrong decisions while buying 4×4 accessories online. Some mistakes can be costly for us especially if related to the law and legalities regarding 4×4 vehicles. Let’s check out the four common mistakes that you need to avoid while buying 4×4 vehicle accessories online.
Going Overboard with Modifying:
Modifying your 4WD is although an enjoyable and productive experience but it can turn out to be a nightmare if you go overboard with it. In the quest if making your 4WD perfect in appearance, economical in usage, and phenomenal in performance, we usually start adding too many accessories. This is a wrong approach because to make your 4WD reliable and performance wise superior, you don’t need to add too many accessories but the right mix of accessories. Remember that a 4WD that meets all your demands for an economical, reliable, and performing vehicle just doesn’t exist. You can add few touches to improve its performance here and there but not make it perfect from every aspect.
To avoid going overboard in modifying your 4WD, you need to find out what is your preference and what you really want your vehicle to achieve and then choose your 4×4 accessories online. Such as, if you want to climb over huge rocks then invest in big muddies only not too many things to lift the vehicle. Or, if you aren’t satisfied with the tyres, go ahead and buy bigger ones. However, if there isn’t any issue with them, why throw money at big tyres?
Don’t just be impulsive and spend hefty sums of money on many accessories. There has to be a reason behind adding new accessories to your 4×4 vehicle and that reason shouldn’t be that others are doing so. You should add new accessories because your vehicle needs them or you require your 4WD to perform a certain way. You can start from selecting a few items initially and then gradually keep upgrading it as the need arises. Always look for adding comfort, reliability, capability, and functionality to your 4WD through buying the right accessories.
Ignoring Legalities:
Owning and driving a 4WD has many perks but it also comes with many responsibilities. Driving a 4WD on the road is subject to local regulations, which you need to comply with as far as driving is concerned and the vehicle’s appearance and accessories too. However, many 4WD owners tend to forget about this important consideration while buying 4×4 vehicle accessories online. They buy whatever they like and end up having a non-compliant vehicle. Complying with local laws and regulations isn’t only an ethical obligation but is important to ensure that your 4WD is safe to be driven on the roads for you and others.
Having a roadworthy 4WD is extremely important nowadays if you want to avoid fines and legal complications. It is worth noting that some accessories that may improve the performance of your 4WD aren’t actually safe or legally allowed and therefore, you are prohibited from adding them to your vehicle. If you don’t comply with this requirement, you might get into unnecessary legal trouble. For instance, having tyres bigger than 50mm or elevating the height of the roof more than 50mm is illegal in Western Australia and you would need an engineering certificate before adding them.
The reason why so many people get into legal complications because of adding wrong 4×4 vehicle accessories is that they don’t feel the need to check out the legalities before selecting accessories. To tow a heavy caravan you might get a combination that leads to overloading because you opted for a misleading tow rating or advertising tactics simply because you didn’t pay attention to checking out the legal requirements. In simple words, there are so many risks involved if you drive a non-compliant 4WD that you need to be aware of every single rule before buying 4×4 vehicle accessories online.
Compromising on Practicality for Looks:
It is human nature to get impressed by other vehicles on the road and get inspiration for modifying our own. It is however, ironic that we usually invest into accessories that we don’t even need for our 4WD vehicle. Such as most of us who love to drive on the roads in Australia don’t even need lockers, lift kits, massive tyres, electrical accessories, and power upgrades at all because we can enjoy excellent drive without them. So, if that massive lift or big tyres look cool on someone else’s 4WD it isn’t necessary that you need to get them to make yours look appealing and well-accessorised on the roads.
You need to be practical while selecting 4×4 vehicle accessories online as one wrong decision can cause great financial and performance loss. That’s because the 4WD will start consuming more fuel and will become difficult to handle due to higher center of gravity. Hence, it isn’t practically viable for you to add too much bling because when it comes to 4WD vehicles, it’s the performance that matters not the look.
A 4WD is already a very powerful and impressive vehicle to own, that’s why it is suggested that you add accessories for the sole purpose of making some practical improvements. Otherwise, be prepared to spend a lot on fuel and other maintenance related issues. Moreover, it isn’t a wise idea to go after brands and fancy names because sometimes big names aren’t as reliable in the long run. Get those accessories that suit your budget, aren’t high maintenance and are very much required.
Not researching enough:
Even though we buy 4×4 vehicle accessories online nowadays, the mistake that many of us make is of not researching well about the product before hitting the Place Order button on the website. Unless you are looking for an innovative product or modification technique, there is extensive information available on the internet today. You can even research about specific model related accessories and read the products’ reviews before making up your mind.
By researching about the product you will get a fair idea about whether you should invest into it or not by examining its salient pros and cons. Moreover, there are so many blogs and websites that inform about every new 4WD accessory along with its uses and any shortcomings. You can obtain a great deal of information about almost every part and aspect associated with 4WD such as the weights, legalities, and what sort of benefits can you gain from installing certain accessory, etc. Without enough research, you can easily commit the above mentioned three mistakes too such as you may go overboard with modifications or ignore the compliancy requirements. Furthermore, through researching, you get so much information about your 4Wd such as you will learn that while adding the lift kit it is important to think about brake lines and brake bias proportioning valves adjustments.
When you start researching, don’t limit your search to certain aspects only; it is one domain where we will recommend you to go overboard. Search about everything from comparing brands to checking out modifications made by others on their blogs and how their overall experience has been afterwards, compliancy requirements, pricing, aspects that enhance or affect the vehicle’s performance, and how to choose the right accessories. Be informed and decide wisely.
