6 Modding Mistakes Owners Make On Their Daily-Driven Pickup Trucks

There are plenty of great reasons to have a pickup truck as a daily driver, and there are many ways to make it better. Just don't do any of these unless you want to ruin it...
6 Modding Mistakes Owners Make On Their Daily-Driven Pickup Trucks

Pickup truck culture in the United States is stronger than ever. That’s because pickup trucks are no longer just the bare-bones work vehicles they used to be. Today’s modern pickups are all-in-one family machines, capable of transporting six adults in decadent luxury while also carrying 3000 pounds of cargo, and that doesn’t include the 10,000-pound trailer tethered to the back. They’re big, powerful, and the people who drive them do so with crazy amounts of pride.

6 Modding Mistakes Owners Make On Their Daily-Driven Pickup Trucks

Pickups have evolved with the times, and in defence of the truckin’ faithful out there, so has the pickup truck aftermarket. What’s unfortunate is that many owners still fall back to some of yesterday’s truck trends when it comes time to modding their rides, and in doing so they generally ruin them.

Now I’m not talking about dedicated custom show trucks, or the machines that people build to actually perform a certain function. I’m talking about the truck owners who decide that any of the following six modifications are a good idea for their daily-driven pickup. Maybe they made more sense once upon a time when trucks were rude, crude, cheap and fun. But times have changed.

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Nothing can stop a pickup truck with a lifted suspension. Except when the axles and frame get hung up on snow. Or a 25mph corner. Or any sort of gradient that must be traversed sideways. Once upon a time, lifting a truck way up to go mud bogging was a fun thing to do, and it still is - on cheap trucks that aren’t used every day. Is anybody installing $10,000 worth of lift and suspension kits onto a $40,000 daily driver then actually driving through mud? Instead, they’re taking a massively expensive truck, raising the centre of gravity dangerously high (not good for on-road driving and seriously not good for off-roading), inflicting all kinds of stress to driveline components, and adding a significant amount of horsepower-robbing weight.

2. Big wheels

6 Modding Mistakes Owners Make On Their Daily-Driven Pickup Trucks

To be fair, this affects cars just as much as it does trucks. Big, heavy wheels suck horsepower like a parasite, but at least with cars people can opt for a low-profile tyre to maintain some measure of on-road performance (albeit at the expense of ride quality). Truck owners must stick with a fairly prominent tyre to support the truck’s fairly prolific mass, and that usually leads to a no-win situation. Here’s why: big wheels on trucks require tyres that are too low-profile to be useful off-road, yet too high-profile to provide any legitimate on-road benefits for a three-tonne vehicle.

3. Aggressive off-road tyres

6 Modding Mistakes Owners Make On Their Daily-Driven Pickup Trucks

For folks who often find themselves on dirt roads, trails, or just open countryside, a good off-road tyre is vital for traction. Notice I said good off-road tyre, not a massive cleated rubber monster that could claw the face off a stone statue. Such a setup is fine for a recreational-use off-road pickup, but every person I know that did this to their on-road daily-driver regretted it.

Aside from the scary-high centre of gravity, knobby tyres are ridiculously noisy on pavement, and unlike a good exhaust system, tyre whine never, ever sounds good. Aside from that, such aggressive tyres aren’t suited at all for dry pavement and they’re shockingly poor in the wet. And though you might think they’d be good for snow, on plowed hard-pack roads they’re as useful as racing slicks.

4. Bed caps

6 Modding Mistakes Owners Make On Their Daily-Driven Pickup Trucks

This one is tough for me to cover, partly because that red F-250 used to be mine (yes, I once thought the cap was cool) but also because my dad still thinks caps are cool, including the one he just put on his brand new 2015 Chevy Silverado. I’ve since found caps to be counter-productive to the point of owning a pickup. Why limit your cargo-carrying capability? With a cap over the bed, forget about tossing the dirt bikes or snowmobiles in the back or hauling anything of moderate size. If you want enclosed cargo space, get a van. If you don’t like vans or need four-wheel drive, get an SUV. At least then you can have the option of extra seats in case you want to take everyone out to dinner. If you’re reading this dad, sorry for the revelation. Caps on pickup trucks make as much sense as eating chocolate cake with a diet Coke to drink.

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When American vehicles were choked with emissions, lopping off half the exhaust for better flow and an aggressive sound was rather commonplace, if slightly illegal. I don’t see people doing this to brand new pickups (yet) but as five-year-old F-150s and Dodge Rams fall to younger generations, the hacksaws come out and the mufflers go buh-bye. At least they’re cutting after the catalytic converters (most of the time), but apparently they don’t understand that modern engines are designed to work best with bit of back pressure. Often times, such backyard modifications reduce horsepower and fuel economy on modern pickups, and that aggressive V8 sound is more reminiscent of a 1970s Cadillac with curb feelers and rust - lots of rust. Not impressing anyone there JimBob.

6. Rolling Coal

6 Modding Mistakes Owners Make On Their Daily-Driven Pickup Trucks

Believe it or not, there are many diesel pickup owners tweaking their trucks specifically to roll coal. In essence they’re mucking with the air-fuel mixture, thus creating all kinds of soot and smoke out the exhaust under hard throttle. I won’t give the whole speech on it being asinine, (because smokey burnouts really aren’t much different and we love them to death), but I will say this: Such modifications generally reduce fuel economy, create excess carbon in the valve train, and deliver soot straight into the engine oil. All to put on a little smoke show that nobody else finds amusing. Hey diesel owners - if you want to show other drivers how much smoke your truck can make, just spin the tyres like normal people. Your engine - and possibly some impressed bystanders - will thank you.

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Comments

slevo beavo

All that smoke is bad for egt, which in turn is bad for the turbo

12/26/2015 - 20:43 |
0 | 0
Willgud

I’d drive this beauty everyday if I could. Rolling coal with a straight pipe Cummins and the tow mirrors out. I wouldn’t care what anyone would think about me. Call it pointless how much you want, you can’t change my opinion.

12/26/2015 - 21:22 |
2 | 2
AllOfTheCars

In reply to by Willgud

I hate the tires… I hate tires like this… It needs some bigger more aggressive ones to look good

12/27/2015 - 01:17 |
0 | 0
Walter Staley

Nearly every truck owner at my school does all of the above except the lower profile tires and the bed cap. Some people actually buy tires for the specific purpose of making a ton of noise.

12/26/2015 - 21:23 |
0 | 0
Colton Charpentier 1

Coal roller here, hate all you want. I smoke people who tailgate, drive aggressive, and I have a tune that lets me smoke and one that limits smoke…

12/26/2015 - 21:26 |
6 | 8

Haha my old car used to roll coal accidentally. 1.9PD diesel with an aggresive map (180bhp). Was hilarious despooling and spooling the turbo and watching tailgaters disapear in smog :D

12/26/2015 - 21:41 |
2 | 0
Anonymous

If you lift your truck the only way to get that axel to clear a rock or whatever are bigger tires.

Bed caps are kinda ugly and do prevent you from carrying some things, but it also can give you better mpg because its now more “slippery”.

Big wheels… No excuse they are ugly and pointless.

Offroad tires, good off road, bad on road. People who use them exclusively on road are known as mall crawlers.

Straight pipe, because we all want that loud truck or car. Maybe…

Rolling coal… Your a douche if you do this on purpose. But sometimes it just happens.

12/26/2015 - 22:01 |
20 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

“Walmart Cowboys”

12/27/2015 - 02:44 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Forget the ‘’slippery’’ idea. There’s no way the slightly better aetodynamics make up for the added weight. In any case.

12/27/2015 - 03:58 |
0 | 0
Jakob

Rolling coals are the most ludicrous thing ever. Despite the fact that it makes you look like a total jerk, there is pretty much nothing worse you can do to your engine and to the environment.
But I have to disagree on the bed caps. A pick-up with such a superstructure on the bed can turn the truck into a V8-powered, AWD off-road Transit. Not bad, not bad at all.

12/26/2015 - 22:26 |
0 | 0
turbocharged_cabbage

Find truckrice.2 on instagram, Then you’ll see pointless mods

12/26/2015 - 22:53 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Step one: don’t buy a truxk

12/26/2015 - 22:55 |
2 | 2
Blitz

1,2,3,6. Thank you for throwing those in there. 👍

12/26/2015 - 23:13 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Truck caps are useless? I guess you’ve never had anything worth protecting from snow

12/26/2015 - 23:18 |
0 | 0